'Bone Man of Kokoda' (2008) by Charles Happell. This book tells the story of Kokichi Nishimura, a Japanese infantryman who survived the New Guinea Campaign in 1942 and who devoted much of his later life to retrieving the remains of his fallen comrades from the jungle slopes of Kokoda. Nishimura, a skilled factory engineer prior to the war, served in the Imperial Japanese army and fought in New Guinea in September 1942. At the Battle of Brigade Hill on the Kokoda Track, Nishimura's 56-strong platoon was completely wiped out in a series of savage encounters with Australian infantry, leaving him the sole survivor. After killing an Australian soldier in a hand-to-hand struggle, he was left on his own, badly injured. Discovered by rescuers, he was taken to the rear. Like the rest of the under-supplied and outnumbered Japanese force, he was starving and, along with a number of his comrades, Nishimura resorted to cannibalism, feasting on 'black pork', the flesh of dead Papua natives. By the time, he was evacuated to Rabaul, he weighed just 28 kilograms. Nishimura later fought in Burma against the British where he was wounded again and also suffered malaria. He was also injured yet again when the troop-ship he was sailing on was sunk by a US submarine. Nishimura was in hospital in mainland Japan recovering from another bout of malaria when the war ended in August 1945. Nishimura later built a successful career in post-war Japan, founding a machinery research institute in Tokyo. He married and had four children, one of whom perished in a car accident in 1966. Despite a good career and a middle-class lifestyle, Nishimura remained haunted by his memories of the war and was troubled by 'survivor guilt' by the knowledge that the bones of his fallen platoon-mates remained in New Guinea where they had fallen back in 1942. Angered that younger generations in Japan were already forgetting the war, Nishimura made a vow to return to New Guinea and search for the remains of his old comrades. His quest would come at a stiff price. When he informed his family of his plans, his wife promptly divorced him and his two remaining sons likewise severed all contact with him. Only his daughter supported him. Giving most of his wealth and property to his wife, Nishimura used what remained to travel to New Guinea and embark on his long project. Between 1979 and 2004, Nishimura resided for long periods in New Guinea, living on his savings and later on grants from the Japanese government. He found and retrieved well over 200 bodies of dead Japanese soldiers although to his disappointment, he discovered that the bodies of his own platoon had been burned rather than buried by Allied troops and all he was able to find were ashen remains. His project was marked by a great deal of frustration and setbacks. Nishimura's house in New Guinea was burgled many times, as was the building site of a new school that he tried to establish using special grant money from the Japanese government. To Nishimura's fury, the remains he sent back to Japan were burned and interned at a national cemetery by the government, rather than individually identified and offered to the respective families as Nishimura had planned. One body that he was able to identify was taken to the man's descendants by himself but to his disappointment, the family refused to accept them, showing no interest in a war they knew little about. One of the biggest benefits of Nishimura's work is that it has raised the issue of the retrieval of wartime remains in several nations and he and his supporters have been able to assist a large number of Japanese families in seeking information about lost relatives. The roads and bridges that were specially built for Nishimura's project with the assistance of the Japanese and PNG governments have also contributed to the infrastructure of New Guinea. Written by an Australian journalist, this book is a very interesting read of a man who must be admired for the sheer devotion and determination he displayed in honoring the memory of his fallen comrades.