Murder investigation

A Last Secret 14

Tarawa people told the Americans of the fate of the coastwatchers, indicating where it had happened and where the bodies might lie. In a place like Betio, with thousands of shattered corpses cast across the battered landscape, the fate of 22 decapitated and mostly burnt bodies was not then a high priority.

In January 1944 the Americans erected a memorial to the dead 22. Stan Brown led a platoon from Viti. It was the only commemoration the men received until nearly 70 years later.

In October 1944, two years after the executions, David Wernham, one time Funafuti district officer and by then deputy Commissioner for the Western Pacific, investigated. He arrived on the anniversary of the executions, 15 October 1944. Mikaere, the bishop's cook, was asked by Wernham's inquiry what the date was of the killings and he replied, ‘I do not remember’. A patchwork of a story grew up around what happened and what sparked the Japanese into carrying out the executions. Much of it is wrong.