Permanent Memorial To Men Of Tarawa

Chronicle (Levin), 9 August 1949, Page 3

Permanent Memorial To Men Of Tarawa

•+> AUCKLAND, August 8. A permanent memorial has ben ereeted on Tarawa in tlie Gilbert Islands, to eommemorate the 17 New Zea landers and five other Europeans who were murdered by Japanese on October 15, 1942. They were , serving in the group as soldiers and radio operators in a coast-watehing detaehment. Offieers and men of the frigate Taupo which' returned to Auckland today, -after visiting the Gilbert Group* Said thy temporary -■ memorial ereeted inainiy from trunks of coconut palms, had now been replaeed by a permanent concrete structure. It was most appropriately de signed and merged harmoniously into its surrounding of coral and palms. The names of the men killed in the mass acre were perpetuated on a plaque de signed in the form of a hook of honour. Tarawa itself has not recovered from the ravages it suft'ered during the heavy fighting of the Pacifie Wai-. Atolls on which there was battle have had to be replanted with young coco nut trees and the beaclies and reefs are still littered with the abandoned wreekage of barges, landing craft and small ships of many kinds. The land', too, is dotted with the remnants of huge dumps of rusted vehicles, aero-

plane engines, army huts and military stores once worth millions of pounds. They are now reduced to the value of junk.