Talili Bay Massacre, New Britain

After the Japanese surrender on New Britain the 2nd Australian War Crimes Section undertook two (2) investigations into the alleged atrocities and war crimes committed against Allied personnel at the Tunnel Hill PoW camp near Rabaul.

Location 1:

The Japanese 6th Field Kempeitai Headquarters (HQ) PoW Compound was located in a prewar wooden building in the Chinatown area of Rabaul on the corner of Casurine Street and Konbue Street, between the Pacific Hotel and Malaguna Road. It was also known as Rabaul PoW Camp, Rabaul PoW Prison or Kempeitai PoW Prison.

Location 2:

The Tunnel Hill PoW camp is on the Tunnel Hill road which is located on the Gazelle Peninsula at the northeastern tip of New Britain. The road runs from Malaguna Road at the western edge of Rabau to the NW through the ridge and connects to the north coast road at Tanoura bordering Talili Bay.

The Tunnel Hill Cave PoW Camp was located approximately 2½ miles from Rabaul City, between Tanoura and Pilapila. On the 8th April 1944 until the 1st September 1944 the camp evolved into Camp No. 1 (also known as the Banana Plantation), which was located about ½ mile from Tunnel Hill Cave PoW Camp. From the 1st September 1944 to 25th August 1945 Camp No. 2 (also known as Death Valley), was established about ¼ mile from Tunnel Hill Camp No. 1.

First Investigation:

The first investigation determined that in late February 1944 or early March 1944 Col. (Rikugun-Taisa) Satoru KIKUCHI, who was the Commanding Officer (CO) of the 6th Field Kempeitai Headquarters (HQ) in Rabaul went to the 8th Army HQ together with his Intelligence Officer, Maj. (Rikugun-Shōsa) Saiji MATSUDA, to attend a Staff Officers' conference.

Note: The Japanese word Rikugun preceding a rank indicates that it relates to the army.

Note: The Kempeitai were the military police of the Imperial Japanese Army and functioned much like the Gestapo in Nazi Germany.

It was determined that there was a strong probability that Gen. (Rikugun-Taishō) Hitoshi IMAMURA and his Chief of Staff, Lt Gen.(Rikugun-Chūjō) Rimpel KATO, made a plan for Col. KIKUCHI and Maj. MATSUDA, to execute approximately forty (40) of the sixty-nine (69) Allied PoWs who were in Col. KIKUCHI's custody.

Gen. (Rikugun-Taishō) IMAMURA was the Commanding General of the 8th Area Army HQ at Rabaul in New Britain;

Lt Gen. (Rikugun-Chūjō) KATO was the Chief of Staff to Gen. (Rikugun-Taishō) IMAMURA.

It was suspected that:

The account of the deaths as related was a fabrication similar to the Kavieng Massacre, and in which all the Japanese concerned had learned their ‘lesson’ just as thoroughly as did the former members of the late Admiral TAMURA’s command;

During the push southward in the Pacific by the Japanese during WW2, a large group of expatriate Australian men and German Catholic missionaries were trapped on New Ireland, many interned by the Japanese in September 1942 at Kavieng. They disappeared without trace in March 1944. It was later discovered that all the internees had been secretly murdered by their captors. The Japanese naval officers responsible for the massacre elaborately concealed their embarrassing crime to mislead Australian investigations.

The PoWs were killed in reprisal for the deaths of Japanese soldier patients during an Allied air-raid on the Tanoura seacoast when a Japanese hospital near Akane was bombed;

They were killed to alleviate the overcrowded conditions at the 6th Field Kempeital HQ.

6th Field Kempeitai HQ, Rabaul City

Japanese records documented that there were approximately sixty-three (63) PoWs held at the 6th Field Kempeitai HQ, in Rabaul City of which the following eleven (11) had been sent to Japan. The first nine (9) listed on the 15th November 1943 and the remaining two (2) at a later date.

Maj. Williston M. Cox O-426370 USAAF;
2nd Lt. Robert R. Martindale O-725625 USAAF;
2nd Lt. Jack K. Wisener O-662327 USAAF;
T/Sgt. Leslie H. Burnette 34179416 USAAF;
T/Sgt. Fred S. Engel 16036143 USAAF;
S/Sgt. Frank O. Wynne, Jr. 14016975 USAAF;
Cpl. Joel W. Griffin 18040364 USAAF;
Cpl. Cephas L. Kelly 421693 USMC;
Spr. Robert Anthony Cassidy NX151502.

Col. Marion D. Unruh O-298478 USAAF;
ENS. William T. Welles O-156407 USNR.

The 6th Field Kempeitai HQ was destroyed in a bombing raid on the 2nd March 1944. That day at about 15:00 hours approximately fifty-three (53) PoWs were transferred to another camp known as the Tunnel Hill Cave PoW Camp in a mountain pass named Tanoura on Tunnel Hill road, which was about 2½ miles from Rabaul City and between Rabaul and Pilapila. The PoWs were handcuffed in pairs and blindfolded before being loaded onto Japanese flatbed military trucks. After a journey lasting approximately 1 hr they arrived at the site.

Tanoura mountain:

The PoWs were then confined to a small cave of approximately 30 ft. in length with an average width of 5 ft and a height at the entrance of 7 ft decreasing to 5 ft at the rear. The size of the cave made it impossible for them to sit down and in order for them to lie down to sleep it was necessary to resort to shifts. They were in the cave for two (2) days without food or water. Col. KIKUCHI admitted that he knew that the PoWs were being held in a small cave but he was not aware that food or water was not provided for the PoWs.

He claimed that whilst he was at the Japanese 8th Area Army HQ he had requested permission to transfer the PoWs to Watom Island for their protection from air-raids. He was given instructions to assemble approximately forty (40) PoWs on the beach in the Tanoura area where they were to remain until arrangements were made for their transfer to Watom Island.

However, when Col. (Rikugun-Taisa) Kahachi OGATO, formally the CO of Watom Island, was interrogated he stated that he had received no orders from the 6th Field Kemepitai HQ for the transfer of any Allied PoWs into his custody.

On the orders of Col. KIKUCHI at about 03:00 hrs on the 3rd March 1944 Japanese guards arrived at the cave and read off the names of twenty (20) men. They were blindfolded, handcuffed, tied together and taken away. The remaining PoWs could not see how they were taken away because a blanket had been suspended across the entrance to the cave. The remaining thirty-three (33) PoWs were still so congested that it was still impossible to sit down even in a squatting position. The following day at about 09:00 hrs the names of another twenty (20) men were read out and were removed from the cave in a similar manner as the first twenty (20).

Although the affidavits of the surviving PoWs all claimed that forty (40) PoWs were transported to the beach the names of only thirty-one (31) PoWs were established through records kept by Japanese officers and a statement by Capt. Murphy.

The PoWs in the Tanoura area were held together in an air-raid shelter located about 100 to 160 ft from the shelter for the guards and not far from the beach of Talili Bay. It was claimed that at about 10:00 hrs on the 5th March 1944 the PoW shelter was hit by an Allied bomb in an air-raid but that none of the Japanese guards had been killed although it was claimed that some had suffered minor cuts and bruises. It is worth noting that during the interrogation of a number of Japanese personnel that the claim was variously described as a single bomb which hit the shelter and two bombs one at each end of the shelter. The dead were then gathered together and under the instructions of an officer their remains were cremated from 21:00 hrs until 03:00 hrs the next day.

It was claimed that five (5) wounded PoWs had been found amongst the dead and were given first-aid before being taken back the Tunnel Hill 6th Field Kemepitai HQ. Three (3) or four (4) died the same day and one (1) or two (2) on the morning of the 6th March 1944. The same guards who had carried out the cremations on the beach were detailed to carry out the cremation near the 6th Field Kemepitai HQ of the five (5) who had died. Some of the ashes from both cremations had been strewn into the ground and the remainder placed into four (4) boxes one being a box 10” x 10” square.

When Col. KIKUCHI was asked why the dead had been cremated when in the case of PoWs who had died though illness were buried he claimed that according to Japanese custom it was a mark of honour to be cremated.

The exact number of American and Allied PoWs who had died at Tunnel Hill PoW Camps is unknown, but it is believed that the number was between fifty (50) to seventy (70). Of these a list of forty-eight (48) PoWs was compiled from Japanese records and from statements of the survivors of the Tunnel Hill PoW Camp.

On the 29th December 1945, the 18th Australian War Graves Unit recovered the remains of twelve (12) Allied personnel which were found in graves located approximately 50 yards south of the Tunnel Hill ‘Death Valley’ PoW Camp.

The identities of the following twelve (12) were translated from the crosses over the graves, checked against the Japanese Military Police records and a list provided by Capt. John J. Murphy:

1st Lt. Hugh L. Cornelius O-14783 USMC;
1st Lt. Thomas B. Fessenger O-663706 USAAF;
1st Lt. John J. Fitzgerald O-26468 USMC;
1st Lt. Billy D. Hanks O-737083 USAAF;
1st Lt. Charles C. Lamphier O-11933 USMC;
1st Lt. Robert W. Sherman O-24763 USMC;
Lt (Jg) James A. Warren O-156661 USNR;
S/Sgt. John J. Gillis Jr. 20610868 USAAF;
Sqn Ldr. John E. Todd 271707 RAAF;
Flt Sgt. Harry B. Dawkins 280791 RAAF;
Fg Off. Leslie A. McLelland-Symonds 401314 RNZAF;
WO. Norman N. Vickers 413232 RNZAF.

Additionally on the 29th December 1945, the remains of a further four (4) Allied personnel were found in graves located approximately 150 yards SW of the first location near an old gun site at the Tunnel Hill ‘Banana Grove’ PoW Camp.

1st Lt. Tuck and AOM2c. Lanigan were found in one grave. The identities of the four (4) were translated from the cross over the graves, checked with the Japanese Military Police records and a list provided by Capt. John J. Murphy:

1st Lt. Harold R. Tuck O-23078 USMC;
Lt(Jg). James T. Miller 130048 USNR;
ENS. Donald D. Atkiss 263870 USNR;
AOM2c. Richard I. Lanigan 3381863 USNR.

On the 30th December 1945 four (4) boxes of cremated remains, held by the Japanese Provost Corps at Toma, were handed over to the 18th Australian War Graves Commission.

Box 1: Flt Sgt. Colin E. Wein 414975 RAAF.

Box 2: FO. Kenneth D. Kirschner T-001052 USAAF.

Box 3: 1st Lt. Roger H. Brindos O-20325 USMC.

Box 4: Three-quarters of this box represented the remains of the following twenty-one (21) American named personnel:

Maj Ralph Cheli O-399830 USAAF;
Maj. Frederick K. Koebig O-375573 USAAF;
Capt. Alexander R. Berry O-7977 USMC;
1st Lt. John P. Cox O-794209 USAAF;
1st Lt. Andrew J. Borders Jr. O-728558 USAAF;
1st Lt. Thomas F. Doyle O-726885 USAAF;
1st Lt. Walter T. Mayberry O-11227 USMC;
1st Lt. Donald L. Stookey O-735686 USAAF;
1st Lt. Alston F. Sugden O-791006 USAAF;
1st Lt. Anthony Kuhn O-738645 USAAF;
2nd Lt. Herschel D. Evans O-729833 USAAF;
2nd Lt. Joseph W. Hill O-740420 USAAF;
T/Sgt. John M. Barron 36321185 USAAF;
S/Sgt. Edward T. Constantin 14123662 USAAF;
S/Sgt. William C. Harris 6973602 USAAF;
S/Sgt. Romulus F. Mull 14187785 USAAF;
S/Sgt. Lawson Stewart 34425408 USAAF;
Sgt. Raymond J. Farnell Jr. 19061774 USAAF;
Sgt. Michael H. Kicera 13022239 USAAF;
Sgt. Vicent Wasilevski 13038150 USAAF;
Pfc. Paul Frederick McCleaf 486913 USMC.

Box 4: One-quarter of this box represented the remains of the following seven (7) named Australian personnel:

Fg Off. Frank R. Pocknee 401663 RAAF;
Flt Sgt. John Fenwick 22532 RAAF;
Flt Sgt. Donald C. Kirkwood 21714 RAAF;
Flt Sgt. Ernest H. Kraehe 27791 RAAF;
Flt Sgt. Henry L. Murphy 412621 RAAF;
Flt Sgt. Gordon R. Thomas 417011 RAAF;
Flt Sgt. Fred Woolley 43098 RAAF.

Second Investigation:

A separate investigation was opened into Capt. (Kaigun-taisa) (Dr) Einosuke HIRANO of the 24 Field Plague Prevention and Water Supply Unit.

Note: The Japanese word Kaigun preceding a rank indicates that it relates to the navy.

He was investigated for allegedly performing malaria medical experiments on a selected group of six (6) Allied PoWs. Only the following five (5) of the six (6) where actually subjected to the experiments.

Capt. John J. Murphy NGX310;
1st Lt. James A. McMurria O-372644;
1st Lt. Jose L. Holguin O-728388;
ENS. Donald D. Atkiss 263870 USNR;
AOM2c. Richard I. Lanigan 3381863 USNR.

The sixth was Lt(Jg). Joseph G. Nason but due to his weaken condition he was not subject to the experiments. The PoWs on whom the experiments were performed had been infected with blood taken from Japanese personnel who had been previously infected with malaria or who had the disease at the time.

Approximately two (2) or three (3) days after the injections all five (5) of the PoWs exhibited typical malaria symptoms. On approximately the second day after the first signs of illness, AOM2c. Lanigan slipped into a coma. Medical attention was denied by the medical orderlies on the grounds that Capt. HIRANO was not available. Shortly thereafter ENS. Atkiss also fell into a coma and still Capt. HIRANO was reported to be unavailable. The Japanese medical orderlies insisted that the men were not sick despite that it was obvious that they were in a coma.

Both men remained in a coma overnight until late in the afternoon of the following day when ENS. Atkiss died on the evening of the 29th July 1945 and AOM2c. Lanigan died the next day on the 30th July 1945. Neither of these men had received any medical attention other than being under observation from the time of their injection until their deaths and even then Capt. HIRANO did not arrive until a day or two after their deaths.

Col. KIKUCHI claimed that he had not given any permission for such experiments to be carried out on the PoWs in his charge but did give Capt. HIRANO permission to examine the health of the PoWs and administer any necessary treatment. When challenged as to why his own Medical Officer, Capt. (Rikugun-taisa) (Dr.) Shigeo FUSHITA, did not carry out the examinations, he claimed that Capt. HIRANO was the designated specialist in malaria cases.

Tunnel Hill Survivors:

After the move of the PoWs to the Tanoura Mountain pass and before the end of hostilities S/Sgt. John J. Gillis Jr. had died and a further two (2) airmen, S/Sgt. Escoe E. Palmer and WO. Ronald C. Warren, had been captured.

The following eight (8) surviving PoWs were released from the Tunnel Hill PoW camp on the 7th September 1945 to Australian forces after the Japanese surrender:

1st Lt. Jose L. Holguin O-728388 USAAF;
1st Lt. James A. McMurria O-372644 USAAF;
2nd Lt. Alphones D. Quinones O-748875 USAAF;
S/Sgt. Escoe E. Palmer 34269270 USAAF;
Lt(Jg). Joseph G. Nason 117057 USNR;
ARM2c. John B. Kepchia 65228343 USNR;
WO. Ronald C. Warren 425959 RNZAF;
Capt. John J. Murphy NGX310 AIF.

Capt. John Joseph ‘Mangrove’ Murphy MiD NGX310 of the “M” Special Unit of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) along with Lt. Barnette and Sgt. Coleton were tasked with assisting in the rescue of Allied airmen and to report on the effects of air raids and Japanese troop movements on New Britain. On the 24th October 1943 they were found by Japanese forces and in the ensuing fire-fight Lt. Barrett and Sgt. Carlson were KiA. Capt. Murphy tried to escape by canoe but was recaptured.

Lt. Francis Alfred Barrett DCM, NX18434;

Sgt. Lambert Tobias Willis ‘Bert’ Carlson, NX143313.

Capt. Murphy was Mentioned in Despatches (MiD) in recognition of his gallant and distinguished service in the South-West Pacific area.

Above: Capt John Joseph "Mangrove" Murphy, the only Australian PoW in Rabaul, at Jacquinot Bay, New Britain on the 7th September 1945. (Courtesy of the Australian War Memorial)

Above: Enhanced image from The Arizona Republic, dated 11th August 2002

Left to right: 1st Lt. James A. McMurria, 2nd Lt. Alphonse D, ‘Al’ Quinones, 1st Lt. Jose L. Holguin, S/Sgt. Escoe E. Palmer, AR2c. John B. Kepchia

A ninth (9th) American PoW, S/Sgt. William H. Brooks 19048351 US Army, was released on the 7th September 1945.

S/Sgt. Brooks was captured in the fall of the Philippines on the 9th April 1942. He was on the Bataan "Death March" and held at Japanese PoW camp O’Donnell on the Bataan Peninsula from where he escaped. He was captured a year later and sent to a labour camp in Rabaul, New England. It was reported that he was the only white man in the camp amongst 8000 prisoners of whom 6000 were Indian troops from Singapore and the remainder Chinese from Shanghai.

Above: Courtesy of the Los Angeles Evening Citizen News, dated 6th December 1945

Suspects:

No charges for the suspected execution of the named thirty-one (31) PoWs were brought against the following:

Gen. (Rikugun-Taishō) IMAMURA:

Hitoshi IMAMURA (War Criminal No. 2121) served a ten (10) year prison sentence at the Australian War Criminals Compound in Rabaul, New Britain, for permitting his subordinates to commit brutal atrocities against the Australians and Allies in New Guinea.

Lt Gen. (Rikugun-Chūjō) KATO:

Rimpel KATO served an eighteen (18) years sentence at the Australian War Criminals Compound in Rabaul, New Britain for unlawfully employing PoWs on work having a direct connection with Japanese military operations.

In October 1948 after a second investigation it was deemed that no prosecutive action was contemplated against Col. (Rikugun-Taisa) Satoru KIKUCHI, Maj. (Rikugun-Shōsa) Saiji MATSUDA, Capt. (Dr) (KaigunTtaisa) Shigeo FUSHITA, Capt. (Dr) (Kaigun-Taisa) Einosuke HIRANO who mistreated and contributed to the deaths of approximately fifty (50) American and Allied PoWs at the Tunnel Hill PoW Camp, Rabaul, New Britain.

Col. (Rikugun-Taisa) KIKUCHI:

Satoru KIKUCHI (War Criminal No. 2219) served a seven (7) years sentence at the Australian War Criminals Compound in Rabaul, New Britain for the murder of a Chinese man at the Massowa plantation about October 1944.

Capt. (Dr) (Kaigun-Taisa) HIRANO:

It was reported that Einosuke HIRANO had committed suicide, however, no records have been found to substantiate his death.

The reporting agent had been directed by higher authority to discontinue any further action on the Investigation Division Case #2584 and to close the case.

Researched by Ralph Snape for Aircrew Remembered and dedicated to the Allied airmen, soldiers and their families (Apr 2026).

Other sources listed below:

References:

1. NAA: 336/1/1345 Part 6.
2. NAA: 336/1/1955 Part 7.

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