PACIFIC ISLANDS FIJI - SOLOMON ISLANDS CRUISING PONANT - AMERICAN QUEEN NEW ZEALAND ROTORUA - DIVING - QUEENSTOWN - CHRISTCHURCH AUSTRALIA GIPPSLAND - SYDNEY BARS - AUSSIE WILDLIFE U.S.A WASHINGTON D.C. 9 771176 461001 CRUISING|LIFESTYLE|CORPORATE|LEISURE LEISURE | CORPORATE | LIFESTYLE | CRUISING 2021/22SUMMER-70ISSUE NZ$15 / AU$15 ISSUE 70 - SUMMER 2021/22WWW.LETSTRAVELMAG.COM
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The ghostly group approached us timidly, looking curiously in all directions. Mainly young men and a couple of boys, all smeared head-to-toe in lurid orange mud, they scanned the bushes, the tree tops and the tall grass. Clearly in fear of being observed, they moved cautiously as if any or every movement would betray them. While these orange interlopers patrolled the gathering, women and men in traditional village attire danced and chanted energetically. The women, in particular, cavorted in a way that would have missionaries covering their eyes and rushing for their bibles. Their hands firmly on their hips, they gyrated unambiguously, throwing their heads back in mirth. But it wasn’t long before the orange mudmen’s imagined bogeymen materialised. Slim, lithesome and painted as black as the proverbial, their mouths were bright crimson as if full of fresh blood. They stalked the citrus-coloured troupe, snarling and mocking the orange men with menacing, wide-mouthed laughs and jabbing long, sharp spears. Forced into a terrified huddle, they ducked and dodged the increasingly nasty thrusts.
14 www.letstravelmag.com Pacific Islands, Solomon Islands Pacific Islands, Solomon Islands www.letstravelmag.com 15 The Solomon Islands are a mystery to most Pacific Island vacationers. Adventure cruiser, Roderick Eime, reckons all it takes is a little bit of curiosity and a sense of history to be bewitched by this emerging destination.
The scenario played out for just a few minutes and our alarm grew as the younger ones clung nervously to the quivering legs of the elders, but the finale was approaching and the assembled local villagers cat-calling and laughter grew more enthusiastic as the bewildered mudmen scurried off into the bush at the point of a lance. The final act played out, the entire cast reassembled for a curtain call and our cameras clicked furiously. Those without cameras applauded Hereappreciatively.onSanta Ana Island in the eastern province of Makira Ulawa, the Solomon Islands Surprise Words & Images by Roderick Eime Destination Pacific SolomonIslands,Islands
At the Busu Cultural Village on Alite Island in Malatia Province, the centuries-old tradition of shell jewellery and currency has its home - a kind of shell mint. Again we are met by energetic dancers, although instead of mud, coral and animal teeth, these handsome performers are draped in intricate shell ornaments. Certainly the most prominent example of shell currency is in the payment of bride price and to illustrate this ritual, a nervous young girl clings to her booty clad in a veil of tiny shells painstakingly woven together to form calciferous garments. She doesn’t appear too pleased at the drawn out ceremony and must assume she’ll be more enthusiastic when the real day arrives.
of several outlying islands that maintain strong cultural traditions, as much for themselves as a marketable commodity for visitors. Either way, all parties are winners and our visiting group display great interest in the multitude of artefacts and handicrafts set out for perusal. The islands in the immediate vicinity are theorised to have been first settled by the ubiquitous Lapita people around the time the Romans were getting underway in Europe. Scattering their trademark pottery throughout the Pacific, anthropologists still debate the actual migration route, but it is generally believed to have been from the west and dependant on the sea levels current at the time.
The men of Busu Village adopt a decidedly threatening pose. Their job is to protect the women during any exchange or barter that involves transactions of the shell currency which they produce laboriously in the huts behind. Weapons and the skills
16 www.letstravelmag.com Pacific Islands, Solomon Islands Pacific Islands, Solomon Islands www.letstravelmag.com 17 ancient traditions are preserved and gleefully recreated for the occasional tourist group. The significance of this performance is explained as a representation of the arrival of foreign people and their disruption of local custom. There is some dispute however whether the new arrivals are Europeans or Polynesians. I imagine they’re Santainterchangeable.Anaisone
The most significant confrontations and combat synonymous with the Solomon Islands are the furious and bloody battles fought between the Allies and invading Japanese forces during the Second World War. Some of the most ferocious fighting took place around the capital, Honiara, on the island of Guadalcanal throughout 1943.
18 www.letstravelmag.com Pacific Islands, Solomon Islands Pacific Islands, Solomon Islands www.letstravelmag.com 19 required to use them are displayed, just in case we get any ideas.
The war history of the Solomon Islands would easily occupy several articles and the history of the campaign and the many relics, wrecks and material left behind continues to attract amateur historians and sightseers. Overgrown and abandoned tanks, crashed aircraft, sunken vessels of all types and forlorn fortifications draw curious visitors all year Manyaround.ofthe most interesting artefacts are below the waterline, particularly around the island of Gizo (also sometimes spelled Ghizo) in the Western Province. Local dive operator, Danny Kennedy, regales us with wartime tales, particularly his favourite one, that of his namesake President, which took place not far from his little shop in the township. While patrolling nearby Blackett Strait in August 1943, the President-to-be was in command of PT-109 when it was cut in two by a speeding Japanese destroyer in the middle of the night. The surviving crew swam to what was then Plum Pudding Island before finally being rescued thanks to heroic efforts by two local village boys. The island is now named Kennedy Island. Danny regularly takes divers to visit his catalogue of dive sites that includes both natural and manmade attractions. Fighter aircraft and various shipwrecks make up most of the program, but the Toa Maru, lying virtually intact in just a few metres of water is the piéce de résistance. At 7,000 tons, the Toa Maru is possibly the largest, best preserved and diveable wreck in the Pacific. The best way to travel the many islands that make up the Solomons is by small ship expedition. The experience of
20 www.letstravelmag.com Pacific Islands, Solomon Islands Pacific Islands, Solomon Islands www.letstravelmag.com 21 arriving by ship is hard to surpass as each arrival is usually accompanied by a flotilla of local canoes decorated with flowers and costumed ‘warriors’. Like its neighbours, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands shares the natural hospitality and friendliness of its Melanesian population while offering greater depth and richness to the entire region thanks to its many natural and human attractions. www.visitsolomons.com.sb
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Kurt and his brother, Anders, have been collecting battlefield relics since they were children. Now their haul fills a corner of a large timber yard near Lunga Point, itself the site of many deadly encounters. Piles of rusty munitions, bullets, shells, hand grenades, artillery pieces, aircraft engines, machine guns and even a complete US Stuart tank make up their inventory which they hope to one day turn into a museum.
Over seventy years after the last rifle shot, Japanese soldiers are still going home. Roderick Eime sends one fallen warrior on his way. He'd lain there for over seventy years. His face in the dirt, his helmet still on, his rifle by his side. Now this brave warrior is reduced to tatters of rotting fabric, rusty buttons and bare bones.
Bone Collector, Kurt Markworth, with a Japanese Howitzer
“We lost some of our best exhibits when RAMSI officers raided our premises Bone Collector of WordsGuadalcanal&ImagesbyRoderickEime
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The
This unknown soldier fell during one of the Japanese Army's last ditch attempts to retake the island of Guadalcanal from the Allied forces. It was January 1943 and the Americans had turned the tide on the mighty Imperial Army, forcing them west and away from their strategic objective of Henderson Field, now Honiara's International Airport. Such was the ferocity of the combat that the now exhausted Japanese, denied food and supplies, barely had enough strength to fight let alone bury their Afterdead.thesmoke had cleared and the last rifle shot rang out, thousands of dead soldiers lay strewn where they fell. In creeks and rivers, in fields and in the foxholes they had dug in defense. Exposed to the elements, wild pigs and time, they gradually return to the earth, their possessions, equipment and keepsakes resting beside them. “You only have to spend a few hours in the bush and you'll find them there,” says Kurt Markwarth, “guns, ammunition, equipment and of course, bodies. Most of them are shot up badly. Just look at this ration tin.” He holds up a little aluminium can once used to boil a serve of rice. It's completely riddled with bullet holes and was found next to one of the soldiers.
I photograph the tag hoping to extract some information that might eventually identify this fallen soldier. I offer to return the bones to the consulate and the boys agree. Half an hour later, I hand the dusty box to a solemn but grateful Iwanada-san. As I do, a tooth falls through a hole in the box and onto the floor. It is a carefully capped, amalgam tooth, showing expert dentistry. Even with such precise dental remains, this soldier is unlikely to ever be known to his surviving family, relatives instead content with mass cremations at the large memorial erected near Mt. Austen, the site of one of their final desperate stands. As time heals the wounds, the Japanese Government now busies itself with humanitarian and aid projects in the Solomon Islands while the locals, with only rusting relics and stories to remind them of the bloody conflict of 1942 and '43, help to put to rest the many fallen warriors still without a grave. With over 20,000 Japanese alone on Guadalcanal without a final resting place, the task is likely to continue for some time.
Anders show me more of their treasure trove, I notice bowls of dog-tags on the table, each filled to the brim. Allied tags show full identification; name and serial number. Japanese tags, on the other hand, are surprisingly vague, showing just Army unit. Kurt points to a fruit box in the corner. It contains a complete skeleton. “This tag came with this guy. Here's his wallet with a guide to London theatres inside. Here's his water bottle.”
During their many sorties into the undergrowth in search of artefacts, their searches almost always result in the discovery of human remains. And where there is one, there is usually many more. The Japanese Government, represented in Honiara by Charge d'Affaires, Akira Iwanade, is working with his ministry in Japan, war bereaved families and local communities to finally give their war dead a proper burial. Fossickers like the Markwarth brothers and even locals digging their fields have all played an important role in the recovery and repatriation of remains. These remains, ranging from complete skeletons with full kit to scattered bones, are solemnly gathered and placed in safekeeping at the consulate office. At their own expense, these families will come to Honiara periodically and conduct cremations of the gathered bones, taking the ashes with them back to Japan. But unlike missing Allied servicemen, the identification of Japanese dead is difficult, if not Asimpossible.Kurtand
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The author presenting the remains to Japan's Charge d'Affaires
25 during the tensions,” continues Kurt, “Word got around that we had weapons here, and we did, but these were all carefully restored relics we had found in the bush. We've tried to get them back, but they won't budge.”
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26 www.letstravelmag.com Pacific Islands, Solomon Islands Complete Remains of Japanese Soldier
