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"Wavescan" is a weekly program for long distance radio hobbyists produced by Dr. Adrian M. Peterson, Coordinator of International Relations for Adventist World Radio. AWR carries the program over many of its stations (including shortwave). Adrian Peterson is a highly regarded DXer and radio historian, and often includes features on radio history in his program. We are reproducing those features below, with Dr. Peterson's permission and assistance.
Wavescan N628, March 7, 2021
500 Refugees on a Cannibal Island [Emirau]
Last week here in Wavescan, we presented the story of the sinking of the good ship SS Holmwood off the coast of Chatham Island in the South Pacific. Very early Monday morning, November 25, 1940, the Holmwood steamed out westward from the wharf at Waitangi on Chatham Island at the beginning of a return voyage to New Zealand.
Unwittingly, the Holmwood journeyed directly into a trap that was set for it by three disguised merchant raider ships, the Kulmerland, Comet and Orion. These three German ships pretended to be Japanese cargo vessels, complete with Japanese Maru names, Japanese flags flying, and large Japanese flags painted on the hull of each ship. Remember that in November 1940, Japan had not yet entered the war.
For several days in advance, these three ships had been stationed just over the horizon, listening to radio messages as the marine coastal station ZLC on Chatham Island communicated with ZLW in Wellington, New Zealand. At 7:25 am, just 27 miles out, the Holmwood was accosted by the German/Japanese raiders, and the crew, passengers and much of the cargoes were transferred to the German ships. The good ship Holmwood was then sunk by heavy gunfire.
The three German ships then zigzagged northwards until they were east from New Guinea. On the way, the German ships accosted seven other vessels, and after transferring people and cargoes, they also were sunk, until the raiders were carrying some 675 refugee prisoners.
It became necessary to unload as many of these refugees as possible. It so happened that the Commander of one of the German raiders had lived on the island of Emirau for a while in 1911 while it was then a German colonial island in the Pacific. It was decided that they would disembark around 500 of their refugees on the lonely and isolated island of Emirau.
However, the German Commander had some misgivings about the location, due to the fact that when he lived there 40 years earlier, the natives were notorious as wild headhunters and cannibals. When the three German ships arrived at Emirau just before Christmas 1940, they discovered that the 260 islanders had radically changed their lifestyle, and so the ships disembarked 496 of their refugees, together with food and supplies, into the care of the small Adventist mission on the island.
After the three raider ships left the island, it is reported, one of them sent out a wireless message to Australia in plain English stating that the refugees had been left on Emirau Island, and that they needed to be rescued.
The American Occupation of Emirau Island
The small island called Emirau is located off the northern tip of New Ireland, about 350 miles from the coast of the much larger island of New Guinea. Indeed, Emirau is considered to be part of New Guinea from the political perspective.
Emirau is a very irregularly shaped island that extends in the open ocean for about 8 miles by 4 miles. It is quite lonely and isolated, with the nearest land another 20 miles distant. The weather can be quite hot, due to the island location just marginally south of the equator.
Emirau is home to half a dozen small villages with a population around 250. After the rescue of the refugees who had been dropped off on Emirau by the German flotilla, a small Coast Watch Station was installed with a low powered teleradio that reported to the island Mussau, north of Emirau.
On March 20, 1944, the first contingent of American personnel landed on Emirau unopposed, and they quickly established a base for operations against the Japanese on other islands in the wider area. On Emirau, the Americans constructed two airfields, with parking space for 300 planes, and they installed three hospitals with a bed capacity for 410 patients.
At the height of their occupation, a total of 18,000 American personnel were stationed on this island. However, they had earlier removed the entire native population and reestablished them on Mussau.
At their main location, two wooden structures with concrete flooring were in use as the Radio Transmitter Buildings, and two Quonset Huts housed the radio receivers. An additional radio building with an antenna tower were installed on the very small nearby island known as Eanusau, and this was in use for flight communications. Eanusau Island, with its one small village, is an almost circular island about half a mile across.
The Americans occupied Emirau Island for a very short period of time, just one and a half years, though towards the end, Australians and New Zealanders began to take over. For much of their time there, the Americans operated an informal low powered radio broadcasting station that was listed on 1510 kHz.
This station, Radio Emirau, was noted occasionally in New Zealand and Australia. However, a much stronger AFRS station, with almost a half a kilowatt on the same channel, 1510 kHz, was located in the Philippines, and this station drowned out any possibility of reliable reception from Emirau in either Australia or New Zealand.
We might add that an Australian business man, Edward Carr, leased Elmira Island for 99 years in 2004 with the intent of developing local business enterprises, including international tourism. In 2011, it was reported that 500 indigenous people living on the island.