Brave lads - murdering coast watchers

Swimming with sharks Chapter 6.2

Seventeen radio operators and soldiers were tied up to coconut trees in front of Commander Keisuke Matsuo house on Betio. Sadd, New Zealand trader A.M. McArthur, Reg Morgan, Basil Cleary the dispenser and blind old man Isaac Handley were with them. 

A Japanese soldier asked Joe Parker if he would like to have his binds loosened on his swollen hands. 

‘No, you tied them tight, you can leave it as it is,’ he replied

During the day, they worked to build a wharf and at night were locked up in the ‘lunatic’s enclosure’ at the hospital. Iupeli lived with a local family and Bishop Octave Terrienne stayed in the Catholic presbytery.

What happened at around 2pm on 15 October 1942 is not clear. Some say a US warship shelled the island and two aircraft attacked Japanese ships in the lagoon. One of the prisoners may have waved to the planes. Catholic nun Sister Helena heard that Cleary had taken his shirt off and waved. Terrienne said one of the prisoners had escaped and a gang of labourers, armed with axes and knives, had gone to his house looking for him.