By Peter Zeter
LIKAS – Fifteen years of research finally led to an affirmative answer about the mystery surrounding the death of eight foreign missionaries during the Allied bombing at the Japanese Military Headquarters in Sapong on Jul 3 1945.
‘Ultimate Sacrifice’, a book by Fr Cosmas Lee was launched Mar 15 at St Simon Likas provides a convincing information which the local church could finally see the light to the mystery. It may also pave a path for canonization for the eight missionaries.
Fr Cosmas Lee, the parish priest of St Simon Likas, in his long years of detective journey to “unturn every stone to uncover the mystery surrounding the missionaries’ death,” first discovered that the British had officially accepted the Japanese report that the missionaries were killed by an Allied bomb, contrary to a belief hold widely by the local Catholics that the missionaries were slaughtered by the Japanese.
The eight foreign missionaries were Msgr August Wachter, Fr Johann Unterberger, Fr Anton Raich, Fr Josef Bohm, Br Agidius Leiter, Fr Josef Theurl, Fr Anton Paulmichl, Fr Markus Obertegger, Fr Franz Flur and three lay catholics, Peter Wong, Stanislaus Sabahai Tindalon and Patrick Lee.
Presenting a brief outline of his book, Fr Cosmas said that ‘death by bombing and complete disappearance of bodies is physically not possible. Presenting the gist of his research, he added that “an extensive study of the bombings, particularly the raids on Sapong by Labuan-based aircraft (aircraft types and capacities, bomb types,sizes, and numbers deployed, accuracy and effects of bombings and strafing), conclusively shows that even if the 11 victims were hit by a stray bomb on Jul 3, (and there were only a total of 7 x 500-lb and 24 x 250-lb bomb blasts), perhaps one or two could have been killed. That all 11 were not only killed so neatly but blown to disappearance is utterly impossible.”
Fr Cosmas further presented that “In our intensive examination of all the eight available statements (five from military officers, three from civilian officials), it is clear that the “death-by-bombing” version came exclusively from the military (Col Machiguchi, Lt Col Iwahashi, Capt Sakagami, Capt Iguchi, and Capt Yamada).
“Two high-ranking and respected Japanese civil officials, Yamada Setsuo and Seki Yoshihiko, working closely with the top Japanese command in Sapong, hand-picked to accompany Baba to the Labuan Surrender, and appointed by the Allies as defending officers after the war in war crimes trials, stated that the missionaries were not in Sapong, implying they couldn’t have been killed by an Allied air raid,” said Fr Cosmas. He also said that “no serious investigation whatsoever was carried out, not even in the case of the missionaries”.
The most damaging evidence against the death-by-bombing report “came from a Japanese civil official, Yamazaki Kenji, the District Officer of Keningau who built the Keningau/Apin-Apin road without a bend, a man widely known by friends and foes for his uprightness. In the memoir authored by his Native-Borneo-born wife Ain, published in 1952 and widely read in Japan, Yamazaki vehemently and unreservedly accused the Japanese military of having slaughtered the missionaries,” said Fr Cosmas.
Ending his presentation of the outline of the book, Fr Cosmas said that the 12 ‘martyrs’ were legacy of courage and selfless service.
For Msgr Wacther and the others to be declared as martyrs, it requires three conditions: (1) that the victim actually die, (2) that he or she dies in witness of faith in Christ which is directly expressed in words, or implicitly in acts done or sins refused because of faith, and (3) that the victim accepts death voluntarily.
