Formosans in Papua-New Guinea

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Peter H
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Formosans in Papua-New Guinea

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Post by Peter H » 05 Mar 2005, 12:09

Ham's Kokoda mentions 100 Formosans serving with the Japanese South Seas Detachment in New Guinea in 1942.They mainly served as porters but Ham has also this to say:
The Formosans,former headhunters,had a reputation for utter fearlessness and astonishing endurance.Some still carried their bolo knives,which in earlier times were used to severe their victims' heads.Most had volunteered for the Japanese Army...and some wrote their enlistment applications in their own blood.The Formosan government explicitly requested of the Japanese not to pay their bonuses"as big wages might spoil them in future".
Footnote,page 303.

More on these "Malayo-Polynesian Aborigines" here:

http://www.answers.com/topic/taiwanese-aborigine

http://www.eriksedge.com/taiwanarticle.html

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