The Japanese Association Recovery and Repatriation of War Casualties team are in Kimbe, West New Britain to find the remains of their fallen comrades and take them home in order to pay respects in funeral rites.
The Japanese Association Recovery and Repatriation team members arrived in Kimbe on Wednesday 18th January and attended the Culture Centre to proceed in checking the remains of 15 soldiers’ that were found back in 2019 by the locals and research team.
Interpreter with the Japanese Embassy Rudy Sohoben explains that the team would be in the province till Monday 23rd January doing research on the remains found and making confirmation on whether the remains were Japanese or Papua New Guinean.
“They checked the remains that we had found back in 2019 and the process started now is to check and confirm whether these are the remains of their Japanese soldiers or our own Papua New Guineans. The checks will continue till they return to Port Moresby on Monday,” said Mr Sohoben.
He added, “If these are the Japanese soldiers’ remains a sample would then go through a DNA check for complete confirmation. Should the remains belong to our own people they would be taken back to their villages for proper burials.”
Through an arrangement organized with the PNG National Museum, the successful retrieval of Japanese soldiers remains, will be cremated and properly packed in Port Moresby ready for the trip back to Japan.
The same process of retrieval and repatriation will be followed in other provinces as well.
Since the 1980’s, the Japanese team have visited WNB over 10 times so far in search of their fallen soldiers and also carrying out research to determine further details regarding the remains, war time frame and more.
