FUZZY WUZZY ANGELS IN PERSPECTIVE

Sunday Chronicle Letter to editor 31 July 2011  Patrick Kaiku

John Fowke’s article “Foundation of a free PNG” needs critical examination.

The deeds of the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels and the 38,000 Papua New Guineans who served alongside the Allied Forces is inspirational. Rightly so, their courage laid the foundations of an emergent PNG nation state.

Papua New Guineans must honour these deeds in their various ways. However, I take issue with some of Fowke’s remarks.

Firstly the myth that “freedom and independence” now enjoyed by PNG would not have come about if Papua New Guineans had not resisted Japan must be put into perspective. Is Fowkes saying that PNG was free prior to the invasion of the Japanese Imperial Army?

PNG was a colonial possession prior to the Japanese invasion. The trust territories were subjected to some of the most dehumanized forms of restrictions ever implemented.

There was no freedom of movement and kanakas were second class citizens in their own land under the various provisions of the Native Ordinances and Regulations of the colonial power – Australia.

Some scholars argue that the Japanese invasion of the pacific Islands and South East Asia meant to dislodge the colonial empires of the Euro-Americans. Now which is the worst of two evils – Australian colonialism or Japanese invasion?

During the war, Papua New Guineans came to realize that white American soldiers treated them as equals, something that th white Australians considered unthinkable for the inferior New Guineans.

The vague use of fighting for freedom is a cover-up of the notoriously racist and debilitating experience under Australian administration.

Secondly, while praises for our war heroes are legitimate, we must also be mindful of the Japanese mothers who lost their sons in the war. The Japanese soldiers were mere pawns in the expansionist ideologies of their militarist leaders.

Likewise, the victims of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki A-bombs must make up the complete picture of the narrative.

In some Melanesian societies, the bitterness of war and conflict is silently observed. These humane aspects of our societies are observed so as not to re-ignite deep wounds incurred during times of conflict.

I had the opportunity of meeting the grand-child of a Japanese soldier. Her grandfather saw action in New Guinea. Upon my revelation that my grandfather was forcibly recruited by the Japanese to be a carrier on Kokoda Track, my Japanese colleague became remorseful and apologized profusely.

Commemorating Papua New Guineans involved in the Second World War should not be seen to stigmatize the Japanese. The message should be about creating long-lasting friendships between our various societies.

In my experience, demonizing the present generation of Japanese through constant reminder of their grand-father’s imperial ambitions ignites shame and unnecessary stress among people who have already moved on in their lives. Balanced sensitivity must be part of the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angel myth.

Finally, Fowke urges Papua New Guineans to teach the truth in schools, in his idea of nation building. However the legend of the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angel is just one of many foundation stories of this country. One can understand how Australians honour their Diggers and ANZAC tradition.

Should the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angel legend be a miniature version of the ANZAC legend? Australia once a far flung dominion of the British Empire is said to have achieved nationhood at Gallipoli.

This is the myth making that legitimizes the presence of the Anglo-Saxon settler population in Australia. In the process, the 50,000 year history of the indigenous people of that continent is relegated to the background.

Papua New Guinea will judge and honour its own people together with the things that bind them together as a nation. The creation of war heroes and their deeds can be part of the multitude of areas in creating a national identity.

REFLECTION ON THE LETTER OF PATRICK KAIKU

Modern Papua New Guinea is a young country with very few heroes. From colonial times, there were many workers but they had a supportive and subordinate role to the colonial authorities.

They were native police, clerks, medical orderlies. Very few showed themselves as role models for a developing nation.

Anyone who did became a public figure like Peter To Rot. The only other public figures from the past emerged when some public figure asserted that his grandfather was an aid post orderly in the 1950s or a police sergeant major.

But new nations need role models that are known by everyone and they were the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels. Some of them had histories going back such as the carriers to the miners on the Bull Dog Track. But carriers make poor national role models as they are simply human pack horses.

The only group that stood out and gave a contribution were the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels. They worked for the Australian military. We do not talk about those who worked for the Japanese.

The Angels had scope for independent action as long as that involved carrying wounded Australian soldiers and supplies. They were generally treated badly with few personal supplies of food and warm clothing.

After World War 2, the Australians came back and turned the country into an economic and political sleepy hollow again. It took the Foot Report of the 1960s to nudge Australia into activity that prepared the nation for independence.

This was the era when the USSR was invading Hungary and later Czechoslavakia and the UN needed Australia to be seen to be doing the right thing.

Then the nation started to develop operations that enabled role models to arise. There were the beginnings of the PNGDF, RPNGC, CIS and a whole range of doctors, lawyers, engineers, teachers and health workers. There was also the onset of systemic and systematic corruption.

So where are the national heroes coming from Patrick Kaiku? It seems as if the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels were a key start though mainly in a supportive and subordinate role. There were also the troops of the Papuan Infantry Battalion and New Guinea Infantry Battalion.

They showed the qualities of toughness, endurance, courage and compassion that the young people today can copy. They are not obese and waddle like ducks as do many modern men in Government and business.

Many lived past the life span of 53 that many modern men never reach. This was the result of eating little protein and fat, little carbohydrate with plenty of clean water, no booze and regular exercise.

Many would have taken their outlook on life to build the churches. None would have joined raskol gangs in the city and terrorized young women at bus stops.

Then there was the village constabulary even on the Kokoda Track of whom the old man of Naduri is our foremost example. And there are silly Australians claiming he was not a Fuzzy Wuzzy Angel. He was not. He was a village constable.

Mr Kaiku scoffs at the nation being free the result of the Japanese defeat. Australia needed a shove but still gave independence to Papua New Guinea.

Had the Germans not been defeated in World War 1, they would most likely still be here in a German colony. There would have been German farms up the Wahgi Valley. The Leahy’s were German albeit immigrants to the massive German colony in Southern Queensland.

So too the Japanese. Why build an empire then give it away 20 years later? The French had to be driven out of Indo China or they would still be there in a French colony. An elected representative would be sent to the French parliament. This could be termed occupation independence.

Knowing what we know now about the mineral resources of Papua New Guinea, no invader will ever leave.

The Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels are role models in working hard, getting little or no reward and dying penniless. They should have closed the track to the Australian and Japanese troops until they were paid.

HEALTH ON KOKODA 1942

Health and hygiene has scarcely rated a mention in the Kokoda

campaign and elsewhere in New Guinea but it must have been a

major debilitating factor.

We read of diarrhoea at Isurava. We also read that in withdrawal,

Australian soldiers were resupplied with clothing from an airdrop

at Lake Myola.

Soldiers had not removed their boots in over a month and found

that the soles of the feet came away once their socks were taken

off. This has to be the bacterium commonly called trench foot.

This bacterium exists on the track even now and has infected the

occasional trekker who does not remove boots daily, washes and

dries feet and wears clean and dry socks.

The infection with trench foot must have been almost 100% among

the soldiers of the 39^th and 53^rd. We are not told of precautions
put in place by Lt Col Honner.

Trench foot would have almost crippled soldiers. With the soles of

their feet dropped away, they must have found difficulty in walking

and climbing. Infections would have been great. Key item in the air
resupply would have been penicillin powder.

We are also told of diarrhoea that caused soldiers to cut the seat out

of their shorts. To check the photographs in the military history record

by Dudley McCarthy, we find soldiers with complete trousers and no

adjustments to the seats.

But photos were of the 2/27^th in retreat and 16^th Brigade in advance.

There were no photographs of the 39^th and 53^rd. A clothing resupply

would have given new clothes to the soldiers in the famous Menari

photograph.

We read the Brigade commander declared that both militia battalions

were not fit to fight and had to be taken out of battle. This may have
been the result of dysentery and trench foot as much as fighting skill.

Conditions of battle at Isurava would have exacerbated the diarrhoea

among soldiers to the point of a local dysentery epidemic. This would
have been a matter that soldiers were too modest to talk about.

My AIF father would not even say “bullshit”. He would say “bullshine”
or “bulsh”. He was a gentleman of the 1930s.

They would find much difficulty in walking to the latrine under the battle
conditions and would have remained in their trenches. Dysentry would
have spread within a short time.

We read a report of  arrival of the 2/14^th with a militia soldier saying

that the 39^th was filthy and emaciated. The 2/14^th looked like gods.

That sounds like the effects of diarrhoea.

Emaciation comes with dehydration and inability to hold down their
food. Isurava battlefield must have been a filthy place unfit for human
habitation. Did soldiers wash each day in the back creek? Did they
have soap? We read of one officer having a shave in the creek.

The 39^th would have been hit harder than the 53^rd as they were in
the north for a longer period. Soldiers may have come up the track
from Port Moresby with diarrhoea if we take into account that the

pilots of 75^th Squadron suffered at Jackson’s strip.

We read that in the advance, Australian soldiers were ordered not
to drink the water from Eora Creek at the crossing. They had to take
water from the small creek that comes down from the Abuari side.
This was said to be due to contamination by corpses.

It may have also been the result of dysentery. After all, Eora Creek
comes down from Lake Myola and flowed within 200 metres of the
hospital set up on the Myola slopes. It would have been a washing
point for soldiers not yet evacuated.

Then there was malaria. Many Australian soldiers may have been
unconcerned with malaria in the early stages. My AIF father used to
tell the story of soldiers given their pills as they stood on parade.

Many would spit the pill out as the sergeant passed down the line. In
the afternoon rain, the parade ground would have streaks of yellow.

Malaria would have hit the soldiers on both sides. The only report of
malaria I have read was the attack on Brigadier J.E. Lloyd of the 16^th
Brigade in advance to Oivi-Gorari. He had cerebral malaria, according
to the report.

I had an attack of cerebral malaria in 1998. I was taken to Port Moresby

General Hospital not knowing who or where I was. A man at the hospital

had advanced cerebral malaria and become spastic. He stayed there for
over two years as no one knew who he was.

I will never forget an old documentary showing Japanese prisoners of
war taken from the battlefield in New Guinea. They were emaciated to
the extreme and appeared spastic, probably from cerebral malaria. Many
sick Japanese soldiers retreated from Lae and died in the mountains. War
is cruel.

There would have been many other sicknesses that hit soldiers. Tropical

ulcers would take little time to develop and become chronic infections.

The ulcer will reveal white bone within two days. A neighbour in Brisbane

was a soldier of the 2/2^nd battalion. He had tropical ulcers on both ankles

for 20 years and more after the war.

This would have been caused by rubbing of boots. Modern antibiotics

would have done the trick. Bacterium got down among ankle bones.

I wonder if tropical ulcers can be caused by trench foot bacterium.

With diarrhoea would come gut parasites from Australia and New

Guinea. These would have passed from infected soldier to infected
soldier through eggs in infected faeces. A common parasite in this
country is the round worm Ascaris lumbricoides.

There have to be reasons why many returned soldiers died within a
decade or more of the war.

For some, the Department of Veterans Affairs refused to accept that
their incapacity was caused by the war.

A SHIT OF A WAR

The visit of the family of Sqn Ldr John Jackson has stirred memories

of the past. As a teenager in Australia, I would sit glued to the television

set after the ANZAC marches were over to watch war documentaries.

We young people of the 1950s became experts in many aspects of the

wars, particularly having listened to serials on Saturday nights on the

large walnut radios.

There was a story of “Tinlegs” Wing Commander Douglas Bader who

lost his legs in an aircraft accident only to go on to be an air ace in the

war against Germany. His story was relayed to the young people in a

serial “Reach for the Skies”.

Then there was the story of the “Great Escape” where about a hundred

prisoners of war escaped from a German prison of war camp. As a boy,

I knew all the stars personally week by week and was horrified to find

many were killed by German machine gun in the back of a truck.

We listened to nurses at war in the serial “White Coolies”. Many of

them died in a Japanese prison of war camp. That was a real story

of courage that was part of the growing up of Australian kids.

Then we saw movies “The Man who Never was” and “ The Bridge on
the River Kwai”. Some things stay in the memory, one being that the
Japanese CO of the camp attended the funeral of the British CO in
London many years later.

We may never forget the movie “The Cockleshell Heroes” who sailed

to Singapore Harbour aboard the boat the Krait.

Then one ANZAC Day, there was a story of war in Port Moresby

and Australian pilots who fought dog fights against the Japanese.

One pilot told an unforgettable story that intends no disrespect to the

men who fought. On the contrary, it was all part of their courage.

Pilots of 75^th Squadron stayed at Jackson’s airport and suffered

chronic diarrhoea and dysentry. They spent much time in latrines

until the call came to scramble.

Those with diarrhoea would climb aboard the aircraft and head for

the skies. In dogfights, they would climb to high altitudes and then

dive down on the Japanese bombers and fighters.

They would fire and then pull out of the dive. Inertia of this would

cause the diarrhoea and dysentery in their bowels to explode.

They would spend the rest of a dogfight sitting in a stinking cockpit,

probably too preoccupied to notice. But they may well have been

weak, dehydrated and lacking concentration.

The ones to really suffer after that were flight crew on the ground

whose job it was to clean out the cockpits time after time.

That puts the pilots of the RAAF on a similar basis to the soldiers

on the Kokoda Track. Diarrhoea was so bad at Isurava and down

the track that soldiers had to cut the seat out of their shorts for
ease of exit.

That is why Damien Parer only took photographs from the front.
The mums and dads in Australia had to feel that all was well.

Many of us looking back may feel that these young boys are our

sons. But no. They are our fathers and grandfathers.

SQN-LDR JOHN JACKSON

Post Courier 11 May 2011

Family of heroic Australian WW2 air force commander John

Francis Jackson nick named old John paid tribute and visited

the land where their father and grandfather died.

Last weekend, his daughter Patricia and his son Arthur and

grand-daughters Diane and Angela flew from Australia to set

foot on the very place their father and grandfather lost his life.

The bravery shown by Jackson has led to the country’s biggest

airport the Jackson International Airport being named after him.

He fought in the war in various places in the world before he lost

his life during the battle of Port Moresby in 1942.

Jackson was the leader of the Australian Air Force 75 squadron

when his plane was shot down in a dog fight in Port Moresby.

LATOSOLIC CLAYS OF KOKODA

The latasolic soils of the tropical rainforests protect the

ecosysytem from damage with a high very rate of break

down of humus and waste material.

The mineralogy of eight latosolic and related soils from Papua New ...

The mineralogy of eight latosolic and related soils from Papua,

New Guinea. Geoderma, 8: 191-205. The clay, fine-silt and

sand-mineral fractions of eight ....
linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/... - Similar

　

Latosolic clays of the Kokoda Track and the mountains

through to West Papua protect against erosion. These

are the red-orange-yellow clays that are so well known

among PNG mountain people and trekkers on Kokoda

Track.

　　

There are those who claim trekkers damage the Kokoda

Track. This is not possible with such a thick blanket of

latosolic soil. The track is quite indestructible if the only

attack comes from boots.

　

We see why the villagers in this country dig the gardens

on the mountains facing downwards. If the gardens were

dug across the slope like the Chinese terraced gardens,

there would be no run-off in the latasolic soils.

　

The latosolic substratum consists of a deep layer of clay

decomposed over millions of years from basalt rock. We

see basalt rock on the Kokoda Track in the face of the

waterfall below Abuari village and the huge boulder on

the track between Isurava battlefield and the rest house

above.

　

Clay is covered with tropical jungle and a deep layer of

humus decomposed into a layer of soil.

　

On the Kokoda Track and other such tracks in Asia,

Europe and the Americas, the substratum of soil and

humus has eroded down to the clay and held in place

by a latticework of tropical tree roots.

　

The substratum off the track can remain untouched with

the thick layer of humus and soil permanently in place but

disturbed by agriculture and logging.

　

The trekking industry is important to PNG and the lives

of villagers of the track. Those who carry out ecosystem

surveys have to understand that trekkers have a minimal

effect on the Kokoda Track while they attack the track

only with boots.

　

　　

BOMBING OF THE MACDUI

For many years, I lived in Victoria as  neighbour to the Mahney family.

The grandfather was Pte Bill Mahney of the 39^th battalion. He did not

speak much of the war on Kokoda.

He told the story of the bombing of the Macdhui, a coastal ship owned

by Burns Philp. Bill reported that in 1942, the war was building up in

New Guinea and the town of Port Moresby had run out of matches.

He was on a boat unloading the Macdhui when the Japanese fighters

struck. The sinking of the Macdhui was once recorded in photos in 

the Managing Director’s office at the old Burns Philp building in

downtown Port Moresby.

The ship was ablaze and drifted for about a kilometer before sinking

in the harbour in the shallow water off Konedobu village. There it still

remains for eternity slowing rusting and sinking below the surface.

I trekked Kokoda last year. In the museum at Kokoda was a photo
of Bill Mahney and story probably placed by a family member. I
lost contact with the family. Bill was a gentleman's gentleman.

AUSTRALIANS FIGHT AUSTRALIANS

Fist fighting has long been part of the tradition of men in the world. The

English loved a bout of fist-fighting on the village green. Bets were laid

and the fighters circled on another as the match began.

Fist fighting was strong among the Australian working class in the early

20^th century. Men in the wild west of America fought with guns but

Australians used their fists.

A practice in Australia was for men to challenge other men by throwing

their hat down and telling the other man to kick it. If that happened, it
was just a matter of finding a place to fight. Then other men turned their
beer glasses upside down in the bar to show that they could fight any
man.

Soldiers in the world wars were mainly working class Australians who

took the tradition of fist fighting to war. Grudges were settled even on
the battlefield.

My father was a heavy weight boxer having grown up as a drover in

outback Queensland. He joined the army, enlisted in the 9^th Division.

The main entertainment on troop ships was the never ending boxing

matches.

There were championship fights and grudge fights just like the prison

movies we watch in the modern era.

My father fought on troop ships Queen Mary and Ile de France on

route to the Middle East and return. He never talked about the war

but often told of the boxing matches on board ship.

He often told of fist fights both in outback Queensland and on board

the troop ships. There were regular grudge fights between the soldiers

in the Middle East and New Guinea. Officers turned a blind eye. No

one fought the officers.

I never saw my father fight in a boxing match. He once told that he was

invited to become a professional boxer after the war but he said that it

was a fool’s game.

Once we were in town at the Samford hotel outside Brisbane. My father

was about 38 years old. There was a young boy being beaten by about

4 men.

My father told them to stop but they abused him. He stepped forward

and hit the lead bully and knocked him over a car.

Within about 3 minutes, there were four men lying on the ground. He

was not into Claude van Damme karate kicks but his fists were deadly

so I found out that night. He would say that only mug lairs kick when
they fight.I was proud of my dad. I am like him but fight with a pen.

He died at 53 years of strokes and hypertension. I am sure the war had
dragged him down.

My father told his son never to fight for himself, only in support of other

people who cannot defend themselves.

That is what I do in the national HIV/AIDS response in Papua New

Guinea. Australian advisors who seek to destroy the family campaign
never knew my father and his effect on me.