Tragedy on the Sepik

Out Of The Past

The villagers of Timbunke in Papua New Guinea paid a terrible price for their support of Australian troops during World War 11. Stuart Inder examines a story that, 45 years on, has still not been fully told.

“Investigations into the Timbunke mas sacres have now been finalised, and it is hoped that in the very near future that matter may be regarded as com pletely closed ...”

TIIME has shown that the opening paragraph of the five-page re port sent by the Assistant Dis trict Officer at Angoram to his District Officer at Wewak on February 25, 1947, was optimistic. The matter was, in fact, closed not long afterwards if you look at it from a purely admi nistrative standpoint. But more than 40 years on, many of the people of Timbunke (then known as Timbunki), on the Sepik River in Papua New Guinea’s East Sepik province, would not agree it was completely closed”.

And perhaps it never can be closed.

Today, Timbunke is a depressed

place compared with many villages on

the river. And it may be that its de pressed state is at least in part a legacy of its ‘crime’ that in 1944, when it

was occupied by Japanese forces fight

ing Australians, it took the Austra lians’ side. The extent of the anguish this caused its people was not known until after the war. It was then that ADC Ralph Ormsby and two other Native Affairs officers, ADO A R Haviland and Patrol Officer Peter Maloney, made their investigations on behalf of the re-established Australian administration. But even they, as close as they were to events and with eyewitnesses at hand, could recon struct only the probable course of events from the evidence available to them. Those who took active part in the massacre were unwilling to supply details, and the victims hadn’t survived to bear witness. We may never know the full horror of the Timbunke mas sacres and their aftermath.

There were Japanese garrisons up and down the Sepik in 1944 as Au stralian forces continued their push up New Guinea’s north coast. One day, an Australian Catalina landed in the Timbunke lagoon and, after some body on board waved an Australian flag, the plane was quickly surrounded by friendly canoes. This contact led to the arrival by air of an armed Austra lian party wnich, on information sup plied by the people of the village,

attacked and virtually wiped out an entire Japanese garrison. The Austra lians were taken out again by air.

The Japanese first reacted to the attack by sending a party of troops accompanied by local warriors friendly to them to attack Timbunke. The assault was a failure and they decided to be more circumspect. They orga nised intermediaries from surround ing villages to contact the Timbunke people with the message that the Japanese were prepared to settle the matter by arranging a satisfactory pay ment in pigs. The Timbunkes, most of them now living away from the village, agreed to return for talks.

Meanwhile, Japanese troops secretly occupied the almost deserted village.

When the Timbunkes arrived the next

day, Japanese troops organised the

segregation of men from women and children while the main body of troops remained hidden. The Japanese invited a party of warriors they had brought from ‘friendly’ vil lages to bind the men’s arms.

The men were then lined up and, while the Japanese stood by, were attacked by their neighbours with sticks and knives. The Timbunke luluai was stabbed with a fish spear by one of the ringleaders of the attack.

The Japanese now instructed the war riors to stand back while a double line of Japanese troops was ordered for ward with bayonets fixed. The

Japanese captain ceremoniously be

headed one of the Timbunke men with his sword and all the others were bayoneted, except two men who were ordered to stand aside. The dead and the dying were then machine-gunned, their bodies thrown into a nearby shell crater. According to Ormsby’s infor mants, some were still squirming.

The two men who had been pulled out of the line were ordered to take a Japanese party to the spot where the

Previous Japanese garrison was

uried. After doing this they made a bold attempt to jump into the river and escape, but were chased by their neighbours in a canoe and shot. Sub sequently, the warriors brought by the

Japanese were apparently given a free

hand to plunder and rape. Any valu ables they could not carry away, such as carvings from the Timbunke haus tambaran, were destroyed.

Ninety-six Timbunke men and one woman were missing after these events. Some of them, including the woman, may have been killed when

the Japanese occupied the village. But

the agony was just beginning for the surviving women of Timbunke. Eigh ty-two of the younger ones were di vided up by the men from the 10 vil lages that took part in the attack and forcibly taken back to the men’s vil lages. More than 40 of these women were not returned to Timbunke until after the war.

The villages held sing-sings to cele brate their part in the attack on Tim bunke, many of them displaying new homicidal emblems. They continued to boast publicly of their exploits until well after the war, when the Austra lian administration threatened punish ment of those who wanted to keep the matter alive. During Ormsby’s inves tigations the Timbunke people were so bitter in their condemnation of their attackers that a number said the

only compensation they wanted was to

see the ringleaders hanged. The hos tility was so strong that the investiga tors decided to temporarily suspend their inquiries and nonetheless pay war damage compensation to the vil lage. A total of 3150 pounds was paid, “the money disbursed in silver,”

Ormby reported, “so that the whole village might have a good chance of appreciating its value. But subsequent ly every penny of it was paid into five savings bank accounts opened for the purpose. The accounts were opened m the names of the five principal clans and the present intention is that as far as possible the money will re main untouched until the children of the men killed start to come of age.”

At the end of the investigation the raiding villages were ordered to pay compensation of 20 pigs. In the Court for Native Affairs, 4/ men who had taken Timbunke women by force and compelled them to live with them for more than a year were each sentenced to three months’ imprisonment.

“To finalise this report,” Orsmby wrote, “let it be said that the prime cause of the whole affair was the loyal ty of the Timbunke and natives and

their willingness to help the Allied

cause without considering the possible risk to themselves.” D