HE hid in the boat, covered himself with a tarpaulin and lay motionless for about two hours before the other villagers arrived.
Atonio Tuvai, the turaga Ra’au of Kanakana Village, Tunuloa in Cakaudrove, was 16 years old and wanted to join the First Battalion for World War II in Solomon Islands.
This trip was his second attempt and he was adamant to fulfil his plans.
His first attempt, in which he was turned down, was at Napuka Catholic Parish where the recruitment process took place.
It was in the early 1940s.
“I was 16 years old then and went to Napuka and lined up with the rest of the villagers for the interview. But when the Tui Cakau, the late Ratu Glanville Lalabalavu, came around he directed everyone else standing in front and behind me to move to recruitment lines and he ignored me,” Mr Tuvai said.
“Then I grabbed his hand and asked him why he ignored me and he told me that I was too young.
“I returned to the village and was disappointed because I wanted to go to war and represent and even die for my country.”
His second attempt in 1943 was successful. When the other villagers headed for the recruitment process in Somosomo Village, Taveuni boarded the boat, Mr Tuvai squeezed himself into the crowd. His two elder brothers, who were also on board, were surprised to see him and they questioned him.
“They asked me where I was going to and I told them I wanted to go and farewell and shake hands with those leaving for Solomon Islands,” Mr Tuvai said.
“They didn’t know that I was going for the recruitment interview because no matter what, I was determined to fight for my nation.
“When we arrived in Somosomo we walked into our own camps, but I looked around first for Ratu Glanville to make sure he doesn’t see me. If he does, he would send me back to the village.
“That evening I stayed by the village shores and near the interviewers because they were announcing the time schedule of interviews for the different districts of Cakaudrove.
“So the panel of examiners announced that at 7pm, those from the district of Wainikeli would be interviewed.
“I heard that and hung around the village lawn until 7pm when I joined the line of men from Wainikeli,” Mr Tuvai said.
“While in the line, I kept looking around to check on Ratu Glanville because I couldn’t afford to get caught this time. When they called out the name of the man in front of me, I followed him and hid behind one of the curtains.
“Then I heard one of the interviewers instruct him to do something, but the man replied hesitantly so I quickly jumped in and I was interviewed. They took the measurements of my height and I was short so I tip-toed and I qualified.
“When I walked outside after passing the interview, Ratu Glanville was standing right in front of me and looking down on me. I wanted to hide and ignore him but he called out Tukaqu (traditional referral between Tui Cakau and Tunuloa) Na cava sa mai ca’a qo (What are you doing here?).”
Mr Tuvai remembers being bold that very moment when Ratu Glanville called out his name.
“I wasn’t frightened or nervous knowing he is Tui Cakau, but I was bold and I told him I wanted to go and fight for my province, Cakaudrove. I told him my parents had both died and I was free to go to war.
“I told him I wanted to represent him as my chief, as the Tui Cakau.
“He looked at me, told me to lift my hands up in the air and he held my head and blessed me.
He gave me his traditional blessing and told me to go and fight for the vanua.
“That was the happiest day of my life.”
So in 1943, Mr Tuvai joined the First Battalion and headed to Solomon Islands.
He was first based on Florida Island and after a few months moved to Koio and the Guadalcanal.
“We hear gunshots every night and it’s not easy. We also attended training sessions every night led by the American soldiers and as each day passed, we got excited
because we’re at battle,” he said.
“Food supply was not much. Most of the time we depended on water and hard biscuits for food because we were always on the move on the battlefield.
“I was trained to handle the LMG – light machine gun and I became very good at it. I shot a lot of Japanese enemies by using this machine gun.
“One particular morning before 10am on a Sunday, we were having our breakfast and I heard people talking from the riverside. This happened on Florida Island.
I stopped chewing so I could hear them properly and sure enough, they were the Japanese people approaching our camp.
“The two who were on guard didn’t alert us because there were too many Japanese soldiers and if they had informed us, they would have been shot so they hid.”
Mr Tuvai remembers running for his machine gun, loading four magazines, crawling up towards the forest and shooting the enemies.
“There were so many of them and they started shooting at us and I got angry because they interrupted our breakfast when we were all hungry,” he said.
“I held up my LMG and shot at every soldier that crossed my path. The bullets never missed a soldier so there were 30 bullets in one magazine and it killed more
than 100 soldiers in that battle only.
“While I was reloading, I saw the soldiers run back towards the mountainside where they approached us from and we stopped fighting that day. We also lost
some soldiers that day. We buried them and it was an emotional moment for us.
“There were many sleepless nights. We missed our families, but we were there for a purpose.”
Those days, he said, would never be forgotten because we fought for the freedom that we enjoy today in Fiji and other Pacific Islands.
In 1945, he returned home and settled down at Kanakana Village.
