Japan PNG: Ah, what a change

was there!

From GUS SMALES in Port Moresby

Twenty years ago an entrepreneur called Michael Csolle turned socie ty upside down in Rabaul, capital of the northern islands of Papua New Guinea, when he dared to do busi ness with Japan.

Only 13 years before, Rabaul had been the Japanese naval headquar ters for the South-west Pacific in World War 11.

Papua New Guineans had been largely left alone by the Japanese occupation forces, but Whites and Asians lost their lives or were im prisoned and some were taken away by ship and never seen again.

In the years following the war, anti-Japanese feeling remained high in Papua New Guinea, but Rabaul was its focus.

Papua New Guineans, either ge nuinely or for convention, shared the feeling of resentment because it was very much the atmosphere of the times. A police officer threaten ed to change the trees in the garden of the Rabaul police station when he discovered belatedly that they were Japanese cherries. Even a war graves commission from Japan had to be given special protection in case of trouble, and its movements were rigidly controlled.

It was against this almost im penetrable barrier in the late 1950 s that Michael Csolle, who had come from Europe to Australia and then PNG, tried to arrange for a Japanese contractor to clear wartime junk from Rabaul. The operation was completed but it involved extraor dinary administrative difficulties and public controversies before it was achieved.

The mere presence of a Japanese was not wanted, let alone the con cept of doing business with the Japanese. Csolle found himself cold-shouldered, the Japanese salvage crews were confined to a fenced camp, and the solitary Japanese vehicle they brought with them (a Datsun utility which in the

PIM this month takes a close look at the rapidly multiplying contacts of Japan with the Pacific Is lands.

Beginning with Gus Smales' survey of the dev elopment of the post-war relations of Japan with the region's biggest country, Papua New Guinea, PlM's treatment of "Japan in the Islands" continues with a series of articles, beginning on page 61, which examine many facets of Japan's dy namic relationships in the Pacific, including its grow ing involvement in the ec onomic life of Fiji (p 65). 50s looked like an Austin A4O) was booed and jeered at.

In the two decades since then, a huge change has been wrought in the relationship between PNG and Japan. Japanese products, particu larly optical, electronic and domestic, fill PNG’s shops.

Japanese-made cars are selling at a rate of three to one over other makes, and Japanese investment is involved in timber, manufacturing and other activities.

From an almost zero trade situa tion just over 20 years ago the early statistics show Japan buried in a mass of “other countries” statistics Japan has now become one of PNG’s biggest trade partners.

Japan is second only to PNG’s near neighbour, Australia, as a sup plier of goods to PNG.

The single biggest item supplied is machinery and transport equipment, but the range is very wide chemi cals, foods, fabrics, electronic, scientific, optical and engineering equipment and a general cross-sec tion of manufactures. The annual value of these purchases from Japan is now estimated by PNG to be ap proaching SAIOO million a far cry from the official figure of just over $2 million in the middle of the 60s.

Japan is buying copra, fish, coffee and timber from PNG, but the ex tent of these sales, despite their rapid expansion, is only a fraction of the value of Bougainville copper ore sales to Japan. Recent annual figures indicate that Japan took ex ports from PNG valued at SA23O million, of which close to seven eighths was provided by sales of copper ore. The figure will not be so good this year because of world con ditions on the copper market, but the general development of trading links between Japan and PNG in the last 20 years has written a story of almost unbelievable growth.

Much of this has been created by the growth which accompanied PNG’s entry into independence and by the expanded need for services and industry which independence brought in urban areas, anyway.

The growth of Japan as a trading partner, for instance, has not been accomplished entirely at the ex

"Good Fortune"

pense of Australia or other trading partners. Australia has hung on remarkably well in the “open market” atmosphere which followed independence, but the changes in volving Japan have been the most dramatic. The roads and the radio shops are where the superficial changes are most reflected But quite distinct from trade matters is the new rapport which has been es tablished between PNG and Japan.

This, too, is partly an offshoot of independence, but not altogether so.

It was emerging while Australia was

still the administering authority in PNG, and it involved the rolling away of ideas and concepts which seemed to have hung on too long.

When a group of Japanese cadets visited PNG in the final years before PNG independence, a solitary Australian staged a protest in the street against their presence. But even the protester drove away from the scene in a Japanese vehicle, and clearly the cadets were puzzled rather than upset.

It's all very much history now, and time and independence have

created a huge change in the rela tionships of the two countries.

In addition to formal diplomatic ties which were created immediately after PNG’s independence, two organisations are unofficially link ing the two countries. They are the Japan-PNG Goodwill Society which has the general aims suggested by its name, and the Japan-PNG co-or dinating association which leans towards business relationships.

Keidandren the Federation of Economic Organisations of Japan also keeps an eye on Japan-PNG affairs. All three organisations have been instrumental in arranging ex change tours between the two coun tries.

One of the greatest indications of a new era of relationship is that a number of Australian ex-service men from World War II who have since lived in PNG have accepted recent invitations to meet Japanese ex-servicemen. An airline pilot, ex- RAAF, Captain John Kessey, was one. He met the anti-aircraft gunner who shot away part of his bomber over Wewak in 1945.

Said Captain Kessey after the reu nion, “Until a few years ago such a reunion would have been almost unthinkable”

This healing of old wounds in volving Australian attitudes on the one hand and Japanese blandness on the other might not appear to con cern a modern PNG governed by its own people, but it carries more sig nificance than may be obvious. This is because Australian influence is still a factor in PNG day-to-day affairs. The PNG Government finds its modern-day relationships easier if they are not complicated by side issues and hang-ups which affect public opinion. But looming biggest in the links between the two coun tries is the extent of Japanese invest ment and involvement in the PNG private sector.

Sixteen major ventures, or groups of major ventures, now operating in PNG, represent Japanese involve ment. The degree of Japanese con trol and influence in these organisa tions varies, and all must toe the line laid down by the PNG National In vestment and Development Authority.

Continued on p 105