JAPANESE MONUMENT - PENFUI NEAR KOEPANG, EAST NUSA TENGGARA PROVINCE (WEST TIMOR) - 2/2 CAMPAIGN TRAILS

[Edward Willis]

JAPANESE MONUMENT

PENFUI NEAR KOEPANG, EAST NUSA TENGGARA PROVINCE (WEST TIMOR)

2/2 CAMPAIGN TRAILS

INTRODUCTION

The most recent Doublereds History post featured the Sparrow Force Oesau Memorial that is located 30km from Koepang, the capital of East Nusa Tenggara province (West Timor), in the village of Oesau. [1]

It is not well known that nearby this Australian built monument is a Japanese Shinto monument honouring their war dead during the Timor campaign that is situated at Penfui village, approximately one kilometre south of El Tari Koepang International Airport. [2]

The monument, locally known as Situs Cagar Budaya, Tugu Jepang [Japanese Monument, Cultural Heritage Site], was erected in April 1943.

Japanese Monument location map

Japanese Monument, Penfui [3]

Though under provincial government protection, the monument is neglected and in need of restoration.

A Japanese veterans group last visited the site in 1983.  These veterans may have been associated with the 228th Regimental Group and/or the 3rd Yokosuka Special Naval Landing Force that were the main units involved in the Battle for Koepang that raged from 20 February to 23 February 1942.  Both units suffered heavy casualties during the fighting with the Sparrow Force defenders, primarily men of the Australian 2/40th Battalion.

DESCRIPTION

Heritage consultants Beribe, To and Katulote prepared a site report on the monument in 1991 – edited translated extracts from their report follow:

"In East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) Province, particularly in the Koepang City area, there are numerous historical relics.  One of these is the Japanese Monument Site, built during the Japanese occupation in the 1940s.  The Japanese Monument Site is a relic of the Japanese people’s struggle against the Allies during WWII.  The site was built in April 1943.

Japanese Monument in Penfui, which is rarely visited by the people of Koepang City.  The monument is located in Penfui Village, Maulafa District, Koepang City, East Nusa Tenggara Province, specifically on Jl. Antonov, RT 17/RW 18.  It is located approximately one kilometre south of El Tari Koepang International Airport.

This Japanese monument site, which is a cultural heritage site, is also a tourist attraction in Koepang City.  However, unfortunately, many irresponsible people have defaced the Japanese monument site.  Eventually, the government erected a fence so that visitors and tourists can only view it from outside, as shown in this photo of us visiting the Japanese monument site.

According to Anselmus Mabikafola, the former caretaker of the Japanese Monument Site, interviewed some time ago, before the site’s construction, the area served as a crematorium for Japanese soldiers who died on the battlefield fighting the Allied forces.

The monument was built by local people under strict supervision by the Japanese Army.

The first level has five steps, the second has seven steps, and the third has six steps.  On the third step is a one metre square room with a door facing north.  The 1x1 meter peak room of the Japanese Monument Site is a place of worship for six Japanese soldiers.

The room was guarded by six Dai Nippon soldiers.  Two sat facing east, two facing south, and two facing west.  Every morning at 6:00 a.m. and evening at 5:00 p.m., these six soldiers worshipped the Shinto statues they carried, their gods.

The front monument, facing south, featured two marbles inscribed with the names of Japanese soldiers whose bodies were cremated at the site.  Unfortunately, these marbles were stolen and their whereabouts remain unknown.

In 1983, a group of Japanese Army veterans visited the site.  They performed a ritual of worship and respect by burning incense and arranging it around the site.

There are mystical stories from residents around the Japanese Monument in Kupang City.  Some locals have seen short men dressed as Japanese soldiers pushing cannons in and out of the monument.  They often hear the stomping of boots, which locals believe are the spirits of Japanese troops marching.  Others have seen cigarette flames, believed to be the spirits of Japanese soldiers smoking around the monument, and others at night". [4]

Other Shinto shrines did exist in the Koepang area as evidenced by photos taken by the Military History Section’s Sergeant Keith Davis in September-October 1945.

Taroes, Timor 1945-10-10. TIMFORCE.  Japanese prisoners of war were imprisoned in a self-supporting camp under Colonel Kaida at Taroes, about seven miles east of Koepang.  Because most of them were infected with malaria it was thought wise that they should not endanger the health of Australian servicemen by bringing the disease bearers within “mosquito range” of the allied camp.  A Shinto shrine has been built within the camp area. (Photographer Sgt K.B. Davis) [5]

BACKGROUND

Japanese Casualties During the Battle of Koepang

The main landing force in Timor was the Imperial Japanese Army’s Eastern Detachment (commanded by Major General Ito Takeo), a detachment built around the 38th Infantry group, and supported by the Imperial Japanese Navy’s 3rd Yokosuka Special Naval Landing Force and two platoons of the Sasebo Combined Special Landing Force (SNLF).  The 38th Infantry Group was largely made up of the 228th Infantry Regiment and the 2nd Battalion of the 38th Mountain Artillery Regiment. [8]

228th Infantry Regiment

The 228th Infantry Regiment’s history provides a vividly detailed sequential account of the unit’s involvement in the Battle of Koepang including enumerating the number of killed and wounded and listing their names. [9]

For example, see the unit history’s account of the end of the battle on the 22 February 1942:

“The battle ended around 19:00.  The enemy vehicles had also passed through.  The Oesau plains, which had been a hellish battlefield only an hour earlier, had turned into a dreamlike, quiet plain, with the remains of burnt houses brightly shining in the twilight.

……..

Map of the battle near Oesau

The unit had been through two days of hard marches since landing, with no time to rest.  Our encounter with the land's central crossroads, and the struggle in the scorching heat, without sleep, rest, food, or drink since the previous evening, had exhausted both our energy and soul, and for a while, I nearly lost the will to move on my own.  The soldiers killed in the final hour of fighting were Lieutenant Ogawa Masami, the machine gun platoon commander, and 42 others, whose names are as follows: Command Squad Leader Warrant Officer Haruo Ohno, Squad Leaders Sergeant Fujisaku Tominari, Shigeru Mizukoshi, Akio Tsuge, Corporal Ryuzo Ichihara, Machine Gun Squad Leader Shigeru Fujita, Corporal Noriyuki Saito, Officer Candidates Seinosuke Ito, Kikuo Kondo, Sadao Sayuki, Hatsushirou Kosuga, Sergeant Kazunao Takamura, Kenichi Tamura, Yoshiyoshi Miyashitani, Kazuo Matsuda, Takeo Koike, Fukuichi Fujita, Isamu Shinkai, Kinzo Hasegawa, Private First Class Minoru Ito, Noboru Mori, Saijiro Judai, Kintaro Sakagami, Takao Esan, Jinji Uehara, Yoshio Kusunoki, Toshio Miwa, Akira Kawai, Riichiro Yamabuta, Minoru Hige, Fumiji Torada, Zenichi Higashio, Meiji Matsuda, Yoshiyoshi Mori, Katsutaro Yajima, Kanesaburo Nishimoto, Taisaburo Shimogishi, Shoichi Iriyama, Hisakazu Nishikawa, Motosaburo Kitamaki, and Private First Class Masao Oku.  Under the command of Lieutenant Murota, the unit concentrated on retrieving survivors and tidying up the battlefield.

……

The following day, on the 23rd, all seriously injured on the battlefield were taken in by the detachment's medical unit and transferred to a hastily established field hospital in Koepang.  Those with minor injuries were treated on-site and moved together with the main force of the company, tidying up the battlefield and in particular searching for and gathering the bodies of fallen comrades, and holding cremation ceremonies in two locations, on the left and right sides, throughout the day on the 23rd.

……

The site of the funeral of the war dead on the [Oesau] plateau occupied by the 2nd Platoon (photographed from the direction of the central highway)

The total casualties in this battle were:

Killed in action: 1 officer, 1 warrant officer, 8 non-commissioned officers, 57 enlisted men, a total of 67.

Severely wounded: 1 officer, 3 non-commissioned officers, 38 enlisted men, 42.

Lightly wounded: 2 officers, 6 non-commissioned officers, 29 enlisted men, 37.

Of the seriously wounded, Private First Class Ogawa Mitsutoki was seriously injured in the final battle at the field hospital on the Coupin on February 25th; Private First Class Oya Osamu was shot around 16:00 and died on March 9th; Medical Corporal Kosakai Hiroshi died on March 8th; and Private First Class Sato Seitaro finally died on March 21st.

…….

Return of the Remains: Following the conclusion of the operation, memorial services were held in Koepang and Dili for the remains of those who had made their honorable sacrifices in the attacks on Ambon and Timor Island.  Following this, on June 11th, representatives from each unit carried the remains of those who had made a silent triumphant return to the mainland.

Many of the field soldiers who had seen their comrades off at the pier, wishing them peace, had participated in the Battle of Guadalcanal, and had no way of knowing that their bodies would end up exposed to the steaming grass on a remote island in the middle of the ocean”.

3rd Yokosuka Special Naval Landing Force

Henning provides a valuable summation of the available English language evidence on the severe casualties suffered by the 3rd Yokosuka SNLF during the battle: [10]

“The Japanese who defended Oesau were virtually destroyed by the Australian attack.  According to information Leggatt obtained later from the Japanese 'there were only 78 survivors of the paratroops units engaged and one enemy infantry company (with mountain gun) which had moved overland from Baoen had also been destroyed, apart from casualties inflicted on the enemy in the rear guard action'.  Fred East, the intelligence officer, recorded that 111 of the Naval paratroopers survived, of whom '82 were fit', and that about 200 Japanese infantry lost their lives at Oesau.  Japanese sources accessed after the war gave the paratrooper casualties as 36 killed and 34 wounded, and Japanese infantry losses as 67 killed and 56 wounded.  These sources have been treated as credible in some accounts of the action in Timor, but they are not supported by original records.  Japanese casualty lists have not been found. [11]

An unknown number of Japanese had been killed in Babau, particularly in the action of sappers Livingstone, Chandler and Hickey, and at least one full planeload had been shot down by anti-aircraft fire from one of the British Bofors gun crews on the morning of 21 February, but the majority of the Japanese casualties occurred at Oesau, most of them, it appeared, due to the mortar fire.  One of the reasons for the devastating impact of the mortars was because the Australians had a 'spotter' in a tree with a clear view of the Japanese positions throughout the action.  However, when the Japanese informed the Australians of the high casualties suffered by the paratroopers, it is possible that they had overlooked or not known of Fukumi's trek through the jungle to Penfui.  It is not known how many paratroopers arrived at Penfui with Fukumi on 22 February, although one Japanese Inter said at one of the war crimes trials that there were 'about 100 or more' troops with him on the march.  Hayakawa's officers would not have so readily concluded that few paratroopers survived unless they had seen convincing evidence of the scale of casualties as they followed the Australians through Babau and Oesau.

Whatever the case, the 3rd Yokosuka SNLF never fought as a unit again, and in December 1942 on returning to Japan its survivors were merged with the 1st Yokosuka SNLF, perhaps a sign that its operational effectiveness had been destroyed in Timor.  Apart from the paratroopers, Japanese infantry losses are difficult to quantify, but Kanbe's unit at Oesau had 100 who 'were fit after the action', according to information given to Fred East.  It is also unknown how many Japanese were killed when their planes were shot down.  For example, Fred East wrote that Timorese people later informed him they had 'seen two crashed Jap planes in the bush with about 28 bodies in each', and that one of the Japanese army officers said that 'about 20 of their planes had not returned'”. [12]

[13]

Japanese Armed Forces Burial Practices During WWII [14]

During WWII, the Imperial Japanese Army prioritised the cremation of their war dead on the battlefield whenever possible, with the intention of returning ashes to families in Japan.  When cremation was not possible due to, for instance, forced retreats or lack of fuel, alternative methods were used, or the bodies were left behind.

Early in the war, the goal was to cremate the remains of fallen soldiers and repatriate their ashes to their families in Japan, allowing for proper funeral rituals.

Cremation was considered a solemn duty to prevent leaving comrades behind.  In some cases, especially in the early stages of the war (1942-43), remains were cremated shortly after battle, a process that could take up to 10 hours.  Don Turton of the 2AIC submitted the following report:

On 11 Jul, I visited the Portuguese plantation-owner at HIFU [Ai-Fu] near ERMERA, and on 12 Jul the Chefe de Poste at ERMERA.  The reports of the latter confirmed those from HIFU [Ai-Fu].

A Major was shot dead at ERMERA 1900 hrs 17 Apr, whilst on sentry rounds.  On this date most troops were in HATOLIA.

The Major was boiled in a 44 gal drum until well stewed then his bones were removed, burnt, and the remains casked in cement, borrowed from the Chefe de Poste.

After an action, dead and wounded brought back, and those suffering from broken bones, were machine-gunned and buried, sometimes whilst still kicking.  This was not seen by the Chefe de Poste, but told to him by Inpoushi (a pre-war resident of DILLI, who assumed the rank of Captain in the army). [15]

As death tolls mounted and territory was lost—particularly after the 1942-43 Guadalcanal campaign—it became impossible to recover bodies.  The military shifted to sending families white wooden boxes containing only soil, stones, or small bits of wood, rather than remains, to signify the soldier’s death while maintaining morale and avoiding public resentment.  If bodies could not be cremated, soldiers sometimes sent hair clippings or fingers home to families in place of ashes.

As the war turned against Japan, many soldiers were buried on the battlefield, in caves, or left in the jungle where they fell.  The vast majority of Japanese soldiers who died in WWII were never returned home, with their remains left in the islands and jungles of the Asia-Pacific region.

Members of the 4AIC observed the latter practice:

“Hatu Builico was in a natural basin, surrounded by towering peaks.  On the Mt Ramelau side, a huge crowd of our natives were waging a hand to hand war with the opposition from Maubisse way.  We heard later that King Ananias of Ainaro was in charge of them, who we estimated to be 1,000 strong.  They routed their unfriendly neighbours in no uncertain manner. 

Later in the day, after Bonabear and I had returned to Alfano, No.2 Sub-section had moved down into Hatu Builico on the off chance of being able to entertain any Japs who might be around.  They were fortunate, for just after they had taken up a perfect position covering the town at a range of about 200 yards a big party of about 120 enemy troops arrived.

Very kindly they bunched themselves in a square and a Bren gunner's dream came true.  Lieut. Lane said later that about 20 per cent of them were killed and the remainder scattered in all directions.  Bill Vickers, with some accurate shooting from the Bren, was chiefly responsible.  A recce party several days later reported seeing signs of a mass burial underneath a former overhanging bank”. [16]

Due to the scale of casualties, many remains were never recovered or cremated.  Over 1.1 million of the 2.4 million Japanese soldiers who died during the war are still unaccounted for, with their remains scattered across Asia and the Pacific.

“Bone collecting” (ikotsu shūshū) Process

Since the end of the war, Japanese organisations has conducted missions to retrieve and cremate the remains of fallen soldiers.

A “bone collecting” (ikotsu shūshū) process began slowly after the war.  However, of the approximately 2.4 million Japanese who died overseas, about one million remain missing in the field. [17]

Formal cremation ceremonies for recovered remains are still occurring.  For example, in 2018 and 2026, ceremonies were held for Japanese soldiers whose remains were discovered in the Northern Marianas (Saipan and Tinian).  Regardless of whether the body was recovered or cremated, the spirit of the fallen soldier was, in theory, honoured as a deity (kami𝑘𝑎𝑚𝑖) at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo.

Shinto shrines

During WWII, Japan established hundreds of Shinto shrines across occupied Asia to promote State Shinto, facilitate loyalty to the Emperor, and commemorate fallen soldiers.  Major examples included Syonan Shrine (Singapore), Chinnan Shrine (Malang), Hirohara Shrine (Medan), Yorioka (Sarawak) and various sites in Taiwan and Korea.  Most were destroyed after the war, though some remains or restored sites exist. [18]

Blackburn and Lim [19] provide additional context for the development of these memorials:

Memorials, such as the Yasukuni Shrine, appear to represent what the historians Benedict Anderson, Ken Inglis, and Jay Winter have called ‘a type of speech’ or ‘a living conversation’, in which the monument ‘tells’ the public the version of the past it embodies.  These historians have set memorials alongside films, cartoons, and other forms of political communication whose meanings can be deciphered. [20] Their argument implies that the creators of war memorials, like curators of museum exhibits, have used material culture to tell the public a particular narrative of the past.

The hypothesis put forward by Anderson, Inglis, and Winter is given support not just by the Yasukuni Shrine but also by Japanese shrines and memorials to the war dead established in former Japanese colonies across Asia.  The Yasukuni Shrine was not the only war memorial that was used by the militarists to propagate their view that Japan was honourably pursuing a noble cause.  Helen Hardacre has briefly discussed how in Japanese-occupied Korea, Taiwan, and Manchuria, hundreds of Japanese Shinto shrines were styled on the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo.

They were also run by the military, which compelled their colonial populations to pay respect to Japanese deities and Japan’s war dead at the shrines, as a sign of their obedience to the Japanese Empire. [21] While there exists a body of research on these Shinto shrines in North East Asia, literature on the shrines in what the Japanese called the ‘Southern Regions’, namely South East Asia, is lacking.  The chief Shinto shrine in the Southern Regions was the Syonan Jinja of Singapore (Syonan or ‘Light of the South’, was the name the Japanese gave Singapore).

Post-War Status

Following the 1945 Allied “Shinto Directive,” most overseas shrines were destroyed by local populations or Allied forces to dismantle vestiges of Japanese militarism. [22] Very few, such as the Yorioka Shrine (Sarawak), survived or were later restored.

While most overseas shrines were destroyed, the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo remains the central, highly controversial institution, honouring over two million Japanese war dead, including convicted Class-A war criminals. [23]

Japanese Veteran and Family Pilgrimages

Japanese WWII veterans and their families conducted pilgrimages to former Pacific battlefields after travel restrictions eased in 1964, focusing on memorialising the dead, particularly in locations like Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and various locations in Southeast Asia, where battles were fought.  These trips serve as a form of ‘life review’ for veterans, offering a chance to process trauma, visit the sites of their youth, and honour fallen comrades and often involved Buddhist ceremonies, erecting cenotaphs, and returning to sites of battle.  Veterans have participated in joint memorial services, such as on Iwo Jima, allowing for reflection and reconciliation.

According to Akira Nishimura:

Towards the end of the Pacific War (1941-1945), members of the Japanese Army were engaged in mortal combat with the Allied Forces.  For many the outcome was fateful, and for those soldiers serving on the Pacific islands and in Southeast Asia a large number of them would not return home alive.  Despite the Japanese military agency receiving orders to retrieve the bodies of those killed, remains were not recovered to send back to their bereaved.  Previous studies revealed that the great majority of the funeral urns delivered to bereaved families contained nothing but a small stone or a chunk of wood.  Furthermore, the religious explanation given by the heads of the armed forces was unconvincing, claiming that while the soldiers’ remains could not be returned home, their souls would.

Consequently, it is no surprise that the families and the surviving comrades of the fallen regarded this explanation as unsatisfactory.  In view of this, the bereaved began to visit the battlefields to hold memorial services for their relatives, and to re-locate and recover their remains.

…..

Just before Japan recovered its sovereignty in 1952, the government began preliminary research on the possibility to recover the remains on Okinawa and Iwo Jima Islands sanctioned by the United States.  This action was strongly backed by the citizens’ movement instigated as a consequence of an airplane crash.  The airplane, enroute to Hawaii in 1950, made an emergency landing on Wake Island.

Its passengers, including a popular Japanese singer, Kasagi Shizuko, and a famous composer, Hattori Ryoichi, happened to see the remains of many Japanese soldiers on the island.  Kasagi wrote an article in a magazine to inform the Japanese people about this situation.

As a consequence of the publicity, the government carried out a three-stage plan between 1953 and 1975 to recover the remains from former battlefields.  By 1964, overseas travel became popular, and one out of 1,000 Japanese citizens took trips abroad at this time.  This phenomenon was enabled by the economic growth in Japan and the regional development in the locations of the former battlefields.  In addition, the Japan Confederation of Promoting Recovery of Remains Organizations was established in 1972.  This body liaised with individuals and groups representing bereaved families, deceased soldiers’ comrades, and youth volunteers whose private activity of recovery was now eligible to receive government subsidies.

Since 1976, however, the main target of the government project has shifted to the support of pilgrimages for memorial services held by the Japan War-Bereaved Association at former battle sites.  In addition, there are many other tours hosted by associations of surviving comrades or religious groups.  Recently, there has been an increase in individual pilgrimages by the retired children of fallen soldiers.  Although it is quite difficult to grasp the overall trend of the pilgrimage phenomena, it is apparent that recovering remains is not always the pilgrim’s main purpose.  It might be also important for them to travel to the very place where the soldiers met their fate and to hold some personal ritual by themselves. [24]

REFERENCES

[1] Ed Willis “Sparrow Force Monument Oesau near Koepang, East Nusa Tenggara Province (West Timor)” https://doublereds.org.au/forums/topic/494-sparrow-force-monument-oesau-near-koepang-east-nusa-tenggara-province-west-timor-22-campaign-trails/

[2] Google Maps coordinates: 10.178714538925965, 123.65995722227576.

[3] https://share.google/B2lfghIpHhlMEs2XF

[4] Yohanes Beribe, Selif M.K. To [and] Rivaldy I. Katulote. – Research proposal Japanese monument at Penfui. – Kupang: SMA 4, 1991.

[5] https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C201548

[6] https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C221316

[7] The invasion of the Dutch East Indies / compiled by The War History Office of the National Defense College of Japan ; edited and translated by Willem Remmelink. - [Leiden] : Leiden University Press, [2015]: 411. Originally published in Japanese: Tōkyō: Asagumo Shinbunsha, 1967. https://www.cortsfoundation.org/images/PDF/9789087282370 The Invasion of the Dutch East Indies.pdf.

[8] The earliest source for the Japanese forces is a monograph prepared in 1947 by a senior staff officer in Major General Ito's command, Lieutenant Colonel Susumo Tozuka.  The brief monograph was based on Tozuka's diary notes of the operations in Ambon and Timor.  Tozuka's account was the basis for an expanded description published in 1951: Ambon and Timor Invasion Operations / Prepared by Military History Section Headquarters, Army Forces Far East.  (Japanese Monograph No. 16) https://ibiblio.org/hyperwar/Japan/Monos/pdfs/JM-16/JM-16.pdf . 

Two volumes of the Japanese official war history that cover the Timor campaign have been recently re-published in English translations: (1) The invasion of the Dutch East Indies originally published in 1967 (1) and (2) The operations of the Navy in the Dutch East Indies and the Bay of Bengal originally published in 1969.

(1) The invasion of the Dutch East Indies – see citation [7] for full details.

(2) The operations of the Navy in the Dutch East Indies and the Bay of Bengal / compiled by The War History Office of the National Defense College of Japan; edited and translated by Willem Remmelink. - Leiden: Leiden University Press, [2018]. Originally published, Tokyo: Asagumo Shinbunsha, Shōwa 44-nen, [1969]. https://www.cortsfoundation.org/images/PDF/Senshi Sōsho Vol. 26.pdf

[9] 歩兵第二二八連隊史編纂委員会 、歩兵第二二八連隊史刊行会 、[Ho hei Dainihyaku-nijuhachi Rentaishi Hensan linkai] 228th Infantry Regiment history / 228th Infantry History Compilation Committee. – Nagoya: 228th Regiment Infantry History Publishing Committee, 1973.  See esp. Chapter 3 “The Campaign to Capture Timor Island”: 148-157.

[10] Peter Henning, Doomed battalion: mateship and leadership in war and captivity - the Australian 2/40 Battalion 1940-45, 2nd ed. [Exeter, Tasmania]: Peter Henning, 2014: 148-149.

[11] Japanese casualty lists do exist but are not yet available in English; see two citations for “list[s] of war deaths and casualties” for the Yokosuka 3rd SNLF in [?] Materials on East Timor during World War II / edited by the Forum for Historical Documents on East Timor during the Japanese Occupation Period. Tōkyō: Ryūkeisha, 2008: 175.

[12] According to Ron Campbell the Japanese told Leggatt about their casualties.  Leggatt's report of casualties is in AWM PR89/99, C9, part v, p. 24.  East's summary is in AWM PR 89/154, pp. 6-8.  East noted that the Japanese column at Airkom took the brunt of the Japanese bombing runs on 23 February, and 'they lost probably 100-150 men', and that one of the Japanese officers, Captain Fukhada, 'was heard to remark that their casualties were 8 to our 1'.

[13] The operations of the Navy in the Dutch East Indies and the Bay of Bengal: 352-353.

[14] This section draws on information provided in: Akiko Takenaka “Mobilizing death: bodies and spirits of the modern Japanese military dead” in The Palgrave handbook of mass dictatorship, Paul Corner [and] Jie-Hyun Lim, Editors. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016: 351-363.

[15] Summary of report By Lieut D.K. Turton, Ind. Coy, on visit to Hatolia And Ermera 10 – 12 Jul 42. AWM52 25/3/2/5 - Reports, statements and maps - [August to November] 1942 https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C1367000

[16] Lambert, Commando: from Tidal River to Tarakan: 150.

[17] Beatrice Trefalt “Collecting bones: Japanese missions for the repatriation of war remains and the unfinished business of the Asia-Pacific War” Australian Humanities Review 61 May 2017: 145-159.

[18] Nakajima Michio “Shinto deities that crossed the sea: Japan’s ‘overseas shrines’ 1868 to 1945” Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 37 (1) 2010 :21–46; see esp. 39-40.

[19] Kevin Blackburn and Edmund Lim “The Japanese war memorials of Singapore: monuments of commemoration and symbols of Japanese imperial ideology” South East Asia Research 7 (3) November 1999: 321-340; see esp. 323.

[20] See Benedict Anderson, Imagined communities: reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism. London: Verso, 1983; and Ken Inglis, ANZAC remembered: selected writings of K.S. Inglis. Melbourne: History Department, University of Melbourne, 1998, pp. 8, 240.

[21] Helen Hardacre, Shinto and the state, 1868-1988. Princeton, N J: Princeton University Press, 1989, p. 95.

[22] “The Shinto Directive” Contemporary Religions in Japan 1 (2) June 1960: 85-89.  See also, Franziska Seraphim, War memory and social politics in Japan, 1945-2005. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Asia Center, 2006; see esp. 44-46 and Karli Shimizu, Shinto shrines in the Japanese sphere: centre, periphery, and beyond, 1868-1945. Ph.D. Thesis Graduate School of Education, Hokkaidō University, 3 March 2020: 139-143.

[23] Akiko Takenaka. Yasukuni Shrine: history, memory, and Japan’s unending postwar. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2015.  More particularly, see, for e.g., Utsumi Aiko “Yasukuni Shrine imposes silence on bereaved families” The Asia-Pacific Journal – Japan Focus 4 (9) September 04 2006: 1-5.

[24] Akira Nishimura “Battlefield pilgrimage and performative memory: contained souls of soldiers in sites, ashes, and Buddha statues” Memory Connection 1 (1) 2011: 303-311.

 

 

 

 

[Rob Crossing]

Thanks, Ed

Great work, as always.

Cheers

Rob