Peter Dixon - Captured at Kavieng

Transcript

I wasn't in Kavieng when all this happened. I got there when I got back from Manus. Got back there and there was another two chaps I had with me but we got in late one afternoon... We got there and the Japanese invaded at 2 o'clock that following morning and we were just in bed. We had no knowledge of the Japanese coming. None whatsoever.

That only happened after we were taken prisoners... They came in and found us because, temporary overnight, we were staying in one clubhouse with accommodation so there was no people where we were staying the night and that's where Jim put us, and as I say, there was an invasion. We had no knowledge at all... They allowed me time to put some clothes on and we were tied up and marched off.

There were three of us and that was the start of my prisoner of war... It wasn't a comfortable existence, but I lived to tell the tale. We were closely guarded. I mean really closely. We had no possible chance of escape and we were taken to Rabaul and from Rabaul to Japan... You've heard of the Montevideo Maru. We had another ship. Now we had roughly 50 or 60 of us. Some odd people from Rabaul. We had 20 odd nurses and that'd be about it.