Their conversation would have been well worth recording, but it's more likely the arrest was carried out in mime. Whatever the case, a doubtlessly bemused airman, Hajime Toyashima, emerged from his downed Zero fighter to be marched off into history by Matthias Ulunguru as the first Japanese serviceman captured in Australia. The Tiwi islanders, the first people on Australian soil to be strafed by enemy gunfire, retain Captain Toyashima's damaged propeller as a trophy of war.
Tourists soon discover that they have more than one claim to fame.
It is an enduring Tiwi tradition to safeguard against in-breeding. My sister has nine children. The Tiwis' geographical separation has meant they have no history of rock painting or didgeridoo playing, like mainland Aborigines. Outsiders, as the Japanese discovered, have never stayed for long. Macassan fisherman from Indonesia sailed here in the 1600s, introducing stone axes, dugout canoes and playing cards.