[?]Issionary Tells

[?]ehind Bars in Rabaul

[?]F Prison Days

Vith The Japs

By Gordon Thomas

In October, 1945, 1 shared a bin on the Marella with Padre rues Benson as we came out of sw Britain after the Aussies ok over and, as we steamed uthwards from Lae to Cairns, i used to discuss his plans for •king a book of his prison ex riences.

ND now, more than 12 years L later, I have before me Padre Benson’s book: “Prisoner’s Base id Home Again”, a concise and 11-told tale of his life during the igic years from 1942 to 1945. It s posthumously published in Lon n in 1957, two years after the dre’s death. !n plain simple language he tells the arrival of the Japs at Gona July ‘42; of the flight from the ssion station into the bush of 3 two mission sisters —Miss Park ion and Miss Hayman, and him f. Fear of the sisters falling into 3 hands of the Japs prompted s flight. rhen follows a harrowing time the bush in a vain endeavour to ich the mission station at Siai the Kumusi River; the meeting th a party of soldiers whom they ned and of an ultimate attack a Jap patrol; of the eventual mration in which the Padre md himself alone, lost and near rvation. There are no dramatics jh-lighted in the story of those igic days; merely a simple de iption of events as they occurred til he met up with the Jap army iking its way over the Kokoda ail, whence he was sent back to j coast. 3e is eventually shipped to haul and branded as a suspected > T owing to the short association had had with the military patrol rty when attacked in the bush, 3 dealings were, for the most rt, with the Military Police and 3 treatment he received was igh, although on occasion he met 'tain officers who showed human rian tendencies.

With Jap Criminals

Confined in the Rabaul gaol with panese criminals and a couple of lied Air Force pilots, he describes b daily life of washing out the

cubicles of the prison which, I sus pect, was located in the Pacific Hotel in Chinatown.

He mentions meeting up with the Japanese journalist, Seizo Okada of the Osaka Asahi Shimhun, and of the pleasant times spent in con versation with Okada who ex plained to him that his paper was most liberal in its ideals and was only forced to support the mili tarism policy of the government.

Quoting Okada: “Militarism must go. We of the intelligentsia will stand for it no longer.. The day of freedom will come. And what a day! I shall be able to speak and write what I feel in my hear.”.

And, incidentally, I may add that this writer published after the War such books as “Lost Troops”, and “What is the Mother Whispering Now?” which proved the truth of his talks with Benson in the boob.

I remember meeting Okada in Rabaul at this time and was favour ably impressed with him. He told me of Benson’s incarceration in the Kempetai gaol; of his isolation and need for something to read and I gave him some books from our “library” in the Freezer.

The story goes on to tell of his being put aboard a troopship and how an attempt to land him on the New Guinea coast proved futile.

The Japs had been repulsed from their Kokoda Trail adveniure and he is returned to his prison in Rabaul after having described the bombings of the destroyer in which he travelled.

It is unique this portion: A lonely Britisher on a Jap destroyer being bombed in the Dampier S raits. He writes: “I alone saw both the begin ning and the end of the most amazing operations in military his tory.

“In July, 1942, I had seen the Japanese landing in all their might and power on the beaches around Gona; now a year later, in 1943, 1 saw them withdrawing. But of all that mighty host . . . only a few remained”.

Mass Bombing

Eventually, after repeated re quests, he was transferred to the Vunapope Misson at Kokopo, and here he arrived shortly before the all-in raids made by Allied planes on that locale. His description of the mass bombers, with fighter es corts, coming over were true to life —as well I know. The Mission suf fered extensive damage and in June ’44 all the Mission personnel were removed to the Ramale Valley in the Bitagalip area.

The cosmopolitan nature of the personnel presented a problem to the Japs, and he describes how Bishop Scharmach, by careful tactics, succeeded in averting the separation of the “Axis” and “Allied” members of his people.

Writes Benson: “He (the Bishop) reckoned quite rightly—that once

had got to Ramale the Japanese lid not go to the trouble of bring us ail the way back again. His dom was confirmed by the find , after the Armistice, of Staff icrs at Rabaul ordering the ex tion on August 25th of all jmy civilian prisoners’. Having in a separate camp would, I pose, have facilitated this”.

Ramale Camp

he writer gives a delightful da ption of the life that was led the Ramale Camp, amid truly il surroundings, and the wel ie change of conditions as com -3d to the routine bombings that taken place at Vunapope. He te of the genial atmosphere that railed amongst the varied ionalities and the outstanding uence exercised by Bishop armach. fter the Armistice in August ’45 rictions were naturally relaxed natives were met who were able jive them many stories of the days. And then, “on a lovely ning early in September the tralians arrived” and he tells of joys of meeting and the sorrow tearing the fate of the two sis from Gona who had been killed, all the Priests, Brothers, Sis and Lay Teachers from north ern Papua”, he writes, “I, un toy that I am, was the sole Ivor; the flotsam after the ge.” id so at last to Australia again i here the doctors especially oculists—took a great interest tie. For it seemed I was going i”. But treatment in Australia d his sight and for some months /ent on a lecturing tour through Australia and returned event /, on August 23, 1946, to his /ed Gona and its people. And g the story ends.

Human Document

is a most human document, lown in most simple language, mg down the terrors and the ships he had endured, ithout being too pedantic I iot resist commenting on a inological inexactitude which slipped under the guard of the ishing editor’s pen. On several sions the word “Ku Shoo” is where it is clear the appropri- Fapanese word should be Tenko fying Roll Call. Kuchu! was warning cry used to indicate .pproaching air-raid. xhuhikoki means an aeroplane.