Papua New Guinea: Rabaul – WWII Japanese Tunnels

Japan invaded Rabaul in January 1942 and fully captured it by February the same year. The immediately realized the strategic value of the well-protected harbor and went on to fortify it into one of the largest Japanese naval and air bases in the Pacific theater. By mid 1943, there were over 110,000 Japanese troops stationed here. They went on to construct elaborate underground fortifications and bunkers, digging many kilometers of interconnected tunnels that provided shelter from the allied bombing. Many small barges and fighter planes were hidden in tunnels. Today many of the tunnels remain and we explored and saw quite a few along the Tunnel Hill Road and along the coast, including an intact Japanese naval barge hidden in a large tunnel. We also went to the Yamamoto command bunker and a small historic museum with Japanese plane fragments.
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