Much of the book occurs in New Guinea,
tell us about your experiences there...
New Guinea is one of the largest islands, and certainly one of the most primitive areas in the world... even to
this day. Much of the island is very isolated by its dense forests and mountainous terrain. Its people have
had little contact with the outside world. Many live in villages the way they have for generations of years.
The people are beautiful because they have not been spoiled by civilization to the extent of other native people.
They have a unique philosophy and spirit in them that I admire.
New Guinea is a multiple image to me. During the war, it was the site of many vicious battles between the
Japanese and the Americans and our Australian allies. After my unit's stay in Rockhampton, Australia we
shipped out to a place called Goodenough Island, off New Guinea's Eastern coast.
Goodenough was an isolated community. This was my first experiences with the Papuan people. I was
impressed by their primitiveness and humanity. I witnessed their dances, called 'sing-sings' and saw their
villages and carvings.
On mainland got know other place and people. I participated in the amphibious assault at Hollandia, and later
the attack on the island of Biak. Then, the recapture of the Philippines main island of Luzon.
I was a soldier and combat photographer with the Army's Counter Intelligence Corps. In this capacity, I got to interact with
all sorts of local people and experience the islands and the remote jungle interiors of New Guinea.
During the war I didn't have much time to sit around and smell the flowers or watch the butterflies. I went
back in 1993 to see what it was really like, fifty years after the war. I brought my grandson with me, and
together we traveled to the places I had served a half century earlier in Rockhampton and in New Guinea.
Physically, it was not much different from the way I remembered it. Of course, the bullets and explosions of
the war were gone! I got to appreciated the Papuan people, and see all the details I had missed the first time I
was there.
