Kokoda Diggers 'eaten' by Japs

JAPANESE soldiers butchered Australian soldiers for food on the Kokoda Track, veterans have claimed.

Sixty years after they fought on the infamous track, Australian veterans say cannibalism was common among enemy troops after their supply lines were cut. In a Sky TV documentary to be aired today, one digger describes finding the body of an Australian sergeant with his heart and liver missing, and strips of flesh cut from the arms, legs and buttocks.

Disobeying orders not to engage the enemy, he says that the patrol pursued the Japanese and found four of them cooking the human flesh.

The veterans admit that they were incensed by the knowledge that the Japanese had resorted to be eating Australian dead, and in the heat of battle they showed no mercy to their enemies.

In another incident, Australian troops entered a Japanese hospital from where shots had been fired, and although most of the occupants were bandaged and either sick or wounded, all were shot dead.

Former RSL state president Bruce Ruxton confirmed the allegations of cannibalism, but said many people would not want to believe the Japanese had eaten the flesh of Australian soldiers.

"There were men out of my battalion who were found with their buttocks cut off. My battalion was there, I wasn't."

Mr Ruxton, who was a rifleman in Borneo with the 2/25 Infantry Battalion during World War II and then served with the occupation forces in Japan, said the Japanese committed some terrible sins during World War II.

"People just don't understand. They (the Japanese) weren't animals. That is too good a name for them. They were monsters. Nothing shocks me about them."

The revelations come only days after Prime Minister John Howard and Papua New Guinea leader Sir Michael Somare unveiled a memorial dedicated to the Kokoda Track Diggers and their PNG allies.

The memorial, unveiled on Wednesday, is high in PNG's mountainous jungle at Isurava, where 1000 Diggers made a stand against 4000 Japanese.

But Australian War Memorial historian Dr Peter Stanley said yesterday that he believed cannibalism of soldiers had to be seen in perspective.

"It's been known since 1942. It was documented in an inquiry which was reported late in the war, I think in 1944," Dr Stanley said. "It's been documented in every book on Kokoda since 1942.

"Two thousand Australians died in the Papuan campaign. In 1942, if people had come back saying Japanese are eating the dead, 2000 Australian families would have been devastated.

"No Australian was killed in order to be eaten. The Japanese ate Australians who were already dead. That's what William Webb (the jurist who investigated Japanese atrocities) found."

Dr Stanley said it was important to keep reports of cannibalism on Kokoda in proportion, given that such a large number of families lost loved ones.

"It's important not to allow them to imagine their relatives were eaten," he said.

The ANZAC Legacy -- the Kokoda Track, presented by John Gatfield and produced by Lisa Whitby, screens at 12.30pm and 11.30pm today on Sky News Australia.

Your experiences are very similar to mine in dealing with those "fine asian allies" of ours. My cousin in law is an American contract worker for a Jap firm (Ogihara Steel) here in Michigan. Her experiences echo yours. Thanks for adding the depth to the discussion that you did.

Be careful, our "fine asian allie's" lovers on this site will flame you for having the termerity to give your perspective. In spite of the Jap lovers, I still stand in humble awe of our now old men who were once young warriors, and who kicked fire from the Jap's butts. Although I had to miss the Hillman, Michigan VJ Day celebration this year, I will be there for future celebration and cheer our Vets.

Uhm, I think you have forgotten that the Lexus is what threw enough of a scare into GM to change from fins and chrome to better styling. GM is the ultimate in copy catting of almost all companies.

They resisted the front wheel drive mini van (a great idea though I hate Chrysler). The entire Cierrra, Corsica, etal line was made and styled off the Camry, Accord success and body styles. Heck all their advertisements were comparing their cars to those cars... and failed miserably at that.

TOYOTA styling has not been a copy cat. The Camry, MR2, Celica lines set the styling trend for their particular segments. Everyone copied off them, including the other Jap car companies.

To top it all off, as one muclear engineer I spoke to said.. "Toyota demands tolerances in their engines that NASA does not demand on much of their equipment." The fact is, back in the early 90's the average Mercedes comes of the line with 230+ defects that must be fixed before the ship the cars. The average Toyota at the time was coming off the line with less than 12.

And we all know Mercedes are much better cars than GM products, so what does that make Toyotas? GM needed Toyota (through NUMI to learn about quality control and manufacturing techniques, Toyota never went to GM and asked them to build a factory or go into a joint venture with them.

Little story about that. GM came to Toyota with the proposal for NUMI. They said they would supply the factory and the management and Toyota could supply the engines, plans and specs, etc. Toyota said that no, GM could build the factory and Toyota would supply the rest, and the MANAGEMENT. GM agreed.

So enjoy your 36k Cadillac but don't try to hold it past 120k miles without expecting to pay an ever increasing fortune like statistics show you probably will. The car will feel little like when you first got it, and ride like something from the Chevy line.

Meanwhile, I will continue to drive my sub 18k Toyota products to well past 200k with oil changes and minor maintenance.... and it will still feel virtually like it did when I got it.

I will admit that GM and the other American car companies were strong inovators in on automotive field... buying purchases. Remember they needed to, and started with rebates and low financing back in the early 80's. Funny, it did not work that well because the Japanese car companies experienced their greatest gains during that period. Those sort of sales bribes are only a recent trend with the Jap companies and usually only are tokens.

That said you missed the point of my post and responded along lines only tangentally related.

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