Comfort women
When the Japanese arrived in Rabaul in 1942, Japanese residents who were not captured welcomed the Japanese soldiers, who released the mixed-race Japanese from internment. Most of them initially held suspicions of the presence of Japanese military personnel, which was partly fuelled by the absence of their Japanese fathers who were relocated to concentration camps in Australia. During the Japanese occupation from 1942 to 1945, mixed-race Japanese children were conscripted to clerical or light menial work within the military administration, and some received a Japanese education. At least one mixed-race Japanese, Pius Kikuchi, described the treatment of the Japanese military administration to the mixed-race children as gentle but discipline-oriented in nature. In other areas of Papua New Guinea which remained under Australian control, families of Japanese residents generally received harsh treatment from the Australian military. "Comfort women" formed another major component of the local Japanese community during the Japanese occupation years, which consisted of up to 3,000 Japanese and Korean women who were stationed in Rabaul's Chinatown which was frequented by Japanese military personnel. Apart from local Papuan women also serving as comfort women, one Australian Captain, David Hutchinson-Smith, also mentioned of some mixed-race, young Japanese-Papuan girls who were also conscripted as comfort women.