Ulungura was a member of the
Tiwi people, who in 1942 was living on
Melville Island. On 19 February, a damaged Japanese fighter returning from an attack on an aerodrome on nearby
Bathurst Island crashed near Snake Bay on Melville Island. The Japanese pilot,
Hajime Toyoshima, survived the crash, but Ulungura crept up behind him, surprising him with a tomahawk, and took him prisoner. In Ulungura's words: Ulungura took his prisoner to the
RAAF guards stationed at the Bathurst Island aerodrome, where he was transferred into their custody. Toyoshima initially used the alias of Tadao Minami and claimed he had been washed ashore in an attempt to prevent his captors from locating his downed plane, but after questioning police saw through his story and located the wreckage. The wreckage was transferred to Darwin, and Toyoshima was taken to a prisoner of war camp, where he died in 1944 during the
Cowra breakout. Although Ulungura could not be enlisted because of his race (Australian military policy at the time forbade Indigenous Australians from enlisting), Corporal Moore, one of the two guards permanently stationed on Bathurst Island, took Ulungura on as his personal bodyguard and assistant. ==Memorials==