Chapter 6

7^th May 1942

One of the young men of the village came and saw us in the early evening and told us what had taken place in the village. He said that the Japanese soldiers were very unfriendly and that the chief was ordered out of his hut. The hut that Wilf and I shared had also been taken over. The officer in charge chose that for himself while the one who did most of the yelling at the others, the sergeant, took the chief’s hut. This caused a bit of reorganising for the villagers as it was seen as important that the chief and his family not be forced to share. No villagers were now permitted in the long hut. There was no-one in the village who could talk to and understand the Japanese, and they hadn’t brought along any interpreters so that was making life difficult. I know a smattering but I am not about to offer my services. The islanders are a peaceful people and already the soldiers are looking down on them with contempt.

There was no danger that the chief was going to inform the Japanese of us. He had gathered everyone around and said that we had been banished from the village. As is their custom, anyone banished from the tribe is never spoken of again. Our banishment was done for our protection.

The young man said that as if it was a punishment for the people who had just arrived on our island, a huge storm had wreaked its savagery on them. The villagers had lived through many such storms and took it all in their stride, but the new arrivals visitors did not. The thatched roof on the huts and long house were swept away and the rain that followed dampened everything. The villagers knew that in the morning the warm sun would dry everything and they would simply rebuild like they had done many times before. The Japanese did not, and had it not been for the angry words spoken by the sergeant, many of the visitors, who looked like just young boys, would have sought shelter in the jungle in fear and may have easily become lost. The second lieutenant seemed unfazed in the storm, all he did was to stand out in the rain and look out to sea.

In the morning the villagers began to rebuild their huts while the women and children helped clear the debris away. The sergeant lined his platoon up and then sent three of them over with their rifles to the villagers. After being pushed and prodded with bayoneted rifles, the villagers soon understood that they had to repair the long house and the two huts first. Had the Japanese known they could have saved themselves from creating an ongoing sore. The villagers would have rebuilt those buildings anyway, willingly and without being asked, as was their custom.

Wilf smiled when the young man told us that one of the Japanese men was not very happy. He was the one that had spent some time putting up and then fiddling with the tall antenna when they first arrived. Not only was the antenna knocked down in the storm, but all the pieces of metal were shattered. The Japanese soldier was very angry and the second lieutenant came and yelled at him, but our visitor said, “That didn’t fix the metal thing and then man in the chief’s hut came over and hit the first man with his rifle, but that didn’t fix it either.”

The villagers finished rebuilding the huts and then went out to fish. The water in the lagoon had settled by then and they were able to see well enough to spear some. They would have shared them with their new visitors, however the Japanese took them from them at the point of their rifles. So, the village men then had to fish again, but this time they were wise enough not to show off their catch. The Japanese apparently don’t seem all that interested in their boats and indeed going into the lagoon at all. The young man was not sure why. There would be the occasional shark in the lagoon swept in from mid to high tide, but they were good eating and the villagers found them easy to catch at low tide. The rays were easy to spot and everyone knew well enough to leave them alone, just like they knew which fish to eat and which were poisonous. It seemed that Japanese may have no idea about fishing and no liking for the salt water. The young man was surprised that the Japanese used the water from the creek to wash themselves instead of the lagoon water. I am not sure how well that will go in the long term because where they wash is apparently downstream of the latrines.

9^th May 1942

Wilf and I did our reconnaissance of the coastline as usual, but then found a vantage spot to observe what was happening down at the lagoon. Wilf had chosen it so that there could be no possible reflection from the glass in my telescope and his scope on his rifle that could be seen by anyone down near the lagoon. It seems that, like colonising Europeans, the Japanese have no understanding of the culture and intelligence of the people in the places they invade. They appear to see the villagers as slave labour. The Japanese want their assistance but offer them nothing in return. The men of the village were press ganged into beginning to build more substantial buildings on the site that had been marked out when the Japanese first arrived and where much of their building materials were. The chief must have tried to explain the problems of tidal surges and how the wind funnelled down from the mountain through that area, but the Japanese didn’t understand. The second lieutenant became very angry and pushed the chief away. In this island’s culture the chief is much revered and should not be touched. Several of the young men of the village stepped forward, but were faced with soldiers holding their bayoneted rifles and the chief signalled for his young men to calm down and walk away. He pretended not to be offended. But I gathered from the way his face looked that a line had been crossed.

26^th May 1942

Life has settled into a routine in our stone age home. Every day we spy on the Japanese and the construction of their accommodation. They continue to treat the villagers as slaves but there also appears to be some civil disobedience going on. The villagers appear to be pretending to be as dumb as the Japanese think they are. Mistakes are made in construction, things go missing and it looks like that the villagers do not understand readily what is being asked of them.

Wilf has been exploring more of the island but I have warned him to stay away from the northwest side of the mountain. It is a sacred and special place to the islanders and they would be horrified if anyone went there. Years before I was told a hunting party went there and the mountain swallowed them and they were never seen again. The mountain is actually an old volcano and the cave complex that we are in, is where lava has retreated or cracked when it cooled. There are some spots where the original limestone still remains and has slowly been eroded by water dripping through from above. This is the water we drink. It tastes a bit chalky but nevertheless hasn’t killed us yet. We sneak down close the village, at least Wilf does and he brings back fish and roots and that has become the mainstay of our diet. A nephew of the chief has found a spot where the fish can be left safely. If Wilf gets caught, not only will he suffer, but the whole village will pay a heavy price. We can’t use a rifle to hunt for pigs or goats. Wilf has been practising, in vain I think, with a spear. Yesterday he had great success, but not with a spear. He laid out some snares and managed to trap a small pig which he quickly and expertly dispatched. I looked greedily at it when he brought it back to the cave but Wilf pointed out, it wasn’t for us. We couldn’t possibly cook it without sending up a clear signal where we were. Instead Wilf took the pig down to where fish were left. He had wrapped it up very securely in leaves and vines so that no birds could get to it and even ants would have difficulty. He said that he would hang it from a tree in case one of the Japanese accidentally stumbled across it although that seemed unlikely as the Japanese seemed as much afraid of the jungle as the lagoon. The villagers did not hunt for goats or pigs after the Japanese arrived. They obviously did not want them to know that such animals were on the island or they would probably kill off too many, and as Wilf also suggested, if there was a scarcity of food the villagers may have thought the Japanese would just leave. We know better as those buildings are now taking on a very permanent appearance. I realise I might have to get used to eating dried fish and roots for a long time to come.