Are You suprised ?

 

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

 

 

 

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