Interesting Sidelights On Jap

Occupation Of Nauru Is.

AN Interesting account of the crucifixion of Nauru by the Japanese, and of the work of rehabilitation now being earned on there by the new Administra tor Mr. Ridgeway, was given by Mr. E. M.

Gollan, of the staff of Amalgamated Wireless, Ltd., on his return to Australia recently.

Mr. Gollan was in charge of the radio station on Nauru when the Pacific war started; he gave distinguished service as a radio officer during the Pacific war and he went back to Nauru six months ago to re-establish the radio station there. That work now has been com pleted.

Mr. Gollan and his assistants had lis tened to the American radio account of the attack on Pearl Harbour on December 8. 1941; and Mr. Gollan was talking to the late Administrator, Colonel F. R. Chal mers, that fateful day, when they heard the noise of a squadron of big ’planes ap proaching the island.

“Ah, ha!” said the Administrator, “the Americans weren’t long in getting here ”

“I am afraid these are not the Ameri cans. sir,” said Mr. Gollan, “I think we are in for an air attack.”

And they certainly were. The Jap ’planes came over and concentrated on Mr. Gollan's radio station, while all the population thereabouts dashed off for shelter into the nearby pinnacles.

The pinnacles are the finger-shape for mations of very hard coral, 20 feet high, which stand up in patches on the island of Nauru, like a petrified forest, wherever the phosphate workings have been. The phosphate is dug out from between the pinnacles, and it is quite easy to walk about the innumerable passages. There could not be a better air raid shelter.

The Japs missed the radio station at

that time, but they came back every day for four days, and finally demolished it.

In . ff 1 . 6 meantime, however, Mr. Gollan and his men had moved their radio equip ment down into a secret place among the pinnacles, and from there they carried knew they were stm operat then concentrated on the pin . A , lu cky bomb one day up the radio station and punctured Mr Gol if?th n P ti?°fn Ple f places: but th ey' were thev h keiS ?L 0 lJy a - very short time and they kept the service going until the European communities were evacuated from Nauru and Ocean Island to Aus tralia m March, 1942.

The Administrator (Colonel Chalmers) was one of those who elected to remain in Nauru, to help the natives, and he was murdered by the Japs. The Europeans were brought away from Nauru and Ocean Island m the Free French destroyer Triomphante.” She was one of the most modern warships in the Pacific, and could do 45 knots, and so could elude sub marines.

WHEN Mr. Gollan left Nauru in 1942 there were approximately 1,800 Nauruan natives and 300 Chinese . th !? e - When the Australians returned to Nauru, after the collapse of Japan, there were only 1,200 Nauruans fi lve iTT, incl yding those located In the Marshall and Caroline Islands and re patriated—and half the Chinese. All the rest were dead—mostly from starvation, although a large number were mur dered.

Both Nauruans and Chinese were in very bad shape. They had been living for a long time on a diet of pumpkin. The Japanese had grown literally millions of pumpkins, in an attempt to solve the food problem—and as they used mainly human excreta to fertilise the pumpkins, and as Pf rcei jtage of the pumpkins had rotted, the stench on what was once known as “Pleasant Island” was beyond description. J rE Nauru to which the Australians re turned in October, 1945, was almost a complete wreck. Our people, before they evacuated, had demolished the es sential parts of the phosphate workings vast masses of plant which had cost millions.

The Japanese built two airstrips and, m doing that, they ripped up large parts of the fertile strip which lies between the coast and the phosphatic rock in terior. The whole coastal strip to the southwards of the loading installation, whereon was located the administrative buildings and the residency, and all the coconut palms thereabouts, were des troyed, and a very big airfield built, from which Japanese ’planes frequently operated and which, since October 1945 has been regularly used by American and British ’planes.

Some time in 1944 the Japanese were busily constructing a third airstrip, in connection with that operation, they brought in, close alongside the shore, a large vessel, which was loaded with petrol, stores and troops. An American sub marine crept in and torpedoed her. Only seven Japs escaped from the terrible ex plosion and destruction which followed.

After that, the Japanese abandoned the airstrip job, and seemed to lose interest in Nauru altogether. From then on, few supply ships got through to their garrison on Nauru.

Mr. Gollan remarked, as a curious side

light on Japanese character, that one of his Nauruan assistants, who had been helping the Japanese in the construction of the airstrip, said that when the supply ship exploded, and caused such enormous damage and loss of life, the Japanese among whom he was working treated the disaster as a huge joke, and laughed Immoderately.

Most of the wreckage on Nauru was caused by American bombers—they visited the island again and again, and the de struction they wrought was terrific.

Three or four American ’planes were shot down in these attacks; and the Austra lians, when recently searching for the murdered bodies of the Administrator and the Europeans who stayed there with him, found the bodies of four American airmen, and these were recently sent back to the US. The bodies of the Australian officials have not been discovered, “The fortifications established on Nauru by the Japanese have to be seen to be believed,” said Mr. Gollan. “They estab lished positions of enormous strength among the pinnacles and, for that pur pose, they used large quantities of cement and a great deal of the steelwork from the phosphate plant. They had big guns scattered everywhere, machine-gun posts on every pinnacle, and their tunnels ex tended 60 feet underground. Nauru would have been a very difficult nut to crack.

No amount of shelling from the sea could have destroyed those fortifications.”

Mr. Gollan was deeply interested in the radio equipment put in by the Japs. They had 16 transmitters on the island—some of them very powerful instruments— indicating that they were part of an in stallation to jam our radio in the Paci fic generally—Nauru being well situated for that purpose. They had beautiful appliances—all German circuits, with Japanese construction. They had two

large radar stations—evidently based on British equipment captured in Singapore.

“Hyfß. RIDGEWAY is doing a splendid ItX job of rehabilitation in Nauru,” said Mr. Gollan. “He is construct ing model villages for the natives, and is making the fullest use of the captured Japanese equipment and the surplus stores from the Australian Army. As a result of this, electric light and radio sets are going into every village. There is plenty of Japanese radio and other equip ment for this purpose.

“Australians are faced with the problem of rebuilding the Nauru population, and are taking all possible means to encour age natural increase. % For three months the native people were given free rations.

There is much constructional work to be done and the natives are expected to assist. All native families who are co operating are enjoying child endowment —the first time this system has been tried in a Pacific native community. A Nauruan who is working receives 5/per month for his wife, and 5/- on account of each child. The Nauruans are a fine type and it is hoped that they soon will regain their numbers.”

Mr. Gollan paid a brief visit to Ocean Island, whose installations have not been damaged to anything like the extent of Nauru, and he expects that phosphate production in Ocean Island will com mence quite soon, whereas many months must elapse before there will be shipment from Nauru.

MR. GOLLAN had a talk with the Banaban (Ocean Island) native who was the sole survivor of the massacre of Banabans by the Japanese (see description in “PIM” in May). The Banaban lived in his underground shelter —into which he had escaped from the Japs—for 93 days, and his skin became almost as white as that of a European.

He saw the Australians land on Ocean Island but, fearing a Japanese trick, he remained hidden. He only came out of -his cave when, one day, he heard some Banabans and Gilbertese talking nearby and realised that the cruel invaders had at last been defeated, During the Japanese occupation of Nauru the Nauruans were compelled, whenever Japanese soldiers passed, to line the roads and bow humbly, Soon after the Australians landed and occupied Nauru, the Nauruans, laughing and excited, saw a couple of lorry-loads of Japanese prisoners approaching. They stopped the lorry, made the Japanese line the road and bow again and again while the Australian troops marched past, Ma, the well-known Chinese interpre ter with the Chinese labourers on Nauru, was very cruelly treated by the JaPS the latter, as general practice, inflicted all kinds of tortures and humiliations upon the helpless Chinese, When It was known that the Japanese prisoners were to be shipped away from Nauru, Mr. Ma approached the Adminis trator, explained that he had “lost face ” and asked if he could have just one quarter-hour alone with a certain Japan ese—a doctor.

Mr. Ridgeway said that that was out side his province. Would Mr. Ma please see the officer in charge of the Australian force.

When Colonel Kelly heard Mr. Ma’s re saffi St “I h ? like you to harm any They will be going abroad at this evening," he addedwitha twinkle "and I should like them to be shinned awav all nice arid tidv ” PP Way all Mr Ma thanked the colonel and re tired manKea me coionei, and re- That evening as the Jananp^

being assembled’at for ship!

ment, Mr. Ma stepped forward and ap proached the Jap doctor, “Oh, doctor,” he said, “may I have just one word with you?”

The doctor stepped aside with Mr. Ma.

In plain words of one syllable, Mr. Ma told the Jap doctor what he was; and then, using a conveniently-shaped piece of angle-iron, he conveyed to the Jap doc tor his personal sentiments, in a simple way, before the Australian guards could interfere.

The Jap doctor was carried aboard on a stretcher, and Mr. Ma returned to the Chinese lines with his face “saved.”

Colonel J. P. and Mrs. Magrane left Fiji recently for NZ. Colonel Magrane came to Fiji in 1939 as Commissioner of Police. Later, he was transferred to the Fiji Military Forces and, since Brigadier G. Dittmar left the Colony at the end of 1945, he has been in command of the Forces.