The Snapshots in Time Collection

Native Village, Sepik River, New Guinea — Later Bombed for Suspected Pro-Japanese Sympathies

Native Village, Sepik River, New Guinea — Later Bombed for Suspected Pro-Japanese Sympathies

A blunt handwritten caption accompanies this photograph of a Sepik River village: 'This village was later bombed because native inhabitants were pro-Jap.' Paired with a companion photograph of the same settlement being strafed, this album page offers a rare and unvarnished first-hand account of the harder edges of the air war in New Guinea, where suspected collaboration with Japanese forces could draw direct Allied attack on civilian settlements. Project: 218561