Tawiri, Laha, Ambon. 7 December 1945. Skulls of Australian or Dutch servicemen as they were ...

Tawiri, Laha, Ambon. 7 December 1945. Skulls of Australian or Dutch servicemen as they were uncovered in Mass Grave No. 4, located by the 63rd Australian Infantry Battalion, south west of Tawiri Village in the Laha area, Ambon, on 7 December 1945. They formed part of the remains of 135 Allied servicemen who were brutally executed and interred in this grave by the Japanese following their successful invasion of Ambon in February 1942. It can be deduced from the position of the remains that the bodies were thrown indiscriminately into the burial pit, with the result that, in most cases, positive identification of individual bodies was not possible.