Jungle Trails
While I was supervising the vegetable farm on Kolombangara in the South Pacific, my younger brother back home in Chicago, would send letters asking if I could find some Japanese souvenirs and send them home to him. One Saturday morning when we weren't working, I decided it was time to satisfy his request.

Solomon Seven Day Adventists
T he majority of the natives working on the farm were Seven Day Adventists. At least they claimed they were. Maybe they proposed to be of that faith, just to get out of working on Saturdays. Personally, I thought they were "wicked" meaning they had no religion at all. But anyway, I asked one of the native helpers if anyone knew the trails into the jungle. One of the men (through the interpreter) said that he had lived on the island before the Japanese invasion so he led the way and we went exploring. I had hoped to find an area that hadn't already been picked over by previous souvenir hunters but we weren't so lucky. Some one had already beaten us to the best of them and what was left was junk that no one wanted.

When we started out into the jungle, I thought there would be only one or two of us but when we assembled, all 16 of the natives came along. They were armed with machetes, hatchets and knives and I had my pistol. There was some doubt amongst the authorities as to the total absence of Japanese on the island so I was glad they all wanted to join the safari. Neither the natives nor I cared to take any chances. We figured there was safety in numbers.

We cut across the coconut plantation and headed into the jungle following a Japanese trail. These trails were narrow, single-track runways and built like a corduroy road using the coconut trees when they built the airfield. Because the roads were heavily traveled, they cut the coconut logs into two-foot lengths and laid them side-by-side to make the trail. I guess they did this to keep out of the mud during the rainy season. They must have had a lot of coolie labor available, as there were miles and miles of these corduroy roads through out the jungle.
They apparently carried all their supplies and guns by hand as there was no sign of wheeled vehicles being used in these trails. Close to the edges of the jungle however, there were numerous two wheeled, rubber-tired handcarts. They were used to transport 50-gallon steel drums of gas, oil and water. Every half mile or so along the trail were evidences of a Japanese outpost or gun position guarding the route. Close by would be their living quarters. They didn't have very many conveniences for comfortable living as it looked like they slept on the log floor that had been raised a foot or two off the ground. The huts were built of rough timber posts and logs with either a leaf-thatched or galvanized metal roof. Blankets could be seen rotting on the floor and scraps of mosquito netting were hanging from the ceiling.

Here and there, we would find the remains of a decaying kitchen area. The Japs had nothing like our army gasoline stoves for cooking purposes. They improvised their stoves from steel drums cut in half. Inside this stove was a huge iron kettle about two feet in diameter. Wood was used for fuel and neatly stacked over the stove for drying. A few cans of food could be seen scattered about but their main dish was rice. Quite a few cloth bags were lying around bursting with rotting rice.

After hiking about 5 miles or so, we came upon a white porcelain bathtub that was probably the luxury of one of the Japanese officers. The men must have had quite a time carrying this heavy, burdensome thing through the narrow twisting jungle trails. The tub also had a hand pump for filling from a nearby stream. I guess they had to take cold-water baths, as there wasn't any sign of a hot water heater anywhere.

All in all we hiked about 7 miles that day and due to my easy job, I wasn't in the best of physical condition. After the first ten minutes on the trail, my shirt was wringing wet and the perspiration kept running down in my eyes.

I did find a few souvenirs that I sent home to my little brother and I still have them. One was a one-foot section of a bamboo tree that had been used to carry the soldier's ration of rice. It had a hole bored in the side at one end and closed with a wooden plug. I also have a couple of beat-up Japanese mess kits that had been used to cook rice over a campfire as evidenced by their blackened exterior. I also was able to find a metal helmet I sent home along with my most prized possession¾a Japanese rifle complete with a bayonet and scabbard. I didn't find this though ¾ it cost me a quart of gin! I bought it from a Marine back at Munda.

The natives were paid for their farm labor by the British government and soon leaned the value of the American dollar and what it could buy at the Army PX's. One of the natives had a Japanese warrior's Rising Sun flag that each soldier carries into battle. The flag was supposed to protect him from harm and was autographed with Japanese characters by his family and neighbors when he went off to war. The purchase price was $5.00 and is another of my prized war relics.

Some war-weary GI's soon leaned how to capitalize on the late coming troop's eagerness for Japanese souvenirs. They cut white bed sheets into 2 foot by 3-foot flags and painted a red circle in the middle. Around the outside, they scrawled Japanese language characters they copied from the many boxes laying around the battlefield. Later when these were translated they read, "Fresh Fish" and "40 mm. Artillery Shells". The gullible latecomers were eager to pay upwards of $25.00 for these supposedly authentic Japanese war flags.

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