The Search Begins: Caring for the scattered dead of Australia's war against Japan

BY LISA COOPER

Since the Second World War, the work of one band of men, whose legacy has provided comfort to relatives of the dead, has remained largely anonymous, and the gruesome nature of their war service overlooked. The contrast between the familiar war graves and cemeteries we see today and the lack of recognition of Australia’s war graves units who worked to create them is stark.

The need for permanency of war graves was established on the battlefields of the First World War. Here, an obligation of the state to acknowledge the value of the deaths of the enormous citizen armies was great. That obligation extended into the Second World War.

More than 90,000 Australians were killed in both world wars, with the dead now lying in war graves in over 78 countries around the world. Australia experienced far fewer deaths in the Second World War than in the First. However, where deaths were relatively contained to central battle areas during the First World War, Australia’s war against Japan was fought over a far more widespread area, in isolated locations around the Pacific region and beyond.

Australia’s war graves units provided the first level of official registration and organisation of the dead, either as battlefronts passed or as formerly occupied areas were freed after Japan’s surrender. These units were responsible for ensuring the dead were located and properly identified and that graves were correctly marked. They were also responsible for beginning the task of consolidating the many temporary war cemeteries utilised during the war into the main war cemeteries we see today.

Australian New Guinea Administrative Unit workers, working with 7 War Graves Unit, unloading caskets from a truck for reburial in the Wewak war cemetery. The caskets came by plane from Maprik.

Reproduced courtesy of the Australian War Memorial (098146)

In areas of active operations, the work of war graves units began with field burials carried out, where possible, during or in the immediate aftermath of the fighting. Responsible for burying their own dead, fighting units did their best for a decent burial and marked field burials with whatever they could find. Often, rough wooden crosses were made, and a piece of tin imprinted with the details of the deceased, if known. Some would burn the name of the deceased into green timber.

These initial stages of burial and marking of graves formed the basis of the important role of war graves units. This relationship between field burial and the work of war graves units was a vital one. Without the efforts of soldiers to bury their own dead, the work of war graves units would have been much more difficult, if not all but impossible.

Despite their responsibilities and the significance of their work, war graves units were small, usually made up of one officer and seven or eight other ranks. Some units had their strength increased toward the end of the war. Units were reinforced by local villagers or, in some areas, Japanese POWs after Japan’s surrender.

In areas where cemeteries did not exist, the first war graves units on the ground were responsible for their establishment. Where they did exist, their work included the lining up of graves, digging graves and burying remains, making and inscribing temporary crosses, topping up graves and levelling cemeteries, photographing graves and cemeteries, erecting boundary fencing and entrance gates, cutting and building roads, and general ongoing maintenance in and around each cemetery.

Sergeant R. Townsend, Australian War Graves Maintenance Unit, mowing the lawn at the Soputa war cemetery.

Reproduced courtesy of the Australian War Memorial (099128)

While organising cemeteries was important, it was the search for the dead that was the most vital component of the work of war graves units. Location trips would range from just a day or two to weeks at a time, with a handful of men carrying out the task. Field burials, as well as surface remains, needed to be located and properly identified and remains interred in the nearest cemetery.

The task that Australia’s war graves units faced in the Pacific was both unique and considerable. Here, the very nature of the war meant that Australia’s dead—like the dead of many nations—were scattered across the region, in areas difficult to locate. The dead were often hidden by thick jungle or buried in scattered graves or mass graves, sometimes with little or no record of death or burial to guide those tasked with searching for remains.

Torrential rain caused havoc for units throughout New Guinea, both in cemeteries and on location trips. Entire weeks were often spent repairing damage in cemeteries from heavy rain. With it impossible to utilise trucks in and around cemeteries until roads dried out, work was subsequently carried out using small barrows.

Heavy rains also posed a danger to the men. A location trip around the Milne Bay area to visit 30 graves of the 2/9 Australian Infantry Battalion was made in torrential rain where ‘creeks forded in this journey [were] waist high and running very fast.’

Challenges posed by the very nature of this theatre of war meant that even when remains were located, identification often proved difficult, even impossible. On the Kokoda Track it was recorded that:

Two new bodies were found – one with an identification disc – all but obliterated and the other one about 600 feet down a very deep gully – this body had no disc but a small cross was found in his wallet which might lead to his eventual identification.

The Eora Creek War Cemetery containing casualties mainly from the 2/1st Infantry Battalion which occurred from the 1942-10-28/22. The graves were later transferred to the Kokoda war cemetery.

Reproduced courtesy of the Australian War Memorial (072350)

There also existed issues in the recalling or retelling of information. In one area it was noted that:

A good deal of evidence passed on to the unit regarding the location of graves has proved unreliable making our work of recovery still more difficult. It would appear that much of this evidence is founded on hearsay and not on facts.

Once located, remains were wrapped in blankets and were often lashed to bamboo poles and carried out of the jungle to the nearest temporary cemetery or nearest road for transport to a cemetery.

One of the longest location trips made by an Australian war graves unit was also the first undertaken along the Kokoda Track since the fighting there in 1942. The 17th Australian Graves Registration and Enquiry Unit was led by Captain Robert Houghton, who was aware of the ever-growing importance of locating the dead as quickly as possible and that time was against him. Houghton noted in mid-August while at Bomana, ‘there are several missing soldiers to be located and every day counts, especially in bush country.

The grave of an unidentified Australian soldier in the Australian War Cemetery, Soputa, New Guinea.

Reproduced courtesy of the Australian War Memorial(094088)

Leaving Bomana on 28 August 1943, Houghton and a small section of his unit spent four weeks working along the Kokoda Track. At Brigade Hill, the scene of fierce fighting between Australian and Japanese forces in early September 1942, not only is Houghton’s dedication to finding the dead evident but so too is just how fruitless this effort could be when he wrote, ‘had a great deal of searching and consequently had to spend considerable time in the area, searched all tracks and gullies between Brigade Hill and Mission Hill.’

Ten days after their trip began, Houghton learned that the remains of Victoria Cross recipient, Private Bruce Steel Kingsbury, were still missing and ‘was supposed to have been killed 50–80x* from old Isurava village.’ Houghton and two local villagers conducted a search for Kingsbury; however, both searches ‘proving fruitless.’ Private Kingsbury’s remains were later located and he is now buried at Port Moresby (Bomana) War Cemetery.

Location trips enabled general maintenance in temporary cemeteries. Old nameplates were fixed and new nameplates were added to memorials, while local labour cleaned up each cemetery. At Eora Creek, Houghton ‘stopped for a few minutes to fix a new plate for Pte Boyce’ before proceeding along the track.

Amidst the gruesome nature of their work, war graves units spent much of their time beautifying the cemeteries they worked in as part of the Imperial (now Commonwealth) War Graves Commission’s beautification scheme, which lent itself to the uniformity of war cemeteries.

The Kokoda War Cemetery viewing eastwards from the Kokoda plateau with the Japanese War Cemetery at the left foreground. The temporary graves from the area between Efogi and Wairopi were removed to this cemetery.

Reproduced courtesy of the Australian War Memorial (072430)

By beautifying war cemeteries, both the Army and the authorities ensured that the bereaved knew their loved ones were not only being cared for but were being memorialised in places of peace and tranquillity.

While the beautification scheme extended to all cemeteries, some saw more attention than others, dictated largely by the availability of supplies and labour, and the willingness of personnel. At Port Moresby (Bomana) War Cemetery, trees, shrubs, creepers, and grasses were planted. Wrought iron entrance gates were crafted and erected on stone pillars by an Australian war graves unit after its official opening on 5 August 1944. A ten-foot waterfall was constructed, which tumbled into a small rock pool at the base. Overflowing to another rocky outcrop and into a constructed fish and lily pond, plantings of maidenhair and other ferns, moss, and miniature alpine creepers surrounded the water feature. Such efforts transformed these places of death and destruction into places of tranquillity, adorned with horticultural and architectural features designed to soothe the grief of those touched by war.

The many temporary cemeteries utilised during the war were eventually consolidated into the three major cemeteries we see today at Port Moresby and Lae in New Guinea and Bita Paka (Rabaul) in New Britain. Moving the dead from scattered temporary cemeteries and isolated graves to these three main war cemeteries signalled the winding down of operations for war graves units before handing over the responsibility of war cemeteries to the Anzac Agency of the Imperial War Graves Commission (IWGC).

It was an immense logistical undertaking. The lifting of entire cemeteries of their dead and the transporting of remains across both land and sea were carried out as well as the day-to-day work, all while challenges continued to hinder the work of these units. Yet this was a necessary step, ensuring easier maintenance and security of graves and, with careful placement of each main war cemetery, easy access for visitors.

By May 1948, all war cemeteries in the region had been handed over from the Army to the IWGC, with the exception of Yokohama War Cemetery in Japan; the task of recovering the dead was completed just a few short years after the war’s end.

The experience of Australia’s war graves units remains virtually unknown in the eight decades since their role in the Pacific war began. These men went wherever they were needed, wherever the dead lay. They dealt with remains in whatever state they were in; all to afford the fallen a level of decency and honour in death and to provide comfort to the bereaved. Eighty years after their work began in the Pacific War, may we remember the men of Australia’s war graves units.

If you or anyone you know has a connection to the Australian war graves unit and would like to share your story, contact Lisa Cooper via l.cooper@deakin.edu.au

* The meaning of ‘x’ is unknown. It could refer to steps or a measurement.