What happened
p. 13 · Read in the full issue
to the war?
From GUS SMALES in Port Moresby
This may be a sentimental question but whatever happened to the war?
Among the tributes in official speeches to those who helped to make Papua New Guinea free no reference has been made at all to the fighting of 1941-45 or to those who were involved.
Yet 10,000 Australians lie in war cemeteries outside Port Moresby and at Lae and Rabaul.
And many PNG people suffered in the war which was a landmark in keeping PNG open for future independence.
Some say that Mr Somare does not want to offend the Japanese whom he has frankly liked since he had a Japanese schoolmaster in Wewak as a boy.
Others say the new PNG wants a non-military image.
But, I suspect that the general feeling is that it was not PNG’s war, that it was a long time ago and that it’s best to forget it.