Japanese team in Lae to recover war remains

A JAPANESE team specialising in the recovery of war remains is in Lae on a possible recovery mission of skeletons found in Morobe.
The 13-man team, including two officials from PNG’s national museum and art gallery, travelled to Lae yesterday after ending a recovery mission in Wewak, East Sepik.
After a brief visit to Morobe administrator Kemasang Tomala, it was revealed that the team would be visiting Sarawagat in the Kabwum area and Gwarim in Sialum, both located north of Finschhafen along
the coastline.
The mission has already recovered 230 Japanese bones in the area and it believes there are another 500 to be collected.
“The Japanese government is very specific about recovering Japanese bones only,” a spokesman, who identified himself as Kazu, said.
“If bones are too deteriorated to allow a positive identification, we go by the artifacts found within the vicinity of the bones to ascertain the nationality of the bones,” Kazu said.
The team will travel by boat to Sarawagat tomorrow and proceed to Gwarim before returning on Sunday to observe a special ceremony to commemorate their dead servicemen.