Tarawa Victim
p. 21 · Read in the full issue
Memorial Tablet To
A MEMORIAL tablet to the Rev. A. L.
Sadd who, along with 21 others, was murdered on Tarawa atoll, Gilbert Islands, by the Japanese in October, 1942, has recently been completed in Auckland, NZ. It will shortly be erected at a suit able spot in the Gilbert Islands, where Mr. Sadd worked as a greatly loved mem ber of the London Missionary Society, from 1933 until his murder.
When most of the European population of the Gilberts was evacuated, he, with several others, decided to stay behind to care for the natives. He was one of the 22 Europeans murdered by the Japanese as a reprisal for the first bombing of enemy-held Tarawa by the Americans.
The memorial tablet is inscribed in Gil bertese. Translated it reads- “He was taken prisoner by the Japanese at Rongo rongo on September 26, 1942, and was killed by them, with 21 others, at Betio, Tarawa, on October 15, 1942. Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life.”