A Japanese working party (prisoners) excavates Pit No 1 at Mass Grave No 4 site, where the bodies ...

A Japanese working party (prisoners) excavates Pit No 1 at Mass Grave No 4 site, where the bodies of Australian and Dutch servicemen, executed by the Japanese in February 1942, following their successful invasion of Ambon, were interred. A member of the Australian War Graves Maintenance Unit, Private Henderson (right foreground squatting), endeavours to determine the relationship of bones found intermingled in the burial pit. In the background, other remains are being examined as a guard from the 63rd Australian Infantry Battalion looks on. In the right middle distance one of the recovered skulls has a small, almost circular, hole above the left temple. This mass grave is located south west of Tawiri Village in the Laha area, and was found by the 63rd Australian Infantry Battalion on 7 December 1945, following information received.