Beheaded Kiwis Coastwatchers could finally be brought home from Tarawa

[Stacey King]

Published: 7:33PM Thursday November 04, 2010 Source: ONE News New Zealand

VIEW ONEW NEWS STORY - Video

The remains of 22 men executed in World War II by the Japanese have been found on Kiribati Island in the Pacific.

The remains are believed to be of men, including 17 New Zealanders, who were beheaded while working as coastwatchers.

The headless remains have been found in an excavation area where the men were beheaded.

The New Zealand High Commission is heading the excavation.

"We're at the stage that we have a large pit with a number of bodies in it," the New Zealand High Commissioner Rob Kaiwai said.

But Kaiwai said the excavation has been challenging.

"They're a metre and a half to two metres down so it's been difficult," he said.

The unarmed civilian coastwatchers were sent to Kiribati to report enemy movements - but they were basically abandoned by the New Zealand government.

The last surviving coastwatcher, John Jones, now 90, has been fighting for recognition of his fallen comrades.

"The Americans said we will go and rescue those other ones and the New Zealand government said they went up to do the job and let them stay and do it," Jones said back in August.

Today ONE News told Jones there is a chance his comrades may have been found.

"I'm pleased, everytime I think about it I get so emotional," Jones said.

Jones understands more than most that it is never too late to come home.

"I'd sure like to go up and bring them back but maybe that's not practical," he said.

US forces have been in Kiribati for years trying to find that country's men who never made it back.

Kaiwai said the New Zealand operation to find its lost men needs specialist help - and the Americans there have it, with a specialist team and DNA testing.

"We don't want to move anything, touch anything, just expose them and have an expert come in and look at it," Kaiwai said.

New Zealand's Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully has taken a special interest in the case and may ask Hillary Clinton, currently visiting New Zealand, for help.