ABSTRACT
On December 8, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. On the same day, 20,000 Japanese soldiers landed on the Malay Peninsula and began moving south to capture Singapore, a vital British naval port. In mid-December Japanese forces invaded Borneo and occupied the west coast towns of Seria and Miri, securing their oil fields and establishing military headquarters at Kuching. In order to discover whether the 32 Allied civilians had in fact been sent to Rabaul, the Australian War Crimes Section investigated the movement of all ships between Rabaul and Kavieng during the war. The variance in dates between the testimonies of the Akikaze crew and Tamura was considerable, but the Australian authorities still had suspicions that it was the same group of civilians and continued to investigate. The 2nd Special Naval Base Force was stationed at Wewak in New Guinea during the war. In March 1943 the Akikaze visited Wewak in order to supply food and medicine.
