The Bone Man Of Kokoda

Kokichi Nishimura was a member of the Japanese Imperial Army. In 1942 he fought along every foot of Kokoda as the Japanese attempted to takea Port Moresby. He was the only man from his company to survive the campaign, and made a promise that one day he would return to his comrades and bring them home for proper burial. After the war, Nishimura prospered. But under the surface, the driving ambition of his life was to fulfil his promise. In 1979, he shocked his family by returning to New Guinea to search for the remains of Japanese soldiers. For the next 25 years, Nishimura lived alone along the Kokoda Track. Armed only with a metal detector, a mattock and a shovel, he searched for his dead comrades. His story is an incredible adventure that gives us a radically different viewpoint on a battle that has become part of our national myth.