¹ While veterans' memoirs constitute a genre in their own right, pilgrims tend not to publish their travelogues commercially. In the late 1990s historian Iwamoto Hiromitsu counted over 1,100 commercially available accounts by Japanese veterans on the New Guinea campaign. Iwamoto Hiromitsu, “Japanese perceptions on the Pacific War in Papua New Guinea: Views from publications” in Yukio Toyoda and Hank Nelson (eds.) The Pacific War in Papua New Guinea: Memories and Realities (Tokyo: Rikkyo University Centre for Asian Area Studies, 2006), 50.

² Here I use the term ‘travelogue’ to refer to travel writing. For the finer distinction between travel writing, travelogue and the other synonymous term, travel book, see Carl Thompson's introductory text. Carl Thompson, Travel Writing (London: Routledge, 2011), 13–14.

³ For detailed analyses of pilgrimage to Pacific Islands see Shinji Yamashita, “The Japanese Encounter with the South: Japanese Tourists in Palau,” in Sylvie Guichard-Anguis and Okpyo Moon (eds.), Japanese Tourism and Travel Culture (Abingdon, U.K: Routledge, 2009), 172–93.

⁴ Until 1949 Papua New Guinea comprised two separate foreign-administered territories of Papua and New Guinea. Here I refer to Papua New Guinea as a collective term for both territories, but distinguish Papua and New Guinea where appropriate.

⁵ Travel writing scholars seek to pin down the defining characteristic of the travelogue. Emerging consensus appears to be that the travelogue is a first-person prose narrative which the main subject is the author's journey. Travel writers adopt conventions from fictions and non-fictions such as literature, diary, journalism, history and ethnography. These varieties make the travelogue a hybrid genre which warrants multiple analytical strategies. Thompson, Travel Writing, Chapter 2, “Defining the Genre”, esp., 15–17, and 26; Tim Youngs, The Cambridge Introduction to Travel Writing (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), Chapter 1, esp., 1–3.

⁶ I indicate the years in which the authors were born, as shown in the books. When they were born and socialised can affect the ways they remember the wartime years.

⁷ Shimizu Yasuko, Mori to sakana to gekisenchi (Tokyo: Hokuto Shuppan, 1997), 48.

⁸ Ibid.,160. Although she does not always give the details of her visits and interviews, we can surmise that she visited PNG and Solomon Islands at least four times between 1990, the year she began travelling to the region, and 1997, the year Gekisenchi was published. The dates she lists are: August 1990, October 1992, June 1994 and August 1995.

⁹ Ibid., 58. I use the term ‘Islander’ as an umbrella term for both Papua New Guineans and Solomon Islanders.

¹⁰ Ibid., 156. Shimizu has supported the causes of Islander women, and dedicated herself to a non-governmental organisation that calls for the conservation of the forest in PNG and Solomon Islands. PNG to Solomon Shotō no mori o mamoru kai (Association to Protect Forests of PNG and the Solomon Islands), accessed 6 August 2017. Shimizu's name appears as a committee member.

¹¹ Shimizu, Gekisenchi, 15, 48, 141, 246, 257.

¹² Ibid., 157.

¹³ Ibid., 50.

¹⁴ Marty Zelenietz and Hisafumi Saito. “The Kilenge and the War: Observer Effect on Stories from the Past”, in Geoffrey M. White and Lamont Lindstrom (eds.), The Pacific Theater: Island Representations of World War II (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1989), 181.

¹⁵ Ibid., 182.

¹⁶ Shimizu taught at local high schools in Guam and Saipain for a total of six years. for three years in the early 1980s. Shimizu, Gekisenchi, 160 and n.p., author biography at the end of the book.

¹⁷ Ibid., 112.

¹⁸ Ibid., 114.

¹⁹ Shimizu, Mori to sakana to gekisenchi, 114-19.

²⁰ Ibid., 118.

²¹ Matthew, 27:34 and Mark, 15:23.

²² See for instance, John 19:29-30. It states that while Jesus was on the cross, the drank was offered to Him: “Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a sponge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, it is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.” (English Standard Version)

²³ Shigematsu Kiyoshi and Watanabe Kō. Saigo no kotoba: senjō ni nokosareta nijūyonmanji no todokanakatta tegami, (Tokyo: Kōdansha, 2007 [2004]). Shigematsu wrote the prologue and epilogue. Watanabe wrote all other chapters. Subsequent citations to this book come from the chapters by Watanabe, and therefore cite his name only.

²⁴ Ibid., 150.

²⁵ Nana's age as given by Watanabe does not match the age Shimizu gives. She says Nana's age is 63 years when she meets him in 1994; Watanabe says Nana was 77 in 2003. I defer to the age each author gives.

²⁶ Watanabe, Saigo no kotoba, 151.

²⁷ Ibid.

²⁸ Kōsei Rōdōshō (Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Japan), “Senbotsusha irei jigyō: minami-taiheiyō senbotsusha no hi”, 戦没者慰霊事業：南太平洋戦没者の碑 (8 August 2017).

²⁹ Kawaguchi Kizuki, PNG tanbōki: tabō na bijinesuman no jikokeihatsu ryokō (Tokyo: Kadensha, 1996), 134. We do not know Kawaguchi's spiritual or religious faith. What faith his gesture symbolised remains uncertain.

³⁰ Ibid.

³¹ Ibid., 133. This is my translation of the Japanese text. Kawaguchi noted that the inscription was written in two other languages: English and Pidgin, but did not offer translations. さきの大戦において南太平洋諸島及び海戦で戦没した人々をしのび平和への思いをこめてこの碑を建立する. The text Kawaguchi quoted matches that published on the Kōsei Rōdōshō website.

³² Ibid., 134.

³³ Ibid., 200.

³⁴ A plethora of works, both in English and Japanese, follow the debates over historical memories in the 1990s. For a concise summary of the issues, see, Philip Seaton, Japan's Contested War Memories: The ‘Memory Rifts’ in Historical Consciousness of World War II (Abingdon, Oxen: Routledge, 2007), Chapter 1, esp. 18-25.

³⁵ Work by professional historian, Iwamoto Hiromitsu, notes Karao assisted the Japanese on request by Lieutenant General Adachi Hatazō. Iwamoto Hiromitsu, “Memories and Realities of the Japanese Occupation of Mainland New Guinea,” in Yukio Toyoda and Hank Nelson (eds.), The Pacific War in Papua New Guinea: Memories and Realities: RU-CASS International Symposium, (Tokyo: Rikkyo University Centre for Asian Area Studies, 2006), 291.

³⁶ John W. Dower, “An Aptitude for Being Unloved: War and Memory in Japan”, in John W. Dower, Ways of Forgetting, Ways of Remembering: Japan in the Modern World (New York: The New Press, 2012), eBook, Chapter 4, Section 2, 119-121.

³⁷ See for instance, Hank Nelson, “The Swinging Index: Capital Punishment and British and Australian Administrations in Papua and New Guinea, 1888-1945”, The Journal of Pacific History 13:3, 1978, 130–52, esp. 149–51, n. 78. Iwamoto “Memories and Realities,” esp., 285–292.

³⁸ Kawaguchi Kizuki, PNG: seirei no ie, NGO, ningen moyō ni au tabi (Tokyo: Kadensha, 2000), 7–8. The group maintains a website, see here. On Nishimura Kōkichi, see David McNeill, “Magnificent Obsession: Japan's Bone Man and the World War II Dead in the Pacific”, in The Asia-Pacific Journal: JapanFocus (July 17, 2008).

³⁹ Kawaguchi, PNG tanbōki, 201. His second travelogue appeared afar the publication of Shimizu's. Although he does not cite Shimizu's book, it remains unclear whether he has read or consulted it.

⁴⁰ Watanabe Kō, Gatō Junrei: Gadarukanaru de senshishita otto ya chichi, ani o otte [Pilgrimage to Guadalcanal: Tracing the footprints of husbands, fathers and brothers on the Island of Starvation] (Fukuoka: Kaichōsha, 2005), 262.

⁴¹ Ibid.

⁴² Ibid.

⁴³ Watanabe Kō, Senjō de kaku: Hino Ashihei to jūgun sakka [Writing on battlefields: Hino Ashihei and Embedded Novelists] (Tokyo: NHK Books, 2015), 338.