Seeking Japanese Submarine
p. 27 · Read in the full issue
A Tokyo television team visiting New Caledonia has raised queries regarding the fate of a Japanese submarine which was sunk off Noumea on August 17, 1943. Six of the crew members were rescued from the sinking vessel and imprisoned in the camp on Ouen Toro mountain, over looking Arise Vat a beach.
The submarine sank about 5 kilometres off the Amedee lighthouse, near Noumea, after being hit by US bombardments. It is believed there should be traces of 96 bodies aboard, now somewhere 200 metres under the sea.
Information on the vessel, the Igo 17, has been given by Jo Toyoda, a former Japanese naval lieutenant, who was captured off Guadalcanal and also imprisoned at Ouen Toro.
The reviving of war memories is inevitably part of the Japanese tourists interest in the South Pacific. These latest enquiries come from Mr A. Odani, leader of a TV team from the Tokyo Broadcasting System which reached Noumea in late November to film the island in a touristic sequence which already included Tahiti and Fiji.