Featherston prisoner of war camp
After the Armistice of 11 November 1918, Chief of General Staff, Colonel Charles Gibbon, found himself rushing to Featherston Military Camp, where 5,000 New Zealand troops were in a state of mutiny over being still enlisted and mobilized.
[6] In total 868 Japanese soldiers and paramilitary personnel were taken prisoner in the South Pacific were imprisoned at the camp,[7] many of them conscripts.
[9] About half of this second group were crew from the Japanese cruiser Furutaka, which was sunk during the Battle of Cape Esperance.
[15] This led to the prisoners throwing stones and then reportedly rushing the guards,[16] who opened fire with rifles, sub-machine guns and pistols.
[17][18] On the New Zealand side, a ricochet from a burst of the gunfire killed Private Walter Pelvin, and several other soldiers were injured by rocks.
Among the issues was that the Japanese did not know that under the 1929 Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War, which Japan had signed but not ratified, that compulsory work was allowed.
[23] The death at Greytown from wounds received at a prisoner-of war camp of Private Pelvin was reported in newspapers.
[26] Some prisoners made a tennis court in one area, levelling the ground and making the nets and rackets from scrap materials.
Movies were shown about once a fortnight for entertainment and some of the prisoners put on traditional costume plays in the recreation huts.
[12] In September 1944, the prisoners told a neutral inspector that provision needed to be made for them to return as honourable citizens, or that they be given asylum on a Pacific island.
[citation needed] The prisoners were transported in two trains from Featherston to Wellington and left on 30 December 1945 for Japan on two large American tank landing ships, LST-273 and LST-275, which were under Lieutenant Commander R P Rudolph.
[20] In 2019, students from Kuranui College attended a special memorial to remember the 48 Japanese prisoners and the New Zealand guard who lost their lives.
