Great Harbor, Poor Townsite, Rabaul

Rabaul was founded by the Germans in 1910 as the capital of German New Guinea because of its fine natural harbor. It turns out they could have picked a better spot.

The town was seized by the Australians four years later in the First World War. In 1942 the Japanese took the town and made it a stronghold. They had 100,000 troops there during the war making it a major staging point for their war in the South Pacific. It was a stronghold MacArthur decided to bypass. It was heavily bombed, blockaded but not taken and the soldiers, sailors and airmen and locals were left to hunger and disease. The Australians re-occupied it in September 1945 after Japan’s Surrender. There were 65,000 Japanese troops remaining on the island.

Papua New Guinea became independent in 1975 and Rabaul became the district capital of New Britain. In 1994 it had a population of 17,000 with 100,000 living in the area. There are active volcanoes all around the city. There is a volcano observatory established after earlier eruptions. It predicted an imminent eruption and 50,000 people were evacuated. A whole section of the city was buried in ash but only 5 were killed, one struck by lightning that often accompanies eruptions. The town now has only around 8,000 people, some estimate many fewer than that, and the region around 50,000. The regional capital was moved to Kokopo, the original capital of German New Guinea.

We considered two tours. One would have visited Admiral Yamamoto’s bunker and the tunnels that sheltered Japanese barges and small ships. The tour we took concentrated on volcanoes and only briefly touched on the war. We drove through sections of town that were covered in ash. The road is below the ground level, kind of in a trench, because of the ash. We could see building supports and stairways of abandoned buildings. Much of the area has returned to lush green.

We visited a bubbling volcanic hot spring surrounded by people selling crafts, mostly brightly colored cloth.

Then we visited what used to be Manupit Island. Because of the warnings residents evacuated. When they came back, they discovered it was no longer a separate island but had merged with New Britain because of the ash and lava. Their church, Archangel Micheal, a prefabricated iron building built by the Germans, was still standing. We visited the church and the school attached to it.

We watched some of the lessons. A teacher used the book of genesis to teach students basic English vocabulary. In one class the students were reciting their lessons in unison. When I asked if I could take pictures the teacher smiled and agreed. I thanked her and the kids replied, in unison, “You are welcome, sir.”

At the church some of the men were performing a masked dance. It seems to be a mix of tradition and Christianity, about dealing with the devil. The masks looked devilish.

Following that we went to the site where Japanese aircraft were dumped after the war. They were covered with ash in 1994. Residents dug a couple of them out to create a tourist attraction. A group of kids greeted us with “She’ll Be Coming ‘round the Mountain,” “Yippie ti yi yippie yippie o” and a welcome song.

In some of these pictures you will see blonde Melanesians. Between 5% (in PNG) and up to 10% (in the Solomon Islands) of Melanesians in this area are blonde at birth. It’s a recessive gene but if both parents have it the kid is blonde. The hair may darken as the person ages. Some young blondes become red headed adults. Melanesians in PNG and the Solomons have the highest percentage of natural blondes outside Northern Europe.

Finally, we went to the Volcano Observatory on the rim of a crater for a look down on Rabaul and volcanic caldera that forms the harbor. A group of kids there greeted us “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.”