An Australian World War II veteran has resorted to high technology in a bid to locate the family of a Japanese soldier whose body he discovered in the mountains of Papua New Guinea more than 50 years ago.
Jeff Burgess, 77, of Melbourne, was in Lae, on the eastern coast of Papua New Guinea in late 1944 when he discovered the bodies of five Japanese soldiers while digging into the mountainside to place antiaircraft guns.
He believes the five committed suicide during the Japanese retreat from the area.
One of the bodies he found had a diary containing a photograph of popular wartime actress Kinuyo Tanaka and letters to the soldier from his elder sister in the city of Gifu.