Precis
|
More than
eight decades ago in the 1940s, World War II raged across the Pacific as
ferocious battles took place between the Allies and Japan. One of
the most significant events was at Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands where
the Japanese advance on the Pacific was stopped by the Allies and where
around 30,000 lives were lost. Just over
eight decades later, the deadly legacy of the battle continues. On Foreign
Correspondent this week, reporter Stephanie March meets the Solomon Islanders
who are still being severely impacted by the war in the Pacific. On land,
the islands are littered with unexploded devices – almost 50,000 have been
discovered since 2011. Accidental
detonations of the bombs and other munitions have caused deaths and injuries
and survivors are left to struggle for themselves with very little support. In the
water surrounding the islands, hundreds of corroding shipwrecks from the war
still contain trapped oil supplies that some describe as a ticking time bomb.
A major oil spill from one of these rusting wrecks could be a massive
disaster. The
Solomon Islanders believe those who fought a war on their land should be
doing more to clean up the mess they left behind. In the
worlds of one local: "When the war ended US, Japanese and allied forces
went home in peace. We still do not have peace, until we are safe here in the
Solomon Islands." |
|
Episode
teaser |
Music
|
00:10 |
Wreck
diving |
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: This is Solomon
Islands, a mecca for serious scuba divers.
|
00:15 |
|
These
guys have travelled from all over the world to be here – to see some
impressive, and deep, World War 2 wrecks. |
00:22 |
|
Music
|
00:29 |
|
NEIL
YATES, DIVE LEADER: The wreck divers
basically attracted not just by rusty bits of metal under the water but it's
the history and just the challenge
of going where not many people have gone. |
00:34 |
|
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: These islands and the
seas around them are just stunning. |
00:45 |
Super:
Stephanie March |
But
we're not here to look at the natural beauty.
This is Iron Bottom Sound, one of the greatest sea graveyards of World
War 2, and what lies beneath the surface is a reminder that the destructive
forces of a conflict remain long after the fighting stops. |
00:48 |
|
ARON
ARMGRIMSSON, DIVE EXPEDITION LEADER: The brutal reality is there's a
tremendous amount of pollution that's on these wrecks. |
01:06 |
|
They
are literally the sense of ticking time bombs. |
01:13 |
|
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: The ticking time bomb
lies in the oil trapped inside these corroding wrecks. |
01:18 |
|
DR
MATT CARTER, MARINE ARCHAEOLOGIST: The
question is how much oil is in these shipwrecks and can anything be done
about it before they collapse? It's the biggest problem that people haven't
heard of and they will hear about it soon. |
01:27 |
|
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: More than 80 years
ago a ferocious battle took place here between Japan and the Allies, and the
legacy of it extends from the sea to the shore with deadly weapons and
ammunition still littering these islands. |
01:39 |
|
POLICE
OFFICER: "Two, four, six…Total of 79." |
01:55 |
|
Music
|
02:02 |
|
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: I want you to meet
the Solomon Islanders who can't escape a brutal war that ended decades ago. |
02:06 |
|
SENRI
TENGATA, UXO VICTIM: I don't even picked it up. I
just moved it and it exploded. |
02:12 |
|
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: And who believe those
who fought a war on their land should be doing more to clean up the mess they
left behind. |
02:17 |
|
MAEVERLYN
PITANOE, UXO VICTIM: Had it not for them I wouldn't be having these issues, I
wouldn't be experiencing this life. |
02:25 |
|
Music
|
02:32 |
Title : TIM
BOMB |
|
02:38 |
Guadalcanal
coastline from dive boat |
|
02:41 |
Neil
preparing dive gear |
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: We're off the coast
of Guadalcanal on the Solomon Master dive boat. NEIL
YATES, DIVE LEADER: "I'm just
going to put a plug in that valve for you." |
02:52 |
Stephanie
with Neil preparing for dive |
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: I'm here with Neil
Yates. I first met him when I used to live here and
he was running a dive company. Today,
he is here to share his deep knowledge of Solomons wartime past with these
divers. |
03:02 |
|
NEIL
YATES, DIVE LEADER: Welcome along Solomon Islands and to Iron Bottom Sound.
If you're unaware of why this is called Iron Bottom Sound, it is because
there are on or around 200 ships out there. There is
also 690 aircraft out there. |
03:19 |
|
So,
this was one of the most densely populated wreck sites in the Pacific Theatre. Guadalcanal was the longest campaign of any
of the campaigns which have fought throughout the islands and the Pacific. |
03:36 |
Archival.
Newsreel. Guadalcanal landing |
NEWSREEL
NARRATION: On August 7, 1942, American marines in their first major
amphibious operation landed on Guadalcanal. |
03:50 |
|
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: This landing on
Guadalcanal, an island in the Solomons, was the first-time during World War 2
the US had invaded Japanese held territory, triggering a series of massive
battles on land and at sea. Over months, an extraordinary amount of
ammunition was exchanged by both sides. |
04:00 |
|
NEWSREEL
NARRATION: In a disastrous night
action off the Solomons our own cruiser the Canberra was lost. |
04:29 |
|
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: The losses were
enormous – around 30,000 men were killed, more than a thousand planes
destroyed, and dozens of ships sunk. |
04:35 |
Dive
ship off Guadalcanal/Stephanie and Neil on boat |
NEIL
YATES, DIVE LEADER: Guadalcanal was extremely significant. It stopped the
Japanese advance across the Pacific, and American forces pushed them
eventually back to mainland Japan. |
04:51 |
Wrecks
protruding from water |
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: The wrecks these
divers have come to see have been corroding for 80 years. And there is more
than just rusting metal down there; there's also an unknown amount of toxic
black oil trapped inside the corroding wrecks. NEIL
YATES, DIVE LEADER: There's still a lot of oil on things around here. |
05:03 |
|
The
total quantity of oil, I could only hazard a guess, but yeah, we're talking
tens of thousands of tons. |
05:25 |
Stephanie
prepares for dive |
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: Got the mask? Alright
ready to go? NEIL
YATES, DIVE LEADER: Ready to go. |
05:33 |
|
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: Today, Neil is going
to be my dive buddy. We're going to see if we can find any oil,
and see what impact the corrosion is having on these ships and their
fuel tanks. |
05:40 |
Stephanie
dives |
Music
|
05:52 |
Stephanie
and Neil to USS Kanawha |
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: We're heading down
the mooring line to see USS Kanawha, an oil tanker sunk during a Japanese air
raid in 1943. Sitting 60 metres below the surface, with its guns still
pointing skyward, it's a haunting site, a war grave. |
06:08 |
|
NEIL
YATES, DIVE LEADER: It's quite a large ship. Total fuel capacity was a bit
over 9,000 tons. |
06:32 |
|
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: This is the opening
to one of the ships many fuel bunkers.
Just a few years ago, there was oil in this hold, and divers would
leave covered in sticky black sludge. Now, it's empty, but it's just one
reservoir, there are others divers can't get into. |
06:39 |
Stephanie
and Neil resurface |
Could
it be that some of it has washed away, or it's just gone hard? NEIL
YATES, DIVE LEADER: Certainly some of it has washed
away over the years, but we can't see into all of the holds on this ship. I
haven't been able to look inside the centre section, so I don't know what is
left in there. Being an oil tanker, yes, there is definitely
going to be oil in it. |
07:04 |
|
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: Our next dive site is
just off the coast, about ten kilometres from the capital Honiara. |
07:29 |
Aerial.
Wreck of Hirokawa Maru |
Music
|
07:37 |
Stephanie
dives to Hirokawa Maru |
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: It's a Japanese
transport called the Hirokawa Maru. It's a popular dive site, with beautiful
corals and fish. |
07:46 |
Oil
pockets |
Inside
part of the ship, Neil finds a pocket of oil trapped in a space on the roof.
There are more oil patches like this in here, enough to pollute the beach if
they were to leak out. As we head to the surface, I think about how big this
problem could be, and how much we can't see.
|
08:00 |
Stephanie
to camera |
A
lot of the wrecks are really, really deep, and really
hard to access, and no one knows exactly how much fuel and oil was on board
when they went down, nor how much is still left. |
08:25 |
Neil
and Stephanie back into boat |
Having
dived all over Solomon Islands, there is one wreck Neil is particularly
worried about – the American cruiser USS Atlanta. |
08:35 |
Neil
interview |
NEIL
YATES, DIVE LEADER: It's the big ones
that are out deep, and the Atlanta, which is only four or five kilometres off
Honiara, that has got a couple of thousand tons still in it. If there is a
major rupture of a fuel cell in that, yeah that is going to make a big mess. |
08:47 |
|
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: The Atlanta lies in
130 metres of water. It's too deep for us to dive today. |
09:06 |
2011
footage of oil bubbles |
These
pictures were filmed by an expedition crew in 2011 of oil bubbles coming to
the surface. |
09:06 |
Neil
interview |
How
likely do you think it is, or how possible do you think it is that a ship
like that could rupture at some point in the future? |
09:25 |
|
NEIL
YATES, DIVE LEADER: Likely, yeah, it's
highly likely. It's fairly heavily built, but
eventually it will rust and collapse. |
09:32 |
|
Music
|
09:40 |
Matt
Carter on boat looking at wrecks on computer |
DR
MATT CARTER, MARINE ARCHAEOLOGIST: You can see all this the super structure
area here has collapsed |
09:47 |
|
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: Dr Matt Carter is a
marine archaeologist who's investigating the corrosion of World War 2 wrecks
in the Pacific. |
09:51 |
|
DR
MATT CARTER, MARINE ARCHAEOLOGIST: So we work with a geoscience company called CGG and they
can use satellites to actually map oil slicks from space. Here you can see
Solomon Islands. And as you can see here, they've caught oil slicks from dozens
of individual World War 2 shipwrecks. |
09:59 |
|
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: What's this one
that's right off the coast of Honiara? DR
MATT CARTER, MARINE ARCHAEOLOGIST: So
that's the USS Atlanta. The amount of oil that's coming off that, it's a lot. |
10:16 |
|
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: Matt and his team
have been documenting pollution elsewhere in the Pacific – in Micronesia,
where the wrecks are not as deep. It's a warning about what could be
happening in Solomons. |
10:26 |
|
DR
MATT CARTER, MARINE ARCHAEOLOGIST:
This is our divers investigating one of the wrecks in Chuuk Lagoon. And as
you can see here, there's a massive pocket of oil. So
this will have leaked out of the bunker tanks themselves and come up and got
stuck in those roof cavities and parts of the hull. |
10:37 |
|
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: All it would take is
a small hole in the hull for all this oil to spill out. |
10:53 |
|
DR
MATT CARTER, MARINE ARCHAEOLOGIST:
Potentially thousands of litres of oil are released at one go, which is,
that's kind of one of the worst-case scenarios for this kind of problem. |
10:58 |
Divers
on wrecks |
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: Across the Pacific,
Japan and the US can assert ownership of the wrecks as war graves, but in
Solomons they are not doing anything to stop them from causing environmental
problems. And if a major spill happens in Solomons, Australia would be called
on first to help. |
11:08 |
Matt
Carter and Stephanie looking at wrecks on computer |
With
the wrecks and Solomon Islands, do you think it's a case of when, not if,
there is a significant spill? |
11:27 |
|
DR
MATT CARTER, MARINE ARCHAEOLOGIST:
That's the thing across the entire region, is that the wrecks are corroding.
We know that, it's science and they will release the
oil that they have, the remains.
The question is how much oil is in these shipwrecks and can anything be done
about it before they collapse? |
11:33 |
|
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: Is it clear who has
the legal and the moral responsibility to do something about these wrecks? DR
MATT CARTER, MARINE ARCHAEOLOGIST:
It's not clear. It's a really complicated situation,
but at the end of the day, the Solomon Islanders, the Micronesians, they
shouldn't be the ones picking up the cost and being, I guess impacted, again. |
11:50 |
Honiara
GVs |
Music
|
12:09 |
|
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: Honiara is a busy,
rapidly expanding city that was built on the battlefield. Here, people still
rely heavily on the land and the sea.
|
12:16 |
US
War Memorial |
The
US War Memorial is a spectacular spot to take it all in,
and get a sense of how different the land looked during the war. |
12:38 |
Stephanie
with Sir Michael at Memorial lookout |
SIR
MICHAEL BEN, WW2 TOUR GUIDE: On this side, there were nothing, no houses
whatsoever. Only grass. STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: I've come here with
Sir Michael Ben, a World War 2 tour guide. |
12:50 |
|
SIR
MICHAEL BEN, WW2 TOUR GUIDE: All these unexploded bombs, grenades and all
this just laying on the surface. So many times when
the people make gardens, they never realise that there are unexploded bombs
just a few feet down on the ground. So when they
actually burned the grasses or the trees, the suddenly the bombs exploded. |
13:04 |
Aerial.
Bomb squad HQ |
Music
|
13:28 |
Bomb
squad officers |
POLICE
OFFICER: "Attention squad! We will do a morning prayer before we start
our ops." STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: This is the Solomon
Islands police bomb squad. POLICE
OFFICER: "Okay, good morning officers." |
13:35 |
|
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: They're among some of
the most experienced World War 2 disposal experts in the region. Since 2011,
they've recovered nearly 50,000 unexploded ordnance,
called UXOs. |
13:48 |
Stephanie
with Clifford Tunuki looking at ordnance |
CLIFFORD
TUNUKI, POLICE EXPLOSIVE ORDNANCE DISPOSAL ACTING DIRECTOR: So the most common is MK 2 grenade, almost every week we
have call out, the boys they went out and respond and get grenade, and
projectiles, especially the 75 mm
calibre. |
14:02 |
|
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: Clifford Tunuki,
is the department's acting director. He knows about the dangers of UXOs, but
many locals don't. |
14:22 |
Tunuki
interview |
CLIFFORD
TUNUKI, POLICE EXPLOSIVE ORDNANCE DISPOSAL ACTING DIRECTOR: Some of the
ordnances they have some very sensitive elements within the bomb, which is really sensitive to movement. So
the moment you touch it, it just explode. For the past 10 years, about 13
people have been killed. |
14:31 |
|
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: For a small
population, it is a high number? |
14:52 |
|
CLIFFORD
TUNUKI, POLICE EXPLOSIVE ORDNANCE DISPOSAL ACTING DIRECTOR: Yes. It's quite
concerning. |
14:55 |
Police
officers in squad car |
Music
|
14:57 |
|
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: The officer's job is
to respond to reports of UXOs found by locals. |
15:02 |
|
OFFICER
ON RADIO: Roger, on the way. We have
one UXO report, over. |
15:08 |
Driving
to explosive call out |
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: They're headed to a
house on the outskirts of the city. These hill tops nearby were part of the
evacuation route taken by Japanese soldiers as American troops forced them
off the island. |
15:14 |
Stephanie
to camera |
So
we've just arrived at the spot where a bomb has been reported, and the police
have gone to check it out. We have to stay here,
because they don't know if it's safe. |
15:34 |
Officers
investigate bomb |
OFFICER:
"It looks like something from Japan." |
15:43 |
Stephanie
with Allan |
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: I talk to local
Allan Biulasi who says the UXO was found by a child, and it's not the first
time. |
15:50 |
|
ALLAN
BIULASI: They've found small hand grenades, quite a few actually. |
15:59 |
|
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: How do you feel
living here where you find these World War 2 bombs? |
16:04 |
|
ALLAN
BIULASI: I don't think they are harmful but they
warn us that "Hey the bombs are very dangerous" so they make me
frightened. |
16:09 |
Officer
picks up bomb |
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: It's a small
projectile, but still contains high explosive material. While we're here,
another call comes in. |
16:20 |
Driving
to second call out |
Music
|
16:39 |
|
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: "Busy day?" OFFICER:
"Busy day." |
16:44 |
Police
arrive at construction site and investigate mortar rounds |
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: There is so much
development going on in Honiara, UXOs are often found on construction sites.
Tossed behind a shipping container out the front of this building site,
there's a 60 mm
mortar round… They found this one today or before? OFFICER:
Yeah, I think today. |
16:46 |
|
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: An excavator has
unearthed two more. |
17:16 |
|
OFFICER:
He is just checking around if any other one just lay around. |
17:22 |
|
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: Do you think there
could be more on this site? OFFICER:
Could be more, but some might be at the deeper depth. There should be
clearance here before construction. |
17:26 |
|
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: But it's not the job
of police to check below the surface. |
17:37 |
Stephanie
to camera |
It's
fascinating to me that they have just pulled some mortars out of the ground,
but these guys just keep on working. I feel like in any other place in the
world if that happened a building site like this would be shut down, but here
in Solomon Islands are so used to having these bombs and these
ordnance lying around that they just have to get on with it |
17:42 |
Police
driving shots |
Music
|
18:00 |
|
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: The police often get
calls from the HALO Trust. The NGO's been given a million dollars by the US
government to survey the land for WW2 UXOs, but they are only reporting what
they see on the surface. Today, they've found 38 projectiles in a pile near a
tree, and another 79 in the bushes. |
18:04 |
|
OFFICER:
These are all empty shells, but we are going to take them and throw them at
our scrap pile at Hells Point. |
18:28 |
Projectile
in tree. Police officer takes photo |
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: A local has moved one
UXO to a tree branch, to keep it away from little hands. |
18:40 |
Stephanie
visits Senri Tengata |
Music
|
18:49 |
|
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: Senri Tengata lives
just up the hill. |
18:56 |
|
SENRI
TENGATA, UXO VICTIM: So it was right there, under
the banana. I just like, I don't even picked it up.
I just moved it and it exploded now. |
19:00 |
|
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: And what did you
think when you saw it? SENRI
TENGATA, UXO VICTIM: I thought it was just a little kettle, like a Timus. Do
you know that? STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: Like a thermos?
Yeah. Senri Yeah… |
19:11 |
Senri
shows hand and arm |
He
was 11 when he found a World War 2 round containing white phosphorous, which
causes excruciating burns, and he's been left with severe injuries. But he's one of the lucky ones – Rotary
Australia have helped get him surgery and rehab. |
19:21 |
|
Can
you pick things up or? SENRI
TENGATA, UXO VICTIM: Yeah, I can pick the fork. Just a small thing, not a big
thing. |
19:38 |
|
Music
|
19:45 |
Clearance
operator with metal detector |
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: Most of the efforts
are spent on clearing UXOs from the surface, leaving the more challenging job
of looking for them underground to a handful of private clearance operators. |
19:50 |
Michael
address staff |
MICHAEL
MACCA: "I am the safety officer for us today. So
if anything happens you put your hands up and you shout "stop, stop,
stop". |
20:02 |
|
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: Michael Macca spent
16 years in the police bomb squad before starting his own company. |
20:12 |
Stephanie
and Michael |
What's
the deepest you've ever found a UXO? MICHAEL
MACCA: We go about three metres and we found about 136, 155 projectiles |
20:19 |
|
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: Using military-grade
metal detectors he charges just one Australian dollar per square metre to
check the land for UXOs. But most Solomon Islanders can't afford even that. MICHAEL
MACCA: Very, very expensive for them. |
20:32 |
|
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: How do you feel that
in the times that you've heard that someone's been injured or been killed by
a UXO? What goes through your mind when that happens? |
20:47 |
|
MICHAEL
MACCA: Very emotional, Steph... Sorry.
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: It's okay. |
21:00 |
Michael
Macca interview |
MICHAEL
MACCA: I think the government is not so helpful enough to help these people.
They are not fighters. They are peaceful civilian of Solomon Island. When the
war ended, US, Japanese and Allied Forces went home in peace. We still do not
have peace, until we are sort of safe from UXO here in Solomon Islands. |
21:20 |
Sunset
GVs |
Music
|
21:51 |
|
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: I'm struck by how the
actions of Japan and the Allies 80 years ago continues to affect so many
Solomon Islanders. |
22:00 |
Fisherman
preparing, early morning |
|
22:11 |
|
In
Kukum Fishing Village the day starts early. |
22:21 |
Maeverlyn
stoking fire |
MAEVERLYN
PITANOE, UXO SURVIVOR: One more firewood, or couple more firewood
in. |
22:24 |
|
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: Maeverlyn Pitanoe has
been up since 4am preparing to make coconut scones for school lunches. |
22:29 |
Maeverlyn
making scones |
MAEVERLYN
PITANOE, UXO SURVIVOR: So this is my grated coconut.
This replaces the milk, because if I put the powdered milk or liquid milk,
doesn't have that island taste. |
22:36 |
|
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: But now, even cooking
is a struggle. |
22:47 |
|
MAEVERLYN
PITANOE, UXO SURVIVOR: These three fingers being removed
and this one being lacerated right to the wrist, it doesn't give me any
strength at all. |
22:51 |
|
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: Three years ago Maeverlyn and two of her friends were cooking on a
traditional fire pit, when a World War 2 projectile buried underground,
exploded. The shell was American. It tore her hands, legs
and abdomen to shreds and killed her two friends. |
23:04 |
Maeverlyn
interview |
MAEVERLYN
PITANOE, UXO SURVIVOR: I throw in the cabbage and I was stirring it, and just when I was serving
it into the bowl that they were holding onto, then the thing exploded. I
didn't hear the explosion, I heard the hissing
sound. And then I realised that something is happening to us. I saw my left
hand, all hanging, the skin and the flesh were all hanging right to my ribs.
And then I realised I'm in big trouble. |
23:25 |
Maeverlyn
at home |
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: She lives with pain,
had to quit her job at the National University and doesn't get support from
the government or any of the countries involved in the war. MAEVERLYN
PITANOE, UXO SURVIVOR: In other places there is support, |
27:07 |
Maeverlyn
interview |
and
in the Solomons there is no support. It's really frustrating to me and
emotionally it affects me. |
24:22 |
|
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: :
Do you think that the US and Japan and the Allies should do more? MAEVERLYN
PITANOE, UXO SURVIVOR: Yes. |
24:38 |
|
Sometimes
I want to blame the Allies for doing the war, and
had it not for them I wouldn't be having these issues. But it is because of
what they came with and what they leave behind that cost some of us to have
this injuries and lost lives. |
24:44 |
Maeverlyn
standing on rock, looking out to sea |
They
should be coming over in person with the resources to do the clean-up. |
25:10 |
|
Music
|
25:22 |
|
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: Alarmingly are some
locals are actually seeking out these UXOs. |
25:25 |
Stephanie
visits with Jeffery Kla |
In
this tin shed not far from Honiara, I'm meeting Jeffery Kla. |
25:30 |
|
JEFFERY
KLA: A lot of the bombs I find them around here, up on the hills. If someone
finds a bomb and sells it to me it costs me about 100 dollars, 200 for that
big one over there. |
25:37 |
|
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: Using extremely crude
tools, he uses World War 2 bombs to make improvised explosives. |
25:51 |
|
Is
this process dangerous? JEFFERY
KLA: Yeah, it's dangerous. STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: Then why do you do it
if it's dangerous? |
26:00 |
|
JEFFERY
KLA: We make these so we can make some money. |
26:09 |
Jeffery
making fish bomb |
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: He's making a 'fish
bomb', a device he can explode underwater to kill huge numbers of fish to
sell at the market. It
destroys coral, and is
illegal. And a mistimed throw of the
bomb can leave the fisherman injured or dead. |
26:17 |
Jeffery
interview |
JEFFERY
KLA: One man died two years ago. Something exploded and he died. This is hard to stop, because all the bombs
are here since 1942, the Battle of Guadalcanal, it's all still here. |
26:34 |
|
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: Do you think its best
they leave them here? |
26:57 |
|
JEFFERY
KLA: No, they should try to create a
way to get rid of them, then we will stop. If not, we will carry on. |
27:01 |
Bomb
squad HQ GVs |
Music
|
27:10 |
|
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: Back at the police
bomb squad headquarters the officers are heading down the range to dispose of
two rounds of white phosphorous by blowing them up. |
27:22 |
Officer
dispose of bombs |
OFFICER:
"To all sentries, all sentries, ready for firing. Over." STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: We have
to stay at a safe distance in the radio room. OFFICER: "Firing now, firing. Five, four,
three, two, one, zero." STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: Two down, but there
are many, many more to go. |
27:312 |
Clifford
Tunuki interview |
CLIFFORD
TUNUKI, ACTING DIRECTOR EXPLOSIVE ORDNANCE DISPOSAL DEPARTMENT: What is out
there is uncertain. Just my estimate, maybe more than a hundred thousand of
items still out there. |
27:58 |
Men
paddle out in canoe |
Music
|
28:07 |
Children
play in sea |
STEPHANIE
MARCH, Reporter: Cleaning up the
Solomon Islands will probably take decades, and It's
highly likely in that time more people will be injured, and even killed. |
28:18 |
Maeverlyn
preparing lunches |
Maeverlyn
doesn't want to let that happen. She's now training in UXO risk awareness, in
the hope she can warn others of the dangers and spare them the horror and
hardship. |
28:31 |
Maeverlyn
interview |
MAEVERLYN
PITANOE, UXO SURVIVOR: I've been given a second chance to live. So the second chance that I have now is to tell others
about my experience |
28:45 |
|
and
be more careful with life. Because once we lose it, that's it. Finish. Some
of us will never have a second chance. I have one, so I will use the second
chance that I've been given to help others. |
28:55 |
Children
collect lunches |
Music |
29:11 |
Credits
[see below] |
|
29:44 |
Outpoint |
|
|