How Japs Came To

Tarawa

Early Call in December

AUCKLAND, April 6. rE following was published this morning in the “New Zealand Herald”:— Uninjured when the Japanese mach ine-gunned his vessel, the auxiliary ketch “Helena A”, in the lagoon at Tarawa, Northern Gilbert Islands, on December 10, Captain T. C. Doughty is at present a patient in the Auckland Hospital, suffering from blood-poisoning in the left leg. He arrived in Auckland recently with other Europeans from the Gilbert Islands, and hopes to go to sea again when he is well enough, his em ployers. Bums. Philp and Co. Ltd., hav ing offered him a ship.

When the Japanese landed on Tarawa at 3.30 a.m. from two destroyers, Captain- Doughty was on board the ketch and all but two of his native crew were ashore.

Two and a-half hours later a machine gun was turned on the small Govern ment vessel, “Nimanoa”, and then on the “Helena A”. The two natives promptly dived overboard and swam to the reef.

Captain Doughty lay flat on the deck until the firing ceased.

Two Natives Bayoneted

rLLING his experiences, the captain said that about 10 a.m. he went ashore and was taken in charge by two Japanese sailors. After officers had questioned him as well as their small stock of English permitted, he was ordered to take his vessel out through the reef channel and return. He did so, and one of the destroyers followed him into the lagoon.

He learned later that on landing the Japanese tied up all the Europeans on the island, but released them after ques tioning. When a party of sailors went to the medical officer’s house their way was barred by two mentally-deficient natives who were under care there and who did not understand the situation.

The Japanese ruthlessly bayoneted them, one dying almost immediately and the other the next day. Otherwise no one was maltreated.

Looting Of Stores

A FEW days before the destroyers’ arrival, the two masts of Burns.

Philp and Co.’s wireless station had been taken down when it was known that the Japanese had been at Ocean Island. One of the invaders’ first acts was to wreck the plant, together with the electric lighting installation. They also destroyed all the seagoing boats they could find.

After one destroyer had been brought into the lagoon, said Captain Doughty, the Japanese looted the trading stores and Government station of quantities of goods, particularly textiles, and loaded them into the destroyer and the “Hel ena A”. They would have taken more but for the impossibility of working except at high tide. The two warships then left, one towing the ketch.

Left The Island

STOCKS of foodstuffs had been run ning low when Japan entered the war, and for nearly three months, until early in March, the Europeans lived largely on coconuts and fish. They received two visits from the Japanese in a light cruiser and a flying-boat, and aeroplanes flew low over the island from time to time.

Eventually a motor-launch and a life boat in which survivors from the tor pedoed steamer “Donerail” had arrived, were put into order, and in these he and 24 other European men left the island.

Three British residents elected to remain behind, as did the priests, brothers, and sisters of the Sacred Heart Mission, who decided to carry on their work among the 3,000 native inhabitants. The Roman Catholic Vicar Apostolic of the Gilbert Islands, Bishop Terrienne, who was there on a visitation, also remained.

Captain Doughty is a veteran ship master, who has been trading in all parts of the Central and Western Pacific for about 27 years.