Snake on the Beach

This week, 25 days after the Battle for Buna began, Allied infantrymen swept out of the slimy, matted New Guinea jungles into the tiny village. Thereby they cut off the head of the 13-mile-long, snakelike Jap line which lay writhing on the beach.

Capping a week of desperation, the Japs had tried to reinforce the area adjoining Buna. But bombers and strafing fighters sank nearly all their landing barges after hitting the warships which were standing by. Though they knew they faced annihilation, the Japs fought fanatically. In one pocket, where 638 Japs were killed, the living were observed wearing gas masks against the stench of their fellows. No man among the Allies expected the remaining Japs to surrender, even though the last man was backed into the water or left alone in a concrete pillbox.

"I spent considerable time trying to discover the reason for the enemy's fanatical refusal to surrender, even when the individual's position is entirely hopeless," said CBS's roly-poly Correspondent William J. Dunn Jr. "Undoubtedly religious teachings about the glories of dying in battle provide a contributing factor, but Americans who have talked to Japanese prisoners believe the prime reason for their preference for death, suicidal if necessary, is abject terror over the possibility of torture by Allied soldiers." One prisoner, groveling at the feet of his captors, begged to be shot rather than tortured. Convinced that he would not be tortured, he danced gleefully, insisted upon shaking hands with one & all. Other Japanese had been taught that Australians, relishing yellow meat, ate their prisoners.

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