Seventy years ago, about 250 Aboriginal people were removed from far-north Queensland, accused of being possible collaborators with the advancing Japanese imperial army.
By the time the Kuku Yimithirr people were allowed to return home eight years later, about 60 had died in far away central Queensland.
It's the only recorded mass evacuation of Aboriginal people during the Second World War.
The justification, unsubstantiated fears the German-born head of the Lutheran Cape Bedford mission was preparing his Aboriginal charges as a fifth column for a Japanese invasion.
Stefan Armbruster reports a new theory has now emerged about the motives behind the shameful episode.
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