Rev. Kentish.

This is coolbert:

From the Internet web site executedtoday.com and thanks to same.

The article by Headsman dated May 4th.

"1943: Rev. Leonard Kentish, kidnapped Australian civilian"

"On lonely scrubland at the Aru Islands port of Dobo on this date [4 May] in 1943, the Japanese military beheaded kidnapped Australian Rev. Leonard Kentish."

The missionary Rev. Kentish meeting a cruel and undeserved fate, WW2.

"Nobody knew his fate at the time — his wife spent years trying to discover it — but the so-called 'Kentish Affair' was one of the true oddities of the Pacific War: a civilian of no particular import to the war effort who was snatched from Australian territorial waters."

[....]

"And then mysteriously, the pilot gestured Rev. Kentish into the vacant seat of his plane, and took off. Kentish was the only prisoner taken, and his countrymen never again laid eyes on him."

[....]

"After World War II, she [the wife of Rev. Kentish] desperately resorted to firing letters to newspaper editors, until an intelligence officer chanced to read one published in the Argus and made the necessary inquiries via U.S. Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s staff in Tokyo to unravel the mystery."

In the clipped official findings: [per the response of the intelligence staff of MacArthur presumably]

1. The Rev KENTISH was taken on board a Jap float plane on Jan 22 43 after it had sunk the patrol vessel HMAS 'PATRICIA CAM' off WESSEL IS.

2. Unfortunately no info can be obtained of the whereabouts of the Rev KENTISH until 13 Apr 43, when he arrived at DOBO.

3. The Rev KENTISH was held at DOBO as a prisoner till the 4 May 43. Throughout this period he was subjected to ill treatment by severe bashings, the most common being punches in the nose and eyes to such an extent that his nose was broken, and he had great difficulty in seeing. His diet, as such, was just sufficient to keep him alive.

4. On the morning of 4 May he was taken in to the scrub, (a distance of under 200 yds [200 meters] from the township of DOBO) where a grave had been prepared, and executed.

5. The execution was carried out by the order of 1st Lieut SAKIDJIMA.

6. The remains of the Rev KENTISH have been recovered, and handed over to Capt STOCKWELL, of the War Graves Unit. They will be transported to AMBON, and buried in the Internees cemetery there.

7. This case is now considered closed. All dates must be treated as approx.

Read further the entire incident of the HMAS Patricia Cam.

There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the Japanese thought with 100 % certainty that Rev. Kentish was a COASTWATCHER and had functioned as same for the allied effort during the war in the Pacific. COASTWATCHERS their surveillance activity VITAL to the allied cause.

Again, the Rev. Kentish has ultimate fate cruel and undeserved. The Japanese their minds clouded with PARANOIA, emotion overpowering reason, their response unnecessary.

coolbert.