On the Kokoda Plateau are several memorials with information plaques. The one on the far right is the Japanese memorial which incorporates a barrel form a Type 94 mountain gun. Soc Kienzle who worked with Kokoda Historical explained that he recovered the barrel from the Gorari battlefield in 1966. Where it then stood on the grounds of the Kienzle property Mamba Estate.

The story goes that in 1968 when a visiting group of Japanese veterans came to Mamba, one of the former soldiers Nakahashi identified the gun barrel as being the same weapon command by First Lieutenant Takaki. Nakahashi recalled this story:

Major General Horri decided to commence a general withdrawal on 10 November from the Oivi area. On arrival at Gorari at dawn, we found that due to continuous rain, the Kumusi River was in flood and that the crossing the river by the soldiers who were exhausted was very difficult. While making preparations to withdraw form Gorari, by First Lieutenant Takaki Yoshijo received orders to bury his gun and carry out the wounded from Force HQ. Takaki was a young, commissioned officer of the 53^rd intake of the Military Academy and an artillery officer into the bargain-an artilleryman and his gun are one.

He had a firm belief in the artilleryman’s manual and would be unable to bury his gun no matter what. He had entreated the Force Commander that he permitted to take both the gun and the casualties, he was refused, so he had no alternative but to return to his company. He called the men together and explained the situation and obtaining their consent, the gun was destroyed and buried. He made his final farewells to all members of the company and then he gave the order to take the wounded to the rear. He then returned to the spot where we had buried the gun and sitting down on that spot, he calmly pulled out his pistol and shot himself in the head.

At that time, First Lieutenant Takaki Yoshijo was 24 years old, fiercely patriotic and a fine, upstanding figure of a young officer. Hi character was such that he was not only popular in his own company but throughout the entire unit. His actions were in accordance with his own beliefs as an officer in the artillery, however, it was regrettable that all this should be wasted in the battlefield. At that time I was the company clerk. I was older but I had lost a friend. During the battle,eech time we met, he asked after the dead. I saw him last at Kokoda.

When I saw the barrel of the gun that had been abandoned under such distressing circumstances, I was filled with deep emotion. Remembrances of those times brought about a flood of tears. I, who had a lifetime of friendship with the officers and men of that unit, had been strangely destined to discover this gun barrel. I must have been guided by the spirit of First Lieutenant Takaki. Even now I can still see his face and I pray for his happiness in the next world.

In October 1979, Soc Kienzle was contacted by a Mr Mikio Abe of the Japanese/PNG Goodwill Society. He asked Soc if he would build a memorial to the Japanese soldiers who died during the campaign. After Soc spoke to his father, Ber (who was against the idea initially) the Kienzle’s dediced to go ahead and build the memorial on the proviso that the memorial was for all the war dead.

The wording on the plaque translates as:

This monument has been erected in the memory of all war dead. Japanese, Papua New Guineans and Australians, in appreciation of their greatest courage during the campaigns in Kokoda, Buna and Giruwa and also to commemorate the landing on July 21, 1942, of the Japanese Nankai Detachment (The South Seas Force) at Gona and its withdrawal from Kumusi on February 7, 1943.