Category: Sandakan

KUCHING POW CAMP – by RUSS EWIN FORMER AUSTRALIAN POW, OFFICER’S CAMP

Kuching, Sarawak

I had the great honour of meeting Russ Ewin when he travelled with a group to Western Australia to visit the Toodyay Memorial and Toodyay Museum (later Boyup Brook Sandakan Memorial) in recognition of the Dorizzi brothers and Reg Ferguson who lost their lives during Sandakan marches.  Travelling with the group was Ms. Gwenda Zappala from Sabah, the late Richard (Dick) Wallace Braithwaite (author of ‘Fighting Monsters: An Intimate History of the Sandakan Tragedy’  a 2016 historical account of  World War II Sandakan death marches centred and his father’s life as one of 6 escapees) and Lynette Silver who met with Bernie and Pam Dorizzi with cousin Maxine. Russ enjoyed good health and shared some of his memorable moments in North Borneo.    (Cheryl Mellor, 2/4th MGB)

 

‘Here, in the land of the White Rajah, Sir James Brook, we found ourselves quartered in one of nine small camps comprising a large compound holding Australian officers, British officers, Dutch white officers and other ranks, British ORs, Indian ORs, Indonesian ORs, male internees, female internees and Dutch male priest internees. Our area of about one third hectare was separated by barbed wire from the Dutch officers, and by barbed wire and some distance from the British officers. The Australian officers‟ camp had started when officers from B Force with the rank of major and above had arrived there from Sandakan in October 1942, to be joined by E Force senior officers and several others. With our arrival, there were 149 officers and 21 other ranks. There was also a small party of Australians in the British ORs‟ camp, with whom we had no contact. Accommodation was in three large open-space huts (no cubicles), with each of us allotted a sleeping and living area of floor space about 2’ 9″ wide, sleeping on the floor. There was a large roofed open kitchen and storeroom, but not a great deal of open ground, and a wide open drain ran between two of the huts.

 The fact that so few of us died was undoubtedly because we were not allowed to work. Soon after arrival the Camp Commandant told us that we were forbidden to leave the camp as some officers had been “naughty” in Sandakan. The only exception was one half day a week when a party was allowed out to fetch firewood for the kitchen. This meant a few rubber tree branches could be retained, and with other “scrounged” material such as wire cut from the perimeter fence a few were able to construct double bunks, tables, chairs or shelving. Russ Howlett and I built a double bunk. Before long every available piece of ground was covered by vegetable gardens, mainly growing kangkong, an extremely fast growing relative of the nasturtium family. The produce augmented our diet of rice and an infrequent and meagre supply of dried fish or meat perhaps once per week.

Fertiliser—urine and faeces—was in constant demand for the gardens. Buckets referred to as “pissoons” were placed at strategic points for use as urinals and the contents made available to gardeners on a roster basis. Our latrines were the borehole type and the content, although seething with roundworms and other intestinal creatures, was eagerly sought to enrich the soil.

The time available through not working tended to lead to boredom and a pessimistic approach to our future. Two activities commenced which helped alleviate these feelings. In Sandakan, there had been few opportunities for entertainment. In the early days of relative fitness there was a boxing exhibition. Claude Pickford formed a choir, “Pickford’s Plums”, which I joined. We rehearsed in one of the huts and gave a performance at Christmas, and the officers had provided two concerts. Talent emerged rapidly in Kuching and ultimately there was a series of plays, revues, concerts, close to twenty in all, most coming from the pens of individual officers, together with HMS Pinafore and Dover Road. There was an extraordinarily good sextet and two commercial artists prepared colourful posters announcing each performance. After the war, some officers published a book about this entertainment, including reproductions of the posters. 

Everyone had read the few books we had in Sandakan but before long the Japs had allowed the Bishop of Kuching to arrange a stock of books from the Sultan‟s Palace and the library of an interned Englishman whose specialty was Elizabethan literature. These were made available throughout the camps; our share was 36 books, which were changed each month. The demand led to rosters, so that often one would have a book for only half an hour, more if you could arrange for another person to book for your use or find the rostered person not reading it. On many occasions I found I only had time to make summaries or extract information for future study, in case the supply ceased. As a result, I have a notebook and many scraps of paper filled with a miscellany of information, to most of which I never returned. The impact of this resource, together with discussion groups and attendance at classes, was to extend my knowledge and appreciation enormously. Our group included many mature, highly trained and intelligent persons in responsible civilian occupations and professions, as well as those of more practical bent, in trade or on the land. I provided sessions in income taxation, bookkeeping and shorthand. I sat on many evenings with one of our Roman Catholic padres who, ignorant of business practice, wanted to learn the rudiments to assist in running a parish. In return, I sought to understand some of the tenets of that faith.

We had not heard any news of those still in Sandakan or of the fate of the arrested people. On 2 March 1944 Colonel Suga told the CO there was to be a funeral that day of “a very brave Australian officer” and that he and six officers could attend the burial. He did not name the person, but we had little doubt it would be Lionel Matthews. I was one of those at the burial and as the pallbearers, weakened Australian soldiers from the British ORs‟ camp, came into view it was evident from their difficulty carrying the coffin that it was indeed Lionel, who had been a huge man. Blood was pouring from the rear of the plain timber coffin. I have never remembered the rest of the service and today even the casual mention of Lionel‟s name conjures up a picture of that terrible moment.’

Until March 1944, we had been receiving news from a wireless in the British ORs‟ camp, via the British officers. Then the electricity was cut off and news ceased. By this time, rations were being continually cut and most of us were not capable of garden or camp duties.

One hut had been set aside during 1944 to isolate the increasing number of scabies patients and we became separated into the “scabies” and the “cleanskins”. Vitamin deficiencies became very evident, with tropical ulcers and skin diseases widespread. Most debilitating of all, dysentery became more prevalent and I suffered this for about three weeks before recovering, much thinner.

In early 1944, as food supplies dropped further still, I was appointed to control the receipt and distribution of rations and ensure there was no misappropriation or unfair allocation. There were several deaths by August; altogether, seven died by the end of the war. In the British ORs‟ camp, where they were forced to work, the death rate was very high and the sound of a bugler playing the Last Post reached us frequently each day. It was many years after our return home that I could hear that tribute without crying.

Leaflets were dropped over Kuching on March 25 and 12 August 1945. 14 August brought the word that the wireless was again in operation. That night I was “cockatoo” at the fence while a British officer gave us the news that bombs had been dropped on Japan, which was considering terms of surrender. News of the surrender came “through the wire” the next day, but we were ordered to keep it to ourselves and continue our normal activities until the Japs made an announcement. It was ten days before they did so; in the meantime several Liberators had flown high over the camp dropping pamphlets with the same instructions. None landed in the compound but were soon smuggled in by locals.

The rest of the story is in the books: suffice to say that food supplies from the Japs increased; a concert in which all the separate camps presented an item and our choir performed was a memorable event; and after 28 August food, medical supplies and clothing were dropped from RAAF Catalinas circling low over the camp. It was a matter of waiting patiently for our troops to arrive; when they did on 13 September the sight of our Australian soldiers marching towards us, headed by huge, obviously hand-picked men was so emotional that most of us were in tears. Before that happy event, two medical officers were dropped by parachute, as was a representative of the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Commission) who promptly started recording messages for broadcast in Australia. It was only by chance that Joyce heard my message, as relatives were not advised of the broadcast.

It surprised most of us, I think, to realise that all thoughts of revenge had passed from our minds. It seemed to be beneath our dignity to hand out the kind of treatment we had endured and merely ignoring our former captors seemed to be enough. Punishment could be left to the appropriate authorities.

Stories started to emerge of the fate of our comrades in Sandakan on death marches. Little was then known of the details, but it was also being said that a similar fate had been planned for us. In later years, the tragic details emerged only slowly and gradually.

Following hints about the disposal of POWs, a specific instruction to Japanese camp commanders from the Japanese High Command, dated 17 March 1945 said,

“…Prisoners of War must be prevented by all means available from falling into enemy hands…emergency measures should be carried out against those with an antagonistic attitude…”

Authors Don Wall and Lynnette Silver both refer to orders found in Col. Suga‟s office to march the prisoners to Dahan for elimination. While accounts vary in detail, Neville Watterson gives one version of what might have happened in Kuching.

I have to point out that the Officers‟ and Internees‟ camps in Kuching were not as degrading or demanding as the ORs‟, where hard labour and brutal treatment took a heavy toll of life, and our special circumstances were far less rigorous than those in most other areas, especially Burma, Thailand, Japan and, of course, Sandakan. I had always remained fitter than most and sanguine about our ultimate release. As well as the more severe erysipelas and dysentery, I had a few small tropical ulcers, dermatitis, tinea, scrotal dermatitis, external otitis, oedema of the legs, conjunctivitis, occasioning altogether about fifteen weeks in hospital. Testimony to the lack of sugar, my teeth, which were full of fillings before our capture, required only one filling on the way home. However, I had broken a dental plate during 1944; a camp dentist wired it together but as a precaution I always removed it when eating! From October 44 to January 1945 I was 63 to 61k (c 9stone 13lbs to 9st 8); March 1945, 56.7k (8st 13); May 1945, 56k (8st 11); 2 August 1945, 50k (7st 10). These were well above the weight of most of the others and in fact in the last days I was called the “Fat Boy”. This was a very paradoxical outcome, considering that my weight when I enlisted was a meagre 10 stone 2 lbs (64.4k)!

Above:  Map of camp layout.

An insert

In March 1943 about 200 men were sent up-river to the Dahan rubber estate, the last of the cultivation before the natural jungle…They were occupied in constructing a road to the Tegora and the Geding mercury mines, near the Bungo Range, Sarawak, situated in the mountainous area south of Kuching, with laborers stationed at the Dahan Rubber Estate.This work lasted until early 1945, during which some men were sent back to work on the aerodrome at Kuching. Those who were kept at Dahan to complete the project, returned in such bad health that ultimately none of them survived…

We believe these 200 Allied POWs had been shipped from Singapore and were civilians captured in Singapore and mostly Malayan volunteers from the Malayan Volunteers Group (MVG).

From what information we could find, the Tegora mine was worked by some POWs and forced labourers.  The Japanese targeting mercury essential for military detonators.

The Japanese also established themselves at DahanRubber Plantation.  This plantation was established in the early 1900s.

The Dahan camp was established to house P.O.W. from Kuching to work on the roads in the Geding and Tegora area. Former P.O.W. were convinced that this work was in preparation for marching the P.O.W.s from Kuching into the mines in Geding and/or Tegora, and then blasting the entrance of the mine. This was to be done as the Australian advance approached the Borneo territory and to prevent surviving P.O.W. reporting their treatment by the Japanese to the Allied authorities. Reports of this sort of activity have been seen from as far apart as Singapore and Japan. A similar activity was in effect carried out in North Borneo with the Sandakan to Ranau Marches.

There was also a conviction that a date in April had been fixed for the march from Kuching, but that it was postponed at Col. Suga’s direct intervention, it was said “as it would inconvenience Suga”. Another date was fixed in June after the Australians had landed at Labuan, but this was again postponed.

“The Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs saved the Kuching P.O.W.s from both complete starvation and a A death march”

Russ Ewin tells us about writing correspondence on Japanese printed cards and what they could and could not write!

The third card we were allowed to send was of our own composition, although limited to 25 words, and was handed in to the Japanese on Christmas Day 1943, at Kuching. Mine reached Joyce in December 1944.

The Japanese issued special instructions about this card:

1. Borneo is a land of perpetual summer, full of natural bounty, with plenty of bananas, papayas, mangosteens and coconuts.

2. Nothing is lacking in this camp and we are satisfied with our life here.

3. All officials in the camp are kind and generous, so there is no need for you to worry about me.

4.The Japanese Military Authorities provide us with sufficient food and medicines, etc. by establishing a medical laboratory and providing us with gardens, and we are grateful from the bottom of our hearts.

5. This camp is a natural flower garden, and how happy I should be if only you were here.

6. *My only hope is that this war will be over soon, and we may have a happy reunion.

 7. *We are allowed religious service every Sunday morning, and in the evenings we have musical concerts or plays, and so we do not notice the passage of time.

NB 

1. When completed postcards are returned to the Japanese Office those which contain these sentences must be handed in separately from the remainder.

2.  As soon as this sheet is finished with, it should be returned to the Japanese Office.

3.  One of these sentences will be additional to the 25 words allowed.

 

The Mail’s in!

Parents and wives were each allowed to write one letter per month. Letters written after August 1943 were limited to one page and had to be typewritten. Later, this was reduced to half a page. There was both joy and disappointment among us, as some received a large number of letters, some a very few. One married officer did not receive a single letter and his grief rapidly transformed his head of dark hair to white. Many shared their letters with others less fortunate, especially those we knew most intimately. From the letters I was able to glean something of what was happening at home. Although the brief letters were usually matter of fact in style and content, the anguish in the early correspondence was very evident, Mum and Dad especially grieving at the lack of information about Les and me.

It was not until March 1944 that the first letters from home started to arrive at Kuching and morale lifted noticeably – interesting how much mail received and sent successfully at Kuching!!

 

The last card home

 The fourth and last card was sent in May 1945 and was delivered after I had returned to Australia. Mine read: XXXXX

This time there were more of those delightful sentences for our choice.

1.  Borneo is a suitable place for living, a dreamland where the scenery is beautiful, little birds sing and very delicious fruits grow.

2 . We feel quite safe as the discipline of the Japanese Army is good.

3.  I wonder when the present war will end and I shall be able to see you again my darling. My heart is filled with longing for you.

4.  In this camp, not only reading, walking and music, but also films and sport are sometimes allowed. We are very grateful for this generous treatment.

5.  How happy I am when, smoking a cigarette in the shade of the coconut leaves in this comfortable dreamland, which is full of beautiful flower gardens and delicious fruits, I imagine your smiling face.

6.  *Forgetting I am a Prisoner of War on concert evenings when the moon is shining, I remember the parties we used to have at home and again my heart is filled with sentimental feelings.

7.  *I am grateful as I can borrow various books from the Camp Library and improve my learning, forgetting I am a prisoner of War.

8.  On cool Sunday evenings when we have a concert on the stage and I hear the old tunes from home to my heart’s content I cannot help feeling homesick.

9.  We are saying to each other we must be thankful for the fact that the relief money and goods which were sent through the International Red Cross Society have been distributed smoothly and fairly by the favour of the Japanese Army.

10.  We really have an impression that moral principles to learn exist in the Orient when we realise the real aspect of benevolence of the Japanese Army.

11.  We are always grateful for the Japanese Authorities’ understanding and generosity in allowing various religious services.

NB

1. Sentences marked * do not apply to internees.

2. When completed cards are to be returned to the Japanese Office, those which contain these sentences must be handed in separately from the remainder.

3.  As soon as these sheets are finished with they should be returned to the Japanese Office.

4. One of these sentences will be additional to the 25 words allowed.

5. One card in twenty must include one of these sentences, the choice of which will be left to individuals.

6. When returning the cards, camp masters will submit a list on the reverse side of this form; showing the names of the persons who have added one of these sentences, and the number of the sentence used in each case.

7. The sentence chosen must be included in the 25-word text either at the beginning, middle at end, but must not be written separately.

The sentences caused much hilarity, plus indignation, because of the blatant misrepresentation of our circumstances. Only a handful elected to use one and there had to be a ballot to get enough to raise the required number!

Although we had not had news of progress of the war since March, we were now starting to be sanguine of release before too much more time passed and our cards would have conveyed our feelings.

Going Home

 Laggardly, on 13 September, the day came for us to embark on a variety of small American and Australian naval vessels to travel down the river and out to sea where the 2/2 Australian Hospital Ship awaited us, unable to come closer than about 12 miles because of the shallow waters. The boat I was on was a small American gunboat; the crew made us very welcome, handing out American cigarettes and beer ad lib. The hospital ship was the HMAHS Wanganella, a converted liner that had previously plied between Australia and New Zealand. It was a Huddart Parker ship of 9,576 gross tons, built in 1932 and converted in May 1942.

Once aboard we were handsomely treated, only one feature marring our early days¾little knowing that we had been regaling ourselves with a great amount of food in the last few days in Kuching, the doctors placed us on a light diet. Our immediate protests, reinforced by dipping into canned food that we had carried aboard “just in case”, soon had us participating in the full menus, that would have done justice to a five-star restaurant. Some much too brief talks on the events of the war, conditions in Australia and the like helped extract us from our “Rip van Winkle” condition. Movies, with some “stars” we had never heard of, were favoured, especially the music in them. On a more serious note, we learned a little more about the fate of those left in Sandakan, a story we found hard to assimilate. I still had heard nothing of Les.

Among the few personal possessions I had taken aboard to bring home was my old sleeping bag, that had afforded a small amount of comfort between my hip and bed boards. The contrast between the pristine hospital ship and the sleeping bag was so marked that the first day out its worn and faded look and the stubborn stains from squashed bed bugs moved me to push it through the port-hole, through which I sadly watched it bob up and down as the ship moved rapidly away.

Writing letters and the expectation of receiving some were dominant in this period. We had been able to write a half page letter on 10 September, just a few days before leaving Kuching; too short to pass on much other than confirmation of my existence and to ask about Leslie. Now, on the ship, we were given the opportunity, at short notice, to write again, so this time I was able to tell of my experiences at more length. This letter was posted from Morotai about 19 September. At home, Joyce and my family had been without specific news of me. The papers had been carrying news of the horrors of the POW camps for a week or more before Joyce received a telegram from the Army to say that on reliable information I was at Kuching; then on 20 September that I had embarked Labuan for Morotai and gave her an address for correspondence.

The Wanganella touched at Labuan on 15 September, where I received letters, including some written after positive news of my whereabouts. Sadly, one told me of Leslie‟s death. Joyce also told me of the dreadful shock to Mum.

On 19 September, we reached the huge military base on Morotai Island, where half of us were evacuated to the 2/5 Australian General Hospital, half to the 2/9 AGH. The number of planes and vehicles parked over the whole island astonished us. Of course, we had not seen or imagined the variety.

From Morotai I was able to send the brief telegram “SAFE HAPPY MOROTAI STAY UNKNOWN LOVE RUSS” to Joyce and a similar one to Mum. Mum received hers first and rang Joyce at work.

The kindness of the nurses and staff at the AGH is unforgettable, but once again we blotted our dietary copybook. There were a number of officers‟ messes on the island and, against instructions to recuperate quietly, we accepted invitations to these for a few grogs and a look around. After three days we were restored to the Wanganella (much to my chagrin, as I had just arranged a flight on a Liberator), which then sailed south to Tarakan and Balikpapan to pick up sick and wounded Australian troops who had campaigned there. Then back to Morotai and on the way home.

Our first port of call was Brisbane, where none were allowed ashore except those Queenslanders going home. We wistfully watched them leave, some of them falling on hands and knees to kiss the Australian soil. Late that afternoon I was told to report to the Ship‟s Captain‟s cabin, where he was in conversation with a lady in uniform. He told me that he had been so persuaded by her arguments that he was releasing me to her care until the following morning. It was thus that I first met Dorothy Linton, one of Joyce‟s first cousins. Dorothy took me to the family home in Bayview Terrace, Clayfield, where Joyce‟s Aunt Eda and others of the family greeted me warmly; we had dinner, and I stayed overnight. I eagerly grasped the chance to ring Joyce, who was blissfully unaware that we were even in Brisbane, so our first reunion was by a long-distance call.

Dawn a few days later found almost all of us on deck to catch our first view of the NSW coast as we sailed to enter Sydney Harbour on 13 October, a long two months after

war‟s end. After a tumultuous welcome from craft on the harbour, we reached the wharf. As only the next-of-kin were allowed to meet a returning prisoner, the wharf was packed with hundreds of people, including Mum and others of the family, although I could not make out anyone I knew. A fleet of ambulances, back doors left open, sped us along Parramatta Road to 113 Australian General Hospital at Concord (later to be called the Repatriation General Hospital). There we were told to walk out through the Reception Area, only to find it lined with our wives, mothers or other relatives. It was a jubilant reunion; I saw Joyce rushing towards me, arms outstretched, to make it perhaps the most splendid day of my life. We sat and talked, until told that we could make our way home, but I was required to report to the Army within a few days for further medical checks before my discharge, which took place on 5 December 1945.

In an ill-fitting jungle green uniform, with my few miserable possessions in a brown kit bag over my shoulder, we caught a train to Lewisham for a joyous welcome from Mum, Dad and the family. How much their joy must have been diluted by the absence of Leslie. After much animated conversation and news swapping, we set out for Bondi Junction to be greeted by Mrs Hammer. Tired out, to bed, where I startled Joyce into wakefulness with my strangulated screams as I had a nightmare about Japanese taking my money, and agitatedly threw myself across her body to search under the mattress for it! A great start, and my nightmares have been part of our life ever since.

Leslie

I said earlier that Les had gone from Changi with “A” Force. This party of 3,000 men, organised on a three-battalion basis, sailed from Singapore on 15 May 1942 for an unknown destination, joined along the way by other ships. At Victoria Point and Mergui in Burma, parties of over 2,000 were disembarked, while the remainder arrived at Tavoy, Burma on 25 May 1942.

All were employed on airfield construction; when the airfields were completed by September 1942, “A” Force went by ship to Moulmein and thence to Thanbyuzayat. They became part of a grand plan to use prisoners of war and coolies to build a railway (now notoriously known as the Burma-Thailand Railway) beginning at Thanbyuzayat to link with the existing Singapore-Thailand railway at Bampong, 263 miles (421k) away. Altogether, some 61,000 Allied POWs and 250,000 Asian natives were engaged on this task until its completion in November 1943, when the parties working from each end met near Nieke.

The treatment of these forced labourers was one of the most savage atrocities of World War 11. Altogether, one-fifth (12,568) of the white workers were sacrificed through disease, malnutrition or starvation in the fourteen months of construction; together with an estimated seven times that number of the Asian workers. Of all the Australians engaged on it at various times, nearly 2,650 died.

By March 1944, the prisoners were centred in six main camps in Thailand. The Japanese planned to send 10,000 of the fittest remaining POWs to Japan. The Japan Party of 900 men selected to go might well have felt uneasy about the prospect, after listening to this part of the camp commandant‟s address:

All men should be honoured to know they are going to a land of peace and tranquility, where even the birds can nestle on the hunter’s hand and will not be harmed. Where the snow covers the land in winter and the warm sun of spring melts it, leaving the country clean. A land of milk and honey. In Japan, it is a sin to eat and not work, so to prevent all men from becoming sinners, we shall put you to work.

The party travelled in over-crowded rail trucks from Kanchanaburi through Bangkok to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, then 150 miles by riverboat along the Meking River to Saigon, to a camp already housing a few British soldiers working locally. The accommodation and conditions in this former French Foreign Legion town were surprisingly good, including a well-stocked canteen. The party moved downriver by motorised barges, an eleven-hour trip to the convoy staging port at Cape Saint Jaques, and boarded their transport ship. Next morning they awoke to the news, “All men go back to Saigon”! The captain had refused to endanger his ship and accept the responsibility of carrying POWs through the heavily submarine-infested route. During their stay in Saigon, the men worked in small parties on local jobs—docks, airfields, hospitals, whatever. The stay had been beneficial; most had filled out and were in better health. They were now about to revert to the typical working and living conditions of most Japanese camps.

Nearly three months after their arrival, they set off on the backward track to Pnom Penh, where they waited three days for a train, leaving on June 27. At Bampong the train switched to the south-bound track to reach Singapore on 4 July 1944, after a ghastly week of travel. This time on the river they were crammed in the hold with cargo in the equatorial heat of June. The rail trucks were steel box cars, 18 by 18 by six feet, already half filled with bags of rice. Each car held thirty-six men and their guards, it was oven hot, and the guards took the airy space near the opened sliding doors.

The voyage to Japan continued to be frustrated by lack of shipping. Meanwhile, they were accommodated in a transient POW compound at River Road, where the conditions were appalling and life miserable in the extreme. On July 17, some were sent to a small, uninhabited island, Damar Laut, digging out a huge graving dock.

Les sailed from Singapore on 6 September 1944 on the Rakuyo Maru (referred to as Rokyu or Rioyoku Maru in some early publications), which was sunk by two torpedoes from the American submarine Sealion on 12 September 1944. The voyage and the fate of this ship and the soldiers on it are described in the official history6 . Neither of the ships carrying POWs was marked with a Red Cross or any indication that they were carrying POWs. There are books and Internet sites providing a more detailed account and personal stories from survivors.7 Among those who survived was my companion in the 2/15 Field Regiment, Dr Rowley Richards.

The following account is from the official history.

‘A force of 2,300 prisoners, under Brigadier Varley, shipped from Singapore on 6th September was less fortunate. About 1,000 prisoners of this group were embarked on the Kachidoki Maru; 599 British and 649 Australians, with three senior officers including Brigadier Varley, were embarked on the Rokyu Maru. They left Singapore in a convoy reinforced by other ships off the Philippines until it totalled seven transports, two oil tankers, and six escorting vessels. The prisoners in the Rokyu Maru were crowded into one forward hold, capable of accommodating 187 steerage passengers at normal times, but horizontally subdivided to create two decks, neither of which had a ceiling of more than four feet.

Early on the 12th off Hainan the convoy was attacked by American submarines; an escort vessel was sunk and at 5.30 a.m. the two tankers blew up within a few minutes of each other.

The night, which was pitch black, was immediately turned into day. Our transport [the Rokyu Maru], which was on the tail end of the convoy, was silhouetted beautifully against the two burning tankers. Screams from the Japanese on the bridge heralded the approach of a “tin fish” from the starboard side. It struck abaft of amidships and shook the ship from stem to stern. A minute or two later another explosion rocked the ship as yet another “fish” found its mark. Water from the explosion poured over the ship and down the hold in which the prisoners were standing. An orderly evacuation of the hold was made, and although some men were naturally jittery … there was no sign of panic. Before the last prisoner was on deck the Japanese had left the ship.

[Survivors’ account]

The Rokyu Maru remained afloat for twelve hours, allowing the prisoners, none of whom suffered severe injury from the explosions, ample time to escape. The Japanese crew were eventually picked up by Japanese destroyers, whereupon the prisoners took over the abandoned life-boats and went among the rafts and wreckage that littered the sea, picking up their comrades. There were then eleven life-boats, including one which the prisoners had lowered themselves after the Japanese abandoned ship. These separated, one group of four sailing in a westerly direction, the other, of seven, sailing towards the east. On the 14th September the four lifeboats were intercepted by Japanese destroyers, one of which picked up 80 Australian and 56 British survivors. The other group was not seen again but the survivors believed the life-boats carrying them had been sunk by naval gunfire which was heard to the east shortly before they themselves were picked up. Among the missing was Brigadier Varley. One hundred and forty-one survivors of the Rokyu Maru (including 80 Australians) who had clung to life rafts and wreckage, were picked up by American submarines between the 13th and 17th September, taken to Saipan and thence to Australia. They provided the first authentic news of conditions in Burma and Thailand to reach Australia and the rest of the world.

Leslie was not one of the survivors. There is a beautiful and lovingly tended War Cemetery at Labuan on Labuan Island. Joyce and I visited it on a tour in 1984 and I had the privilege of being there again in 1995. We were unaware that Les‟ death would be commemorated there, having assumed it would be at the Kranji War Memorial in Singapore, where we were heading. So we were surprised and thrilled to find his name recorded, along with others from his unit, the 2/10 Ordnance Field Workshops, on one of the bronze panels in the colonnade at the Labuan Memorial at the Cemetery. Leslie‟s name is on Panel 9 in the Memorial. The Memorial displays the names of those Australians and members of local and other allied forces who lost their lives in the Borneo-Philippines area and have no known grave. There were 2,327 in this category, 2,258 being Australian. In the Cemetery there are 1,749 graves of known soldiers (858 Australian) and 2,155 of unknown (309 Australian). Most of the Sandakan dead would be in the graves of the 1,726 entirely unidentified.

I have not found more than a couple of soldiers who knew Les, and their contact with him was brief, so that I have not been able to find much about where he was at any time on the infamous railway or the ill-fated ship, nor about his activities and physical condition. However, one of our Sigs, Maurie Turnbull, who was on A Force, put his recollections in writing recently. He said:

Les and I were in A Force…

I did not know Les then, or that you had a brother in 8th Division.

I moved from Tavoy (Burma) around late July 1942 to Thanbyuzayat (Burma) when we commenced work on the railway. Part of A Force had been at Tavoy, part at Victoria Point and the third part of our force elsewhere in southern Burma—I forget when¾before our move north to commence work on the railway. I don’t know which part of Burma Les would have been in then.

When the Burma-Siam railway was completed in late Oct 1943, the bulk of A Force was in Thai camp over the Burma border and in November were moved down to Tamakan camp (and possibly Thung Kai). This camp was only three hundred metres from the “famous” bridge.

I was seriously ill with malaria and dysentery at the time of that A Force move and was left behind at Niki camp with other sick men. I did not get down to Tamakan until March 1944. I was in the usual long hut of base camps there, sharing the bamboo decking with others in a space of some 24 inches per man.

Talking with a young soldier there, I said that I was in 8 Div Sigs¾he replied that he had a brother, a lieutenant, in my unit¾Russ Ewin. I knew you, of course, but not well at that time. As I was an “old” man of 25 years plus, he appeared very young to me. He was thin but not seriously ill then; my memories of him are fairly vague but I do recall that he would have passed for nineteen years of age. In retrospect, he reminds me of my own young brother, now dead, who was then an eighteen year old Flying Officer RAAF training in Canada.

I think I was in that hut for several weeks with Les before moving to another hut. Some six weeks later I was sent with a work party to a jungle camp at Tarso on the railway line. That was when I lost track of Les, as I was at Tarso when they selected men at the base camp for work in Japan. I do recall that he was in reasonable physical condition when I last saw him¾the Japs were only supposed to send fit men to Japan. You will know their definition of “fit men”.

Many accounts have now been written that establish the grim and terrible conditions in which Les and thousands of soldiers and civilians of several nationalities worked and died.

I often ponder the imponderable: where would we have been and what would have happened had we been together and how long was it after the sinking before his suffering ceased?

Above: Russ Ewin and his wife Joyce.

 

KENINGAU’s MEMORIAL, BORNEO

HONOURING FIVE BRAVE CITIZENS MURDERED 6 JUL 1945

This memorial commemorates the following five persons who were executed by Japanese forces on 6 July 1945:

Cho Huan Lai – Consul General of the Republic of China
Cyril Drummond Le Gros Clark – Chief Secretary of the Rajah of Sarawak.
Valentine A. Stokes – Medical practitioner, Sandakan.
Henry William Webber – US Engineer, Manila.
Donald Macdonald – Planter, Kuching, Sarawak.

The Cho Huan Lai Memorial or Keningau War Memorial is located in the town of Keningau, which today is in central Sabah.

On 31 July every year citizens gather for a small service at Keningau’s Memorial –  remembering the ‘brave five citizens’ who lost their lives.

The momument is dedicated to remember the Chinese Consul General Chol Huan Lai and the four European prisoners executed by Japanese 6 July 1945.

Dr Valentine (Val)  Stookes WW1 veteran and medical practitioner who served as a doctor in Sandakan since 1927. Dr Stookes also owned a seaplane which provided a flying doctor service to the locals at the Kinabatangan River. His services were well known to the European community and locals in Sandakan. He assisted the Sandakan community to provide for those Europeans citizens incarcerated on Berhala Island and  as well for the Australian POWs arrested for their roles in the Underground Radio.

Cyril Le Gros Clark, Chief Secretary Sarawak; second only to Rajah Vyner Brooke. He had been in the Sarawak since end of WW1.  Cyril also played a major role in Sarawak service in the administration of the Brooke kingdom.

Donald MacDonald, a British planter in Kuching who  owned a rubber estate in Sungai Tengah.

Harry William Webber, Orignally interned Berhala Island.  An American civil engineer from Manila.   Harry Webber, his wife and other three Americans were actually escaping from the Philippines and stopped in Sandakan for a rest. When the Japanese landed in Sandakan, all Caucasians were rounded up and interned in Berhala Island. Then later the internees were transferred  to the main POW camp Batu Lintang camp, Kuching for civilians.

Cyril Le Gros Clark and Donald MacDonald – were already interned at Batu Lintang.  They were joined by the new internees from Sandakan including Webber, Stookes and former Chinese Embassador to North Borneo Chol Huan Lai.

Following the Japanese invasion of Sandakan 19 January 1942 the Chinese Consulate was one of the first to be arrested. Cho Huan Lai was the Chinese Consul General for the Republic of China in North Borneo since 1940.  Initially interned at Berhala Island with many North Borneo European families, Cho and his family were moved to Batu Lintang camp, Kuching.  The women and children before the men, and imprisoned separately.

In Batu Lintang camp all the internees were put into working parties as force labours doing construction work. Cho, who was detailed to work outside of the camp started to receive news sheets from the local Chinese about the progress of the war. He translated and distributed the news to other internees until he was found out in May 1944. Cho, along with Dr Stookes, Donald, Cyril and Webber and four others were arrested and tried by the Japanese military court, found guilty and sent to the Kuching gaol where conditions were appalling.

Later, in January 1945 they were transferred to Batu Tiga Prison, Jesselton which was also well known for the appalling conditions for prisoners. In March, Batu Tiga Prison in Jesselton was bombed and strafed by Allied planes.

In January 1945, the Japanese moved their prison to Beaufort and on 12 April 1945, it was moved to Keningau. After another series of bombings on other prisons, all prisoners were taken to Bulu Silau, about two miles from Keningau.  The five men were moved to a house in Bulu Silou for further internment. During the raids by Allied planes, the locals urged the internees to escape offering to  shelter them until the Australian troops arrived but the men feared that if they did so the Japanese would harm the locals in reprisal.

At Keningau, the five prisoners came under the command of Lt. Col. Abe Keichi, the Japanese military commander of Keningau, and Lieutenant Akutagawa Mitsuya, the commander of the local Kempeitei.

On 5 July, the Japanese planned to release the five men because they had fully served their sentence.

The Australian 9th Division landed on Labuan Island in June 10, Operation Oboe 6.

The authorities had decided to dispose of the five prisoners for fear they might give valuable information to the Australians when they liberate Keningau. So a decision was made.

On July 6 1945 at 6:30am, the five men were woken up and loaded into the back of the lorry. They were brought to a ditch in an open field just opposite the airfield, a location not far from the township. The Japanese dragged the five from the lorry.  With their hands tied behind their backs the Japanese beat them savagely before delivering the final act.  The prisoners were beheaded and their bodies kicked into the ditch.

After the end of the war, Cho who was a high profile prisoner, was found to be missing.  Enquiries were made to the captured Japanese Troops.

A former resident of the West Coast, Richard Evans accompanied by Major Irving and two Australian soldiers of the 9th Division were sent to Keningau to investigate what happened to the five internees. Their remains were discovered on the execution site or what was left of it.  Personal belongings were also discovered which identified the exact location and the identity of the executed.  The four Europeans  were buried at the Old Anglican Cemetery, Jesselton.  The remains of Cho Huan Lai were sent back to China for his final resting place.

Abe Keichi, Japanese Commander and Lieutenant Akutagawa Mitsuya denied their role in the execution of of the five men.  They were  found guilty and both sentenced to death by hanging. The sentence was carried out in Changi Prison in Singapore.

After the war a memorial was erected at the place where the five men were executed. Funds and donations were given from the relatives and governments of North Borneo and Sarawak. Memorial services have been held every year on July 31st managed by the Chinese Chamber of Commerce Keningau and has become part of a heritage and tradition for Keningau.

Below:  Dr Stookes and his airplane.

Above:  At Sandakan – the Chinese Embassy where Cho Huan Lai resided with his wife and children. The building was completely destroyed during Allied bombing raids.

Below:  Capitulation by Japan.

Agnes Newton Keith author of ‘Three Came Home’ wrote about her life in Sandakan with her husband and son George – followed by her incarcerated on Berhala Island.  She wrote the wife of Cho Huan Lai, the Chinese Embassador’s wife and children were with her at Berhala.  The children played together her son George who had had Chinese nanny.  George then aged two years spoke a little Chinese and was able to speak with the family, although they also spoke English.

 

Above:  The book above Agnes Newton Keith published after the war about her life as a Japanese POW in North Borneo WW2.

Agnes Newton Keith had already published ‘Land Below the Wind’ about living in Borneo.  It had been translated in several languages including Japanese.  Almost immediately the Japanese troops and particularly the officers knew of her book.

The European population of Sandakan was small.  Some wives and families had left, their husband’s occupations requiring them to stay in North Borneo.

There was total of 9 children incarcerated on Berhala and 24 wives.  This included two children of the Chinese embassador Cho Huan Lai and his wife.  He was incarcerated with the men on Berhala.

The 54 European men were kept separately.

These numbers did increase a little before being transferred to Batu Lintang, Kuching, Sarawak January 1943. The number of children at Batu Lintang Compound at Kuching increased to 34.

Prior to the Japanese arrival on 18/19th January 1942, the European women and children gathered at the residence of the Governor (safety in numbers).  Sandakan was being informed on the Japanese movements and progress on arriving.

Below:  Sandakan’s Government House built 1907.

The Japanese  immediately took watches and valuables from the adults.  They then proceeded to  loot the homes and probably offices over the next week. The women had any money taken from them prior to moving to Berhala.  It was probably the same for the men.  It was why with the food and essentials smuggled in to the Europeans the locals found it challenging to include money which was hard to come by.

Keith wrote that it proved to be a problem not having any money when the Sandakan women arrived at Bintang.  The prisoners from everywhere else had money and could purchase extras when available.

You can read further about Agnes Newton Keith.

• We cannot be sure when Dr Stookes and his wife were arrested.  In May 1944, Stookes was implicated in a plot at Lintang Barracks involving the sharing of war news among internees with others, including Cho Huan Lai, Cyril Le Gros Clark, Donald MacDonald, and Harry Webber.

• For their crime, they were was held in notoriously brutal conditions, specifically in Batu Lintang camp gaol and later the Batu Tiga Prison in Jesselton in January 1945 before being executed in 1945 at Keningau.

Batu Lintang Barracks

Kuching, Sarawak – BORNEO

 

Borneo was a critical strategic target for Japan with its rich oil fields –  essential for the Japanese war machine.  It was the third largest island in the world, with a population of up to three million people – Borneo is one of the most culturally diverse islands in the world, home to a ‘mosaic’ of over 200 distinct ethnic sub-groups. The indigenous populations are known as ‘Dayak’ –  a collective term for over 50 distinct ethnic groups (with sub-groups exceeding 200) primarily inhabiting the interior and riverine areas.  In the 1940’s there was a growing Chinese community as well as Malays, along with the Dutch East Indies and British citizens. Coastal Borneo was developed, however the central area was not.

Prisoners at this camp endured extreme forced labor, starvation, and disease as POWs and civilians did throughout Borneo.

Batu Lintang housed both POWs and civilian internees (British, Dutch and women/children of other nationalities).

Of about 2000 British POWs incarcerated here, 2/3rds died.

The 2nd Battalion, 15th Punjab Regiment was sent to Sarawak to defend the territory arriving December 1941 from Singapore. The battalion consisted of approximately 1,000 men, including Punjabi Muslims, Sikhs, Khattacks, and Jats.  These troops would be no match for 10,000 Japanese troops.

‘Sarfor ‘ 

‘The defence plan for British Borneo, which had been devised in Singapore, was not afforded a high priority in terms of resources.  Initially an infantry brigade was laid down as the minimum requirement for a successful defence, but finally this formation was reduced to one battalion with a few supporting engineers and artillerymen.  It was decided not to defend North Borneo but to prepare a static defence around Kuching and its airfield in southwestern Sarawak.  The Brunei and Miri oilfields were to be demolished before an enemy landing could seize them intact.  Although Labuan Island was an important cable and wireless station, no attempt was made to defend it.

The 2nd Battalion of the 15th Punjab Regiment was selected to be the principal unit in Sarawak Force which was referred to as Sarfor.   Besides the Punjabis, and the sappers and gunners Sarfor would contain the four local Sarawak state forces:  

·         The Sarawak Coastal Marine Service
·         The Sarawak Rangers
·         The Sarawak Armed Police
·         The Sarawak Volunteer Force  

It was envisaged that Brunei, as part of Sarfor, would produce a unit of Volunteers.  SARFOR was not allocated any dedicated air or naval units.  Liaison with the Dutch forces across the land border was made but without much commitment from Singapore, despite the Dutch possessing military aeroplanes and vessels as well as ground forces.’   

 

Borneo’s Key Oil Field Locations: and the British in Singapore did not  believe it was worth protecting??

• Tarakan (Northeast): A small island with high-quality oil that could be pumped directly into warships.

• Miri (Northwest/Sarawak): One of the oldest oil fields, with about 300 wells.

• Seria (Northwest/Brunei): Located 32 miles north of Miri, this was a major production site.

• Lutong (Northwest/Sarawak): Contained the refinery centre for the Miri and Seria fields.

• Balikpapan (East/Dutch Borneo): A major port and refining centre with advanced improvements made by the Dutch.

• Kuching & Pontianak (West): Additional, smaller resource areas.

• • By 1943–1944, Borneo became one of Japan’s main sources of fuel, with Balikpapan providing 3,900,000 barrels (620,000 m3) of fuel oil to the Japanese war effort in 1943 alone.

  • Impact: Allied intelligence estimated that the Balikpapan refineries were producing half of Japan’s aviation fuel at that time.

  • Flying distances too great for bombing raids

  • Balikpapan facilities were heavily damaged by the Dutch pre 1942 Japanese invasion, and later by Allied bombing raids in 1943–1944, before Australian forces officially retook the area in July 1945.

  Smaller fields included Tarakan and Seria, with the latter becoming the largest in the British Commonwealth by 1950.

  The first successful bombing raid flying over 2,600 km took place  August 13, 1943, with twelve US B-24 Liberators from the 380th Bombardment Group.  Prior to this time, the distance was too great.  

Batu Lintang Barracks was constructed 1940-41 for accommodatiion for the 2/15th Punjab Regiment and was completed by August 1942.

Japan’s invasion of North Borneo began in 19 January 1942 however they had earlier arrived 16 Dec 1941 at Miri, Sarawak.  The Miri and Seria oilfields in Sarawak and Brunei were captured without much fuss in less than a fortnight of their initial landings off the north-west coast of Borneo in mid-December 1941. By the end of January 1942, the Dutch oilfields at Tarakan and Balikpapan were under Japanese control. By 1943 Bornean oil was contributing to the Japanese war effort.

The well regarded Punjab Regiment of 1,000 men fought against 10,000 Japanese soldiers 16 December 1941 at Miri.

The Japanese were able to capture Sarawak on Christmas Eve and those of the Punjab Regiment who survived were imprisoned at Lintang Camp, subjected to Japanese brutality from Kempetie.   Camp 2 at Lintang Camp is significantly small for the Indian POWs however many of the Punbjab Indian POWs were  sent out of Kuching on working parties, such as the photo below this group, which was sent to Balikpapan where large numbers perished.

Below:  L to R: JEMADAR NAZARI SINGH; SUBADAH LABH SING and HAVILDAH BALIVANT RAI –  2/15TH POWS

Below:  Pubjab soldiers formerly POWs at Balikpapan providing details to Australian forces.

BALIKPAPAN, BORNEO, 1945-08-07.

SIAR GUL, OF 2ND BATTALION, 15TH PUNJAB REGIMENT AND EX POW OF JAPANESE. THIS INDIAN UNIT FOUGHT AT KUCHING GARRISON UNTIL CAPTURED BY THE JAPANESE WHO SENT THEM TO BALIKPAPAN FOR MANUAL LABOUR IN 1943-06. SIXTY EIGHT MEMBERS OF THE UNIT ARE NOW WAITING AT 2/2ND CASUALTY CLEARING STATION FOR MEDICAL INSPECTION AND TREATMENT

Following the surrender of Borneo, the Japanese immediately proceeded to enlarge Lintang Barracks to accommodate up to 3,000 prisoners both military and civilians.  The huts were palm-thatched buildings 98 feet long set in rows on low stilts surrounded by rolls of barbed wire. Each hut housed between 30-100 people.

Lintang was also the HQ for the Japanese prisons in Borneo.  The Camp Commandant Lt. Col Suga Tatsuji, was in charge of all POWs in Borneo.  Suga is regarded as lenient, sometimes even kind, especially to the children.  He lived in a private house at Nanas Road, Kuching.  The second in command is Lieutenant (Later Captain) Nagata who is very unlike Suga and was known for his brutality.

The main Japanese HQ for the 37th Army in the northwest was located at Jesselton (Kota Kinabalu, Sabah) led by Lieutenant-General Masao Baba. Other key Japanese command centres were located in Samarinda and Balikpapan in the south/east, where Vice-Admiral Michiaki Kamada commanded the forces.

 

 

Above:  KUCHING FORCE. LINTANG PRISONER OF WAR BARRACKS. PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN FROM CAMP GUARD HOUSE LOOKING UP THE ROAD TO THE ADMINISTRATIVE BUILDINGS. (Thanks to  AWM)

There were 9 individual Prisoner groups accommodated in this complex which covered 50 acres and included Japanese HQ in Borneo.  The numbers varied regularly with the movement of work parties.

There were prisoners of many nationalities: British, Australian, Dutch, Indian, Chinese and Indonesians captured either Java or Singapore.  There are also civilian prisoners (mostly European) including women and children.  There was total of 280 women internees of which 160 are nuns, 85 lay women and 34 children.  Boys 10 years and over are sent to adult male prison. Each prisoner has an area of 6ft X 4ft for their themself and their  possessions.

All prisoners were answerable to their appointed camp master or mistress who in turn liaised with the Japanese Commandant.

 

The Australian Officers – Camp No. 7 (please read further – former POW Russ Ewen’s memories of Lintang)

The Japanese separated the Australian Officers from  their soldiers of ‘B’ and ‘E’ Forces at Sandakan POW Camp and sent to Kuching to Camp 7 Batu Lintang arriving 22 October 1942.  Kuching is 22 miles up the Sarawak River and the men were taken by truck to their camp  Their journey on a steamer was relatively comfortable compared with other journeys.   Seven Australian officers were originally shipped from Sandakn to Kuching, including two officers from 2/4th – Johnny Morrison & Brian Walton.  Both survived to return home.  The numbers of Australian officers POWs would increase with time. At the end of war, there were 178 Australian Officers.

Below:  Group of Australian Officer POWs at Kuching.

Below:  Walton & Morrison

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Please read further

The one thing all the prisoners suffered at Batu Lintang is a very grave shortage of food, becoming less and less as the war dragged on resulting in terrible illnesses and deaths.

Below:  Sandakan and  Berhala Island.  The  local European men and women arrested by the Japanese were imprisoned on Beharla. This is where the Underground Radio operated to assist Australian POWs of ‘B’ and ‘E’ Forces.

‘E’ Force was accommodated at Berhala for about 6 weeks waiting for their Sandakan camp accommodation to be completed. During the first few weeks two Australian groups successfully escaped   Berhala.  These escapes were entirely due to  the essential assistance of the Sandakan underground Group.  Both groups reached the Philippines.

Above:  The wharves Sandakan pre WW2

Above:  Government House Sandakan, constructed 1907.  This is where the European women and their children, including internationally known author Agnes Newton Keith and her young son, gathered here waiting for the Japanese to arrive –  who when they walked in immediately began taking their watches and personal items.  This procedure was widespread.

 

Above:  Aerial photo taken Sept 1945 of Lintang Barracks built over 50 acres.

 

Above:  This majestic home once belonged to the late Tan Choon.  Between 1942-1945 it became Kempetei’s HQ in Kuching.  

Following the Japanese invasion at Sandakan the European civilians, families with children included, were incarcerated on Berhala Island where they were never  supplied sufficient food. Berhala was 8km from Sandakan – small forested island of 5 hectares with prominent cliffs at the northern end)  guarded by local constabulary and Japanese soldiers.  It continued to be used as a leper colony.

 A local Sandakan secret society organised to regularly send food, medicine and necessities.  At the top of this organisation was Australian-born Dr. James Taylor, chief medical Officer, Sandakan Hospital and his wife Celia Taylor – who were not initially incarcerated at  Berhala however they were sentenced to Outram Road Gaol, Singapore at the trials Kuching for their roles assisting local civilians on Berhala and Australian POWs.

Please read further about the Underground Radio arrests

Below:  Dr James Taylor

Other players in the clandestine group included Mr. G. Mavor, Manager and Chief Engineer of the Sandakan Electric Supply and his wife, both confined to the powerhouse bungalow by the Japanese. Also Mr. A. E. Phillips, Manager of the British North Borneo Trading Company and his Malayan wife who were permitted to carry on with their lives as usual, Dr J.F. Laband, Dental Surgeon, Jewish-German refugee from Nazi Germany, Dr. ‘Val’ Stookes, local GP and his sister Dr Stookes (Val Stookes was murdered by Japanese 6 July 1945 – one of the Keningau’s Brave Five Please read further)

Amongst those incarcerated on Berhala:

Major Rice Oxley, who was also Chief of the Volunteer Forces and was Chief of Police, requested the three junior officers to communicate with Dr James Taylor.  Rice Oxley also asked them to communicate with POWs interned at Mile 8 POW Camp (‘B’ Force).

Below:  Major Alan Rice-Oxley with his son.

When construction of  Batu Lintang was completed, the citizens taken prisoners were moved from Berhala Island to the other side of Borneo in January 1943, they continued to be separated, i.e.  the men and women’s Huts/Camp.  The women to Camp 1 and the male civilians to Camp 4.  Lintang covered more than 50 acres of land and also accommodated up to 3,000 POWS

 

At No. 1 Camp there where 280 women, including 180 nuns from Kuching and approximately  250 male civilian internees  (excluding Roman Catholic Mission personnel) were accommodated separately.

The following information is from the book ‘Three Came Home’ by Agnes Newton Keith who wrote a very true and often detailed account of her life and that of her very young son George –  first at Berhala Island, Sandakan and then Lintang.  She was constantly looking for food for young son. George was not even two when he and his mother became POWs.  Agnes Keith and mothers worried about the physical development of their young children receiving so little food.  The women were sent daily to labour in the fields outside the camp where the Japanese planned to grow food.  The work was demanding.

Please read further about Agnes Newton Keith

Her husband Harry Keith was interned in the men’s camp.  The men/husbands were only rarely allowed to meet with their families, and then it was a very short time.

Harry Keith was sent to the Lintang Camp ‘gaol’ for an unknown misdeamor.  It was here Harry like other prisoners were locked into cages.  This would put the wives through terrible emotional turmoil because they would hear about it via the ‘grapevine.’  Many men sent to the camp ‘gaol’ perished.

 

 

Initially the Camp Master for the women’s camp was Sister Bernadine from the Kuching convent.   This fragile looking English-born woman was in charge of the entire female community.   The Sisters were disciplined, well organised and ‘outwardly’ accepted the Japanese with good grace and more obedience than any civilian woman.   Even better the Sisters acted as if they took the Japanese seriously.

Another women was elected to support Sister Bernadine was Dorie Adams from Jesselton, wife of the British Commandant of Armed Constabulary  – Borneo’s only armed constabulary.  Dorie was particularly shy and quiet.  Most importantly she was a great humanitarium.

Sadly Sister Bernadine became ill (and never returned to her role).  She was permitted by Col Suga to return to her Kuching Convent, where she could be looked after by the Chinese nuns.  Col Suga brought her back to Lintang for one occasion to spend time with the Sisters of her convent, on the date of The Feast of Assumption, then she was returned by Suga and his car to the convent.

Dorie Adams then became Camp Master for a short time before the Japanese installed a spy as Camp Master.  The only other woman permitted to deal directly with the Japanese was  Dr. Gibson (a female medical doctor).

Below:  Freedom at last – Australian soldiers marching at Kuching.

 

 

 

Above: Japanese preparing to depart Kuching with many interested and probably happy locals looking on.

Above: camp commander, Lt.-Col. Tatsuji Suga (right) with Brigadier Thomas Eastick (left) and Lt.-Col. A. W. Walsh (centre) shortly after the liberation of Batu Lintang on 11 September 1945. Suga killed himself five days later.

 

Following the unconditional surrender of Japan 15 August 1945, Lintang camp was liberated on 11 September 1945 by the Australian 9th Division.  The camp population was 2,024, of whom 1,392 were POWs, including 395 male civilian internees and 237 were civilian women and children.

The first Allied prisoners held in the camp were about 340 British and Indian soldiers who were interned there in mid-March 1942. In time, it held both Allied POWs and Allied civilian internees. Local Sarawakians including ethnic Chinese were not interned in the camp, although some were imprisoned in Kuching jail. Allied civilian prisoners came almost exclusively from different territories on Borneo: from North Borneo (now Sabah), from Brunei, from the Straits Settlements island of Labuan, and from Sarawak, all of which were under British control, and from Dutch Borneo (now Kalimantan). In contrast, the POWs were brought to Batu Lintang from places such as mainland Malaya and Java as well as from Borneo. Many spent time at transit or temporary camps, such as the one at Berhala Island, North Borneo, prior to their transfer to Batu Lintang.

 

KUCHING, SARAWAK, BORNEO. 1945-09-22. KUCHING FORCE. AT BAZAAR WHARF. IN THE FOREGROUND ARE JAPANESE AND AUSTRALIAN TROOPS. NATIVES CROWDED THE NEARBY WHARF TO SEE THE DISARMING AND SEARCHING OF THE JAPANESE BEFORE THEY WERE ALLOWED TO PROCEED UPSTREAM TO BAU. (PHOTOGRAPHER SERGEANT F. A. C. BURKE)

 

Below:  Map of Borneo showing Kuching, Jesselton, Tarakan, Sandakan and Balikpapan.

JESSELTON

ABOVE: POW accommodation Jesselton

BELOW:  Jesselton Pre WW2

 

BALIKPAPAN

BALIKPAPAN, BORNEO. 1945-07-01. FROM A GUN EMPLACEMENT ON A HILL OVERLOOKING THE RUINS OF THE FORMER DUTCH BARRACKS, AN AUSTRALIAN SOLDIER ARMED WITH AN OWEN SUB MACHINE WATCHES JAPANESE POSITIONS. IN THE BACKGROUND MANY OF THE LANDING CRAFT INVOLVED IN THE LANDING LIE OFF-SHORE. (NAVAL HISTORICAL COLLECTION)

 

Above:  Balikpapan – An aerial photograph showing oil storage tanks destroyed.

 

This is the story of two young men who in the face of danger committed themselves to the  secret Sandakan underground network providing food, medicines and necessities firstly to the incarcerated Europeans on Berhala Island and then to the Australian POWs.

In July 1943 the network was betrayed.  

The Kempetei vigorously pursued and arrested  those they considered guilty inside the POW camp and those guilty residing amongst the population of Sandakan’s civilians and Constabularly. They also harassed and threatened their families and children.

  Those arrested were questioned, brutally tortured and beaten on a daily basis using the Kempetei’s specialised methods for three months, after which they were shipped, many in small cages to Kempetei HQ, Kuching, Sarawak where their treatment of daily torture and beatings continued until they faced the military Japanese court. 

 It was here, Captain Lionel Matthews, Australian POW found guilty was sentenced to death –  was executed on 2 March 1944. The remaining Australian POWs were sentenced to Outram Road Gaol, Singapore.

Also on 2nd March 1944 the following eight young and VERY brave men faced execution by their Japanese captors.  Those not executed were either sentenced to Outram Road Gaol, Singapore or sent to the gaol at Kuching where another five men died.

 

The “Heroes’ Grave” plaque reads:

 

Their names are listed on the “Heroes’ Grave” plaque at St. Joseph’s Church Cemetery in Kuching. 

__________

 

(Warrant Officer SINGH )

‘The Forgotten Lion of Sandakan’

EXECUTED KUCHING

 February 2, 1944. 

 

Sikhs first began arriving North Borneo beginning 1882, usually serving in the then British North Borneo Armed Constabulary. Some served as prisons warders and Commandants at  Sandakan, Tawau and Jesselton prisons. Some were tortured brutally and killed during the Japanese occupation period.

Although a minority, the Sikh community has contributed significantly to North Borneo/Sabah’s history and development.

Kota Kinabalu: Borneo’s oldest Gurdwara Sahib temple built exactly 100 years ago in 1924, opened by British North Borneo Governor, Major General Sir William Henry Rycroft.

Below: As seen today.

__________

 

 

Above: JEMADER UJAGAR SINGH & his children.

 

JEMADER UJAGAR SINGH…. a very tall Sikh was a proud man was fiercely loyal to the British. So was his father Pal Singh, who had come out to British North Borneo with his brother Chanda from their home village of Mannan, India. Both men had joined the constabulary in Jesselton, where Pal had married Sant Kaur the daughter of another policeman, Sadhu Singh, whose son, Dial, was also in the Police force. Pal’s second son, Ojagar, born in Mannan where he spent his childhood, arrived in Borneo at the age of ten. By the time he was eleven he, too, had joined the Constabulary, as a bugler.

He was the father of eight children, five daughters and three sons.   Raised in a family with a highly developed sense of duty, Ojagar would have wished for nothing more than able to fight for the King and to defend the country and empire that he loved.

Jemadar Ojagar Singh’s home was on top of a hill near the Police Headquarters at Bukit Merah, near to Kinabatangan and Kota Kinabalu about 100 km to Sandakan. From his house he could see what was happening out at sea.

Because all the European Police Officers had been interned on Berhala Island, the local policemen at Sandakan were led by three local junior officers : Inspector Samuel Guriaman, Sergeant Major Yansalang and Warrant Officer Jemadar Ojagar Singh. The Japanese believed these men were loyal to them, instead the three remained loyal to their European officers and the Allied cause.

Major Rice Oxley – Sandakan’s Commissioner of Police and Senior Officer of the Voluntary Force was amongst those interned at  Berhala Island.   Rice-Oxley requested his three junior officers to coordinate with Australian born Dr James Taylor, local doctor  in charge Sandakan hospital who headed the humanitarian underground group outside the POW compound and in time with Australian POW Capt Matthews with 500 POWs of ‘E’ Force who originally arrived Berhala Island 15 April 1943 until 5 June 1943, then moved to 8 Mile camp with ‘B’ Force was their contact inside the Mile 8 camp. Taylor had not been interned and remained free to carry our his hospital duties.

The civilians and constabulary at Sandakan had already been secretly and actively sending vital foods, drugs and  money and other necessities to Berhala Island soon after the Europeans were incarcerated.  (there were initially 45 European men, 24 Wives and 11 children) with the men and women living separately in very primitive conditions.

Their existence was due partly to Dr Laband and partly to Ernesto Lagan an ex employee of Harrison and Crossfield and a member of the volunteer force until moved to Batu Lintang, Kuching in Sarawak in January 1943.

Below:  Ernesto LAGAN, also executed.

 

The same group developed close links with Chinese, Malay and other native people who opposed Japanese occupation such as the families of  Funk, Azcona, Lai, Apostol, Cohen, Dick Majinal, Pop Wong, Matusup Gungau and others. Together, they became a larger movement known as a local assistance group. Free men and women smuggled foods and medicines to their families and friends interned on Berhala Island. All racial groups were involved in the underground: Europeans, Chinese, Indians and Locals.

Jemadar Ojagar Singh was stationed at 8 Mile police station. As officers, he and Inspector Guriaman were responsible for the area in the vicinity of the POW camp. He was also responsible, along with other junior officers, for providing guards for the civilian internment centre on Berhala Island. (And the 500 Australian POWs with ‘E’ Force who were on the Island from 15 March 1943 to 5 June 1943 – before moving to POW camp at 8 mile with ‘B’ Force).  The underground was active in assisting the Australians escape Berhala to Philippines in the early days on Berhala.

The Constabulary was closely connected with Ernesto Lagan, who was now working as a detective for the Japanese. Shortly after the civilians were sent to Berhala, he had received a message from Major Alan Rice-Oxley who had served as Commissioner of Police/Commandant of Police in Sandakan during the early part of World War II. He was interned on Berhala Island from where he managed a clandestine operation to support Allied prisoners of war (POWs).

Rice-Oxley was also seeking financial assistance for himself and two other officers, Captain HB Rowland and Lieutenant MG Edge. The note had been passed from Salleh to Sergeant Ikes and Corporal Koram. Corporal Koram passed the note to Lagan who canvassed those he was sure he could trust and appointed Sergent Yusof Basinau to begin collecting whatever money anyone could spare. (Money was scarce during war-time-there were few jobs)

The contributors were Inspector Samuel Guriaman, Sergeant Major Yansalang, Sergeant Abin, Corporal Koram, PC Kai, Damudaran, Lumatop, Kassiu, Gorokon, Mohamed Tahir Matusin and Jemadar Ojagar Singh.

They ensured only trustworthy men were rostered for guard duty at Berhala. The most loyal and sympathetic policemen were allocated to duties that took them regularly to Berhala Island and mile 8 station. With reliable men in place, food and medicine and monies  were smuggled in from the mainland to the civilian internees and a group of POWs on Berhala Island (at that time, ‘E’ Force for six weeks prior to moving to Sandakan Camp). Supplies were also made available to POWs at mile 8.

After Major Rice Oxley and all the European prisoners were moved to Kuching January 1943,  Ojagar and his men on Major’s instruction, were nominally placed under the charge of Captain Lionel Colin Matthews, the main contact person with Australian POWs 8 Mile Camp and to assist Matthews carrying out underground activities.

Initially their goal was humanitarian however expanded into smuggling food/medicines, smuggling of radio parts, collecting of money, gathering of intelligence and eventually military. The underground turned into a dangerous organisation. With the help of these and other courageous locals, a cache of small arms was organised including some British equipment – mostly weapons brought in from the Guerillas in Philippines. There were about a hundred weapons including three machine guns, hidden about three kilometres from the camp near mile 6. The plan was to use these weapons as part of a general prisoners insurrection to either seize the camp and town or undertake a mass escape of all prisoners and become guerrilla fighters.

As well as the plan for insurrection, was the building of a transmitting radio. This would be used to contact American Guerrillas in Philippines and submarines with a view to obtaining more arms and other support. This development was not just about escaping; it was a challenge to the Japanese position in North Borneo, and one that inevitably would invoke most violent Japanese response.

The first and second team of allied POWs from ‘E’ Force accommodated on Berhala Island for 6 weeks prior to moving to Sandakan, escaped from the Island.

Ujagar was also involved in helping eight Australian ‘E’ Force POWs escape from Berhala Island.

The first team comprised R.K. McLaren, Private R.N. Butler and R.J. Kennedy. They arrived at Batu Batu, Philippines 13th June 1943 and were greeted by Guerila Colonel A Suarez.

The second team, who miraculously remained hidden on Berhala Island while Kempetei searched for more than a week (at times they hung off cliff edges) included Lt. Rex Blow, Lt. L.N. Gillon and Sgt. W. Wallace, Captain R.E. Steele and Lt. C.A. Wagner arrived Tawi Tawi, Philippines on 30th June 1943 and were all integrated into the Philippines guerrilla forces.

Their escape from Berhala Island was successfully executed by members of the underground intelligence organisation directed by an intelligence officers, POW Captain Lionel Colin Matthews and Dr Taylor. They were responsible with the delivery arrangement of food, medical supplies, maps and money to the POWs. Matthews introduced secret radio links with the outside world and organised the British North Borneo Constabulary for armed uprising against the Japanese.

The Japanese had ordered their guards in combination with the local Police Force to search for the escaped Australians, hunting frantically all over the island but could not locate them. The Japanese military police offered enormous sums of money as rewards for the recapture of the Australians.

(The successful Australian escapees were able to send messages from Philippines to inform Matthews their escape was successful and they were fighting with guerilla forces)

In July 1943 the underground movement was betrayed to the Japanese. Matthews was arrested by the Kempeitai and was subjected to brutal treatment.  He refused to implicate anybody else.  Several senior Australian Officers were also arrested refused to implicate anybody else.

The Japanese arrested all who were involved in the Underground movement.  Those captured included many international groups –  Chinese, Europeans, Eurasians, Kadazan, Sikh, Murut, Filipinos, Suluk, Javanese and ‘Ma’ Cohen a wealthy Jewish women, who was extremely generous providing the largest amount of money, together with 19 Australian POWs and five civilians and their wives.

Ojagar Singh was involved in helping the eight Australian POWs escape from Berhala Island.  People  attributed the escape to Corporal Koram but Ojagar was the man in charge of the police detachment on Berhala allowing Rex Blow, Ray Steele and possibly Red Butler and six others to escape to Tawi Tawi. He was also one of the major contributors to a fund that assisted the POWs to escape.  Butler died the following year fighting with the Phillipine Guerillas.

 

Above: Cpl Koran executed.

Others in the  Constabulary including Detective Ernesto Lagan and Corporal Abin who also gave money to the fund.

Ojagar assisted in mapping possible escape routes by providing a map taken from the Constabulary office by Abin.  The map was passed to Matthews showing Sandakan’s main installations and buildings.

Jemadar Ojagar Singh was especially targeted by the Japanese and received horrific beatings and interrogations.   Police friends warned him his name had been revealed by others under interrogation to Kempetei.  His pregnant wife pleaded with him to escape however Ojagar would not, believing the Japanese would harass his family and worse, hold them to ransom.

The Kempetei came for him.

Ojager remained calm, telling his wife to look after the children. The Japanese ordered his daughter Biba to taken them to the chicken coop which was further up the hill.  They knew what they were looking for.  Letters sent by POW Rex Blow requesting help for his escape.  The Kempetei then searched the house, taking gold jewelry, cash, Ojager’s pistol and ammunition.  They left the Singh family without any means of support.  Mrs Singh and children moved into the police barracks.

Ojager was severely tortured and his hand broken before leaving Sandakan for Kuching. There was no medical attention for these prisoners.

__________

Major Rice-Oxley was appointed Superintendent of Police, Adjutant, and Superintendent of Prisons, in Jesselton in 1929. His career continued apace and he attained the position of Commissioner of Police. On 12 November 1936 he officially changed his name from Alan Rice Oxley to Alan Rice-Oxley by deed poll.

Below:  Major Alan Rice-Oxley with his son.  The Rice-Oxley’s were on leave in England when war was close. Major Rice-Oxley’s wife remained in England and he returned to Sandakan.

 

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FUNK FAMILY

Brothers Johnny, Alexander and Paddy.

ALEX FUNK, the youngest brother was executed Kuching, 2 February 1944

No family gives so much to the cause, in blood and money …….

From ‘Sandakan’……by Paul Ham

The Funk family is one of the most distinguished and richest in Sandakan.   Family members served in various prominent local roles.  Their father was the first non-white magistrate.

The Funk brothers – Johnny, Alexander and Paddy are of Eurasian descent, strikingly handsome with beautiful wives.  All are highly educated and fearlessly dedicated to the resistance.  (from Paul Ham’s ‘Sandakan’ Page 147) The boys were members of the pre-war North Borneo Volunteer Force.  The large Funk  family home was near where POWs of ‘B’ Force were interned from July 1942 enabling the brothers to establish secret contacts with POWs which saw them providing help and serving as conduits between POWs and Sandakan hospital.

Alex supplies the critical maps (from WO Singh) of Sandakan marking out Japanese barracks, machine-gun and communication posts.  The Funk family have the extremely dangerous job of collecting and hiding smuggled arms in a cache outside of town.

All weapons and ammunition had been supplied from the Philippine Guerillas, hidden in small boats and sent to Sandakan.

When their activities were betrayed to the Japanese in July 1943, the brothers were arrested and severely punished by the Japanese Kempetei; Alex was executed while Johnny and Paddy suffered great physical and psychological torture.

The brothers first came into contact with Australian POWs in September 1942. Alex the youngest, also made the initial contact with Captain Lionel Matthews, the POW officer who was the camp’s intelligence officer.

Matthews had requested assistance in food, medicine, money and radio parts. With radio parts supplied by Johnny and others mostly acquired from the Azcona’s Radio Shop from Felix (Snr) and Felix (Jnr) in Sandakan a radio was assembled by the Australian POWs and put into operation. 

The Funk brothers were also instrumental in establishing links between POWs and Dr V. Stookes, a World War I British fighter pilot. After completing his medical studies, Stookes came to North Borneo to work as an estate doctor on the Kinabatangan River. He owned a seaplane which he built, and used for his medical services.  Stookes’ with his colleague Dr Wands and nurse Phoebe Lai’s help, more medicines were made available from Sandakan Hospital to the POWs.

Stookes with three other Europeans and the former Chinese Embasador to North Borneo, who resided Sandkan were brutally murdered by Kempetei at Keningau, central North Borneo 1945.   Please read further

 

Above: Alexander Funk – the youngest brother. Executed Kuching 2 February 1944.

Above: Paddy Funk

Below:  Johnny Funk

Above: Dr Stookes (holding can) WW1 fighter pilot & Dr who decided the only way to escape future wars was to come to Borneo. However, another war caught up with him. He is seen with his sea plane that he bought after meeting filmakers Martin and Osa Johnson during their 1935 visit. He used the plane to start a flying doctor service in Kinabatangan, possibly the first in the world.

Please read what happened to Stookes

It was Alex who collected the medicines from Stookes before passing them over to the POWs.

POW Escapee Sgt W Wallace

Among those involved in helping the POWs was Heng Joo Ming who was an overseer at the airstrip which the POWs and the locals were building. One day in 1942, Heng Joo Ming confided to Johnny that he was harbouring a POW escapee, Sergeant W. Wallace. Johnny provided food and money to Wallace, who was moved to wait outside of the Australian camp on Berhala before the escape party met him and later managed to escape to Tawi-Tawi where he joined the Filipino guerrillas.

In January 1943, Johnny was approached by Ernesto Lagan, a police detective who was then working under the Japanese. Lagan wanted to obtain a plan of the former quarters of the Europeans now in Japanese hands. Apparently this was required in connection with a planned general escape from the camp. On another occasion, Johnny and Alex went to the POW camp and met with Corporal Abin of the North Borneo Constabulary. They were trying to smuggle a Lee Enfield 303 rifle into the camp. The rifle had earlier been issued to Alex by the Volunteer Force, but Alex did not surrender in to the armoury after the Japanese had landed. Alex also supplied Captain Matthews with a 38 revolver. This was the main offence which eventually resulted in Alex being executed.

Early 1943 the Japanese suspected the existence of a radio in the POW camp and began to investigate. In April 1943, the Japanese arrested Dr Stookes’s wife for allegedly helping to spread news obtained from her husband.

After interrogation and torture, they released her as they could find no evidence against her. Johnny Funk was later arrested accused of the same offence and for providing radio parts to the POWs. Johnny was tortured and interrogated for a week before being released.

Together with Johnny and his brothers, 102 people (55 civilians and 47 POWs) were arrested by the Japanese over the issue of assisting the POWs. They were transferred to Kuching on 25 October 1943. After four months of continual interrogation and torture, Alex was condemned to death along with eight others.

Mohd Tahir was a constable at Sandakan. He decided to join the underground that was being formed within police circles and took part in assisting a group of Australian POWs to escape from Berhala.  This endeavor earned him severe beatings and a 3-year prison sentence from the Japanese.

All hell broke loose when the Japanese discovered the radio in the Australian POW camp. Many were arrested and, as interrogations went on, more names were revealed.  Mohd Tahir and a whole team of Constabulary members, including Jemadar Ujagar Singh, Corporal Abin, Ernesto Lagan, Yansalang, Agus, Angkai, Usop Basinay and Corporal Koram were arrested.

During the interrogation, Tahir was placed in a cell with Captain Lionel Matthews, who was the main contact person in the POW camp. Matthews asked Tahir not to tell the Japanese anything. During interrogation, Tahir was beaten many times, mainly on his back. He managed to see many of his friends as well as others he recognised. On one occasion, he was interned with Wong Moo Sing, the Filipino Chinese agent. Tahir felt that Wong was resigned to his fate as he had been arrested as a spy and was bound to be shot.

After three months of interrogations Tahir was transferred to Kuching with the rest of the prisoners in October. At Kuching, they were interned at the former post office while awaiting trial.

At Kuching, Tahir was interned with Ujagar Singh. Ujagar’s hand had been broken by the Japanese during interrogation at Sandakan but he received no medical treatment. In March 1944, the men were taken to court and sentenced. Tahir’s involvement was regarded to be minimal and he was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment with hard labour. However Ujagar Singh, was sentenced to death.

Jemadar (warrant officer) Ujagar Singh or Ojagah Singh was a member of the North Borneo Armed Constabulary. He was executed by the Japanese at Kuching. When the Japanese took over Sabah, European control over the Armed Constabulary also came to an end. Major A. Rice-Oxley, the pre-war commandant, was interned by the Japanese on Berhala island along with the civilian internees.

With the absence of European officers, the local policemen at Sandakan were led by three local junior officers: Inspector Guriaman, Sergeant Major Yansalang and Jemadar Ujagar Singh. The Japanese believed that these men were loyal to them. Instead, they remained loyal to their European officiers and the Allied cause.

While detained at Berhala, Major Rice-Oxley requested the three to co-operate with Dr James Taylor, the principal medical officer who was allowed to remain free in order to carry out his duties at the Sandakan civilian hospital.

One of the primary tasks of Jugara and Guriaman was to place trusted men on guard duty so that they would be able to assist  POWs and the civilian internees without being exposed to Japanese informants and collaborators. The Japanese had already put in place a network of spies and informants, including some in the Constabulary. Thus when Ujagar and Guraiman organized the roster, they ensured only the most loyal and sympathetic policemen were allocated to duties that look them regularly to Berhala Island and the Mile 8 station. These included Corporal Abin, Corporal Koram, Corporal Usop Basinau, Police Constable Mohd Tahir Matusin and several others.

With these men in place, food and medicine were smuggled to the civilian internees and the POWs on Berhala Island as well as providing and equipping the escape groups with money, maps, eqiupment & food. Supplies were also made available to the POWs at Mile 8 (Sandakan POW Camp).

Ujagar was also involved in helping eight Australian ‘E’ Force POWs escape from Berhala Island.

---

In later years, Johnny Funk came to Australia. Please read further

KENINGAU, BRITISH NORTH BORNEO 23RD SEPTEMBER 1945. TAKING THE SWORD OF SURRENDER FROM THE SENIOR JAPANESE OFFICER AT THE KENINGAU CAMP ARE (L. TO R.) FLIGHT LIEUTENANT (ACTING SQUADRON LEADER) E.V. (VAL) WALLIKER AND MAJOR J. IRVING. 2/9TH CAVALRY COMMANDOS.

Please read about ‘B’ and ‘E’ Forces sent from Singapore to Sandakan

The end for Japan

The following is of little comfort for the wives, mothers, siblings and children of the above men and women who had worked so hard to undermine the invading Japanese and  tragically lost their lives.

Throughout the war the Japanese military tried to convince Japanese people that complete loyalty and obedience would make Japan invincible. Japan’s early victories seemed to prove this, but U.S. victory at Midway Island in June 1942 was the beginning of the end – cutting them off from desperately needed raw materials.  It would however, take at least three years to  defeat the Japanese  – during these years they unleashed terrible conditions, punishments, starvation and wrath on the populations of S.E. Asia.

August 1942–February 1943:  Guadalcanal Campaign.  In their first major offensive on land by Allied Forces saw a Japanese withdrawal from the Solomon Islands, halting Japanese expansion.

June 19–20, 1944: Japan’s loss during Battle of the Philippine Sea saw Japan’s naval air capablity  severely depleted.

• July 1944: Fall of Saipan: The capture of this island allowed US bombers to reach the Japanese home islands. The defeat led to the resignation of Prime Minister Hideki Tojo.

• Battle of Leyte Gulf 23-26 October 1944 was known as the largest naval battle of WWII resulting in a decisive Allied victory that crippled the Japanese naval power forever.  The Japanese navy was destroyed.

March 9–10, 1945: Firebombing of Tokyo killed about  100,000 civilians, destroyed 16 square miles of the city and crippled Japan’s urban industrial base.

Feb 19–March 26, 1945 / April 1–June 22, 1945: Battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. These final island battles resulted in heavy losses for the US, but confirmed Japanese home islands were within reach, leading to heavy, and brutal, casualties.

The End: August 1945 – collapse of the Japanese empire in August 1945 was driven by a combination of:

the atomic bombs

the Soviet invasion

and the blockade

When this was followed by massive bombardment from the air over Japan and the final blow of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japanese invincibility was proven to be a myth. At the end of the war, the Japanese nation was not only starving and devastated by the bombing, but bewildered and shocked by the defeat.

Japan’s defeat, combined with the sound of Hirohito’s voice announcing the war was over (Hirohito did not say Japan had surrendered) also shocked many Japanese troops who had been kept in the dark about Japanese losses.  Troops broke down and wept.

Please read about severe starvation and large numbers of death faced by all of the countries invaded by Japan

 

AUTRALIAN POWS SENTENCED at KUCHING’s JAPANESE HQ TRIALS FOR ESCAPING SANDAKAN OR  INVOLVEMENT IN UNDERGROUND RADIO

nearly 200 Australian POWs and civilans and members of the Sandakan Constabulary who were sentenced at Kuching

Arrived 11 March 1944

OUTRAM ROAD PRISON, SINGAPORE WW2

 

 

Outram Prison was one of the earliest prisons in Singapore. Originally known as Pearl’s Hill Prison before being called Outram Prison or Outram Road Prison.

Mrs Ceila Taylor was also sent to Outram Road Prison with Mrs Mavor – they shared a cell with an Asian woman whom they believed was placed with them to listen to their conversations an report to the Japanese.

Below:  former POWs from Sandakan and Outram Road Gaol return to Australia Sept 1945 or death details.

 

FIVE MEN (B Force) FROM 2/29TH ATTEMPTED ESCAPE

They survived for almost six months on the run in the jungles of Borneo, moving only late at night and eating “things that creep and crawl”.

The five men were recaptured just as they secured a boat and supplies from a local member of the underground with a promissory note for 200 pounds.

The Australian government would honour that debt to Tek Sing at the end of the war.

The government honoured that note at the end of the war because of the assistance he gave to the soldiers.

 

Private Norman Morris, Pte Bruce McWilliams, Pte Allan Minty, Lance Corporal Fred New and Corporal William Fairy of the 2/29 Battalion.

VX56828 Cpl. W. Fairey 2/29th from Victoria died at Outram Road Gaol. William Fairy died on 5 April 1944.

VX56725 Pte Allan Roy Minty 2/29th of Essendon sentenced to 6 years Rigorous Imprisonment at Outram Road Gaol, served 2 years and 7 months of which the first 13 months were in Solitary Confinement in a small cell. Minty lead an escape of five AIF POWs  from Sandakan, capital of British North Borneo.

Other escapees in the party who survived were: L/Cpl. New QX23995; Pte. Norman Stanley Morris VX59433, and Pte. Bruce McWilliams VX39255 who is believed to have left in the ‘Duntroon.’

Above:  Minty

The following is from Courier-Mail (Brisbane, Qld. : 1933 – 1954), Thursday 27 September 1945, page 3

After being sentenced in Borneo they were taken to Outram Road Gaol in a bamboo cage, 10ft. by 8ft., into which eight men were jammed, in the hold of a captured Dutch tramp steamer. Minty endured the first 12 months of his term in solitary confinement, locked in a cell 10ft. by 5½ft.’

 

The ‘Three Musketeers’ from Western Australia and 2/5th Field Artillery, sailed to North Borneo with ‘E’ Force:

WX8818 Edward James (Ted/Teddy) KEATING who died of illness and injuries received during months of torture and beatings at Sandakan and Kuching.

WX9682 Carl Edgar ‘Snowy’ Jensen – the only survivor.

WX10932 Don Marshall who died of illness at Outram Road Gaol.

We know the names of several other POWs sentenced to Outram Road:

Northern Queenslander 19 year old HERB TRACKSON escaped 8 mile camp with his mate former dairy farmer MATTHEW (MATT) CARR.   They had run their escape past two officers and waited until a stormy night.  Apparently another group of four POWs also broke out and were caught 3-4 days later.  Trackson said Bill Sticewich (then living outside the compound) said he would assist them, held up the wire for them, said he would delay the role call to give them time.  Trackson said Sticewich had not done this.  He  believed he was in cahoots with the Japanese. Trackson also believed Sticewich assisted the Japanese to recapture the group of 4 POWs.

Trackson and Carr were recaptured 3-4 weeks later and returned to Sandakan.  They were sent to Kuching with the others and sentenced to Outram Road Gaol.

NX40325 JIMMY DARLINGTON who tried to protect an older POW from being pushed around and beaten in the cookhouse, received such horrendous beatings and torture over several days before being thrown into Sandakan prison with BILLY YOUNG.  It was Billy YOUNG who looked after the very  poorly Darlington and possibly saved his life.  They were both sentenced at Kuching to Orchard Road Gaol.

Please read the story of Jimmy Darlington 

In early 1943, Billy Young one of the youngest men in the camp, was working at the drome and at lunchtime was looking around at what he could scrounge.  An unexpected roll call found him missing. Having witnessed what had happened to Jimmy Darlington, Billy Young and his companion were terrified and  decided they could not go back.  They were quickly captured.

NX32348 Pte JOHN ALLAN MACMILLAN was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment Outram Road.   He had been jailed for obtaining radio parts and medicine at Sandakan. When released from Outram Road, his weight had dropped by half.

Below:  John Allan MacMillan

 

Others to be Sentenced

 

 

 

Below:  September 1945l. Lt S.G. Weynton of Castlemaine describes his sentence in Outram Road Gaol in a tiny cell with Japanese convicts, Eurasion women and Malayans.  Weynton was sentenced to 12 years gaol with hard labour.  He said ‘coloured’ women over 70 years were often painted and powdered to make them look younger before being taken out and raped by the Japanese.

‘Interestingly! their ‘old’ chief of 8th Division’ Bennett was at the wharf to greet their return (Bennett was dreaming! – he received mixed reaction because many men were pretty disgusted with his early departure from Singapore – it was reported some former POWs brown-eyed him – not necessarily from this ship load of POWs.)

Below:  Sept 1945 Lt Weynton

Below:  Sandakan’s Johnny Funk visits Victoria.  He had met with Gordon Weynton, Castlemaine the previous day.    Funk and Weynton had share a barred ‘monkey cage’  with two other POWs at Kuching, North Borneo awaiting trial for their roles in the Underground Radio. A cage so small the men could not stand or stretch out in.  A favourite cruel act of the Japanese at Sandakan!

 

Above:  Sandakan Japanese accused of war crimes awaiting trial at Labuan.

This is the story of two brave and strong women from Sandakan WW2

Jewish-born Mrs Cohen was born Singapore with Iraq ancestry & Agnes Newton Keith born in California.

 

‘Ma’ Cohen – a   significant & exceptionally generous benefactor to Australian POWs at  Sandakan, WW2 – local businesswoman who never turned any request away, helped Sandakan’s European civilians banished to Berhala Island,  providing food, medicines & essentials

 

‘MA’ MOSELLE & MR MENAHEM COHEN – SANDAKAN, BRITISH NORTH BORNEO, WW2

 

Above:  Menahem Cohen (was from Yemen) and Ma Cohen.

BAGDADDI JEWS

Following Britain’s founding of Singapore in 1819, a small number of traders from Baghdad (originally from Iraq) were attracted by commerce opportunities and relative religious freedom, began arriving in Singapore.

They initially spoke Arabic or Hindustani and wrote in Hebrew. Their style of dress was Arabic, they smoked the hookah (a tobacco pipe), and without formal accountancy training, wrote business accounts on their shirt cuffs.

Singapore’s Jewish community was a thriving, mostly Baghdadi Sephardic group, growing from a handful in the 1830s to about 1,000 by the late 1930s, built on trade establishing key institutions including the Maghain Aboth & Chesed El Synagogues.

A number of Singapore Jewish traders m2oved to Sandakan.  Sandakan and North Borneo was made up of many cultures and nationalities, including Chinese.

 

Maghain Aboth Synagogue, Singapore. Built in 1878, it is the oldest and largest Jewish synagogue in Southeast Asia and the second largest in Asia itself, outside of Israel.

Above:  we wish to acknowledge and thank Jewish Welfare Board Singapore for the above photo.

• Sir Manasseh Meyer: Was a major businessman and philanthropist who funded both main synagogues and was knighted by King George V for his contributions to Singapore.

Chesed El Synagogue, Singapore which opened in 1905.

For more information about he Bagdadi Jewish population      https://rememberbaghdad.com/history

 

By 1939, the Singapore population reached around 1,000, a significant increase from just 9 traders in 1830, with later arrivals including Ashkenazim Jews from Europe. Jews and Arabs, were major property owners in the city by the 1930s and were mostly involved in trade.

Whilst predominantly a Shephardic community, they welcomed European Jews.   It was a diverse yet tight-knit group.

‘Baghdadi, Sephardi and Ashkenazi Jews were integral to the development of Sabah or North Borneo and were pioneers, planters, merchants, political refugees and prisoners of war.’

The Singaporean Bagdadhi Shephardic Jewish community were mostly traders and had often had  businesses or business dealings in British North Borneo as well as Penang, Hong Kong, China etc.  establishing vast merchant networks, notably through families like Sassoon and Kadoorie and linking the Middle East, India, Southeast Asia, and China in major enterprises like opium, banking, and real estate.  They were instrumental in leveraging Singapore’s strategic port status. 

They had become significant property owners prior to the Japanese occupation, many of the men were away on business trips as usual when war came, so women and children often left for India during this time.

Many of those left behind were imprisoned by the Japanese in Singapore (because Japan was allied with Germany). The Jewish community did receive better treatment than most civilian POWs and in fact a number were never imprisoned.

‘Ma’ Cohen was free to move about as she liked in Sandakan, British North Borneo.  That was why she became the most generous person to give to the POWs and local civilians sent to Berhala Island.

 

Above: 1890 Mr Menahem & Mrs Moselle Cohen, Purveyors, Sandakan with mostly Jewish identities advertising.   We thank and acknowledge Rosalie Corpuz – a relation to information about ‘Ma’ Cohen for the above and below photos.

Typical Sandakan wedding – with Mrs Cohen in attendance (circled) provided by Rosalie Corpuz.

 

 

We have found some family history about Moselle Cohen from extended family members including Eliora Frankel Mordecai.

Moselle was the daughter of Ezra Messiah (b. Bagdad) and his first wife Habiba (known as Nani) – other siblings were Simon and Moshiach.  Ezra then married a second time to Khatun known as Kitty.  Their four children were Sophie, Monty, Meda and Jospeh.

We believe Moselle married at Singapore to Menahem Cohen who was born Yemen, they had a family of three children in Singapore however, the couple seemed to spend much of their time at Sandakan, North Borneo.  We believe their children were with them when young.  Their eldest child and only son became a prominent surgeon in Singapore.

 

Please read about Yahya Cohen 1921-2003 

‘Yahya Cohen was senior surgeon at the Singapore General Hospital and a former president of the Singapore Medical Council.  Born in Singapore on 1 April 1920, he was the son of Menahem Cohen, a Yemeni merchant and Mozelle née Ezra who was from Iraq. The eldest of their three children, he was the only son. When he was eight or nine years old, his father had to have an operation and he later wrote that visiting him in hospital inspired his commitment to surgery. In Singapore, he was educated at Raffles Girls’ School, St Andrew’s School and Raffles College before attending the King Edward VII College of Medicine in 1938 where John Kirkpatrick Monro was professor of surgery. His medical education was interrupted by the Japanese occupation of Singapore from 1942 to 1945. As Jews they were interned in Changi jail (as was John Monro) and Cohen’s parents died on a boat to Kuching which was bombed, possibly by the Americans. He recalled that he lost a lot of Chinese friends and classmates who were decapitated by the Japanese.’

 

‘Ma’ Cohen was known for her cooking and generosity.  She owned a clothing store in Sandakan. The Japanese did not consider her British and therefore she  was not arrested.  She was free to roam and this she did, looking after her many friends who had lost their freedom in internment camps  – providing them with foods, medicines and essentials.   She became an important source of funds, in fact the largest source of funds for the POWs – providing them with means of survival, foods and medicines and radio parts.  She bravely became part of the resistance movement against the Japanese and with the so called ‘underground radio network.’

A driver for the Sandakan Residency Governor Mr Habib Omar from Tanah Merah, Sandakan was identified as a member of the Kempei Tai (Japanese secret police) and responsible for the betrayal and death of Mr & Mrs Cohen, traders in Sandakan.

His actions were witnessed by Gani (Kg Sumiang), Abdullah Sali (Labukan) and Detective Osman (Libaran).

Agnes Newton Keith, author ‘Three Came Home’ included in her book her story of Mrs Cohen whom she said she had known a long time.  ‘Ma’Cohen was a patient at Sandakan Hospital when she, Agnes and her young son George were also patients with malaria.

Agnes Keith described Mrs Cohen…

‘she was glorious in being and soul with an Oriental splendour of face, hair and hands.  Her eyes were melting, her features were fine, her expressions dramatic, her tears quick and her emotions real. She loved bright colours especially the varying reds of hibiscus blooms and she wore gowns in these shades cut Mother Hubbard style, fitted to her bosoms and flowing from thence downwards.  From her handsome head flowed chins and bosoms, from bosoms flowed draperies and from draperies showed bare feet and when she moved she flowed along the floor.

Her heart like her body was large, soft and lovable. No one ever asked for something and was refused: time, sympathy, money or help.  They all came to her for help, Eurasions, Chinese, Malays, housekeepers, kept women, nurses, coolies, myself.

Her pocket-book was under her pillow and she had constant recourse to it.  The first thing she did was to press ten dollars into my hands.

She was a force in Sandakan Asiatic life, she was the core of Eurasion society, business and commerce.  No wedding or funeral or birth was complete without her.

Daily her Arab boys came from the shop to bring her delicious kosher cooking which shared with all of us.  She and George sat crosslegged on the floor together eating, she rolled the rice into balls, native style and popped these into his mouth.  George would eat until he was in pain, then she rubbed his stomach, massaged him and sang to him until he went to sleep.  When he awakened they began eating again.

If George was naughty and I scalded him, I was the one rebuked.  She would engulf him into the folds of her bosom, kiss him, tell him stories and mesmerise him into passivity. 

She was having injections in the hospital for skin problems and was expecting to remain a week longer.  One afternoon Mr Cohen arrived begging her to come back to the shop to save him from the Japanese soldiers. He was older than Mrs Cohen, a small man badly crippled by diabetes and systemic poisoning and Mrs Cohen stood like a mountain between him and the world. 

Mr Cohen said the Japanese were demanding goods  at half price from the store and when he refused to sell they stole the stuff and beat him up.  Mrs cohen had her own system in dealing with the soldiers .  She combined collaboration, coercion, bribery and betrayal.  She hid all the store better goods, sold inconsequential gifts to them for what they would pay, donated worthless souvenirs, gave them coffee and let them confide in her.  Meanwhile she gained friends amongst them to help her smuggle to the European prisoners.

She didn’t want to go back to the shop and leave hospital, principally, I believe because she hated to leave George.  But Mr. Cohen was as helpless as George, so she folded up her Mother Hubbard dresses, her several chins and bosoms and went back to the shop.  She left throwing kisses to George, calling advice to the nurses, waving at me and weeping.  With her departure ribald and gaiety was gone.  After she had gone I found 50 dollars under my pillow to be delivered by me to her friends on Berhala.’

She came several times after that to visit us against the orders and warnings of the Japanese military police bringing with her biscuits, sweets and clothes for George.  I told her I was frightened for her.  She said

‘You are my friends, I am sad to see you need things, I must help you.  I am not worried for myself and I am not afraid of these Japanese.  But the old man is sick and cannot take care of himself.  Also he must have brown wheat for his diebetes and Kosher food.  If I get put in gaol he will die.’

Agnes Keith never saw Mrs Cohen again.  Sometime later she was accused of conspiracy in connection with the escape of some Australian POWs.  She was imprisoned for a long time but finally released. She was later taken back into custody and Agnes Keith believed, Mrs Cohen was executed by the Japanese around Armistice Day.

There are several stories about the Cohen’s death.  The most probable one is Ma Cohen was arrested and together with her husband and with other prisoners placed on a ship to sail to Kuching for a Japanese military trial.  Their transport ship was hit by Allied torpedoes and sank with total loss of life.

Another theory:  A driver for the Sandakan Residency Governor Mr Habib Omar from Tanah Merah, Sandakan was identified as a member of  Kempei Tai (Japanese secret police) and responsible for the betrayal and death of Mr & Mrs Cohen, traders in Sandakan.

The driver’s actions were witnessed by Gani (Kg Sumiang), Abdullah Sali (Labukan) and Detective Osman (Libaran).  This information is from North Borneo Historical Journal written by Avtar Singh.

 

Above:  The Keith family home was totally destroyed in bombing raids.  They had this house built with the same plans in 1946.  Today it is a museum.

Above:  Seated Agnes and her husband.

****** Please go to bottom of page to read further about Agnes Keith and Colonel Suga.

Unfortunately this large, diverse and very brave group of locals risked their lives for many months – but were given away to the Japanese Kempetei by a disgruntled local Chinese man & other locals who were spies for Japan.

In July 1943 the Japanese Kempeitai wasted no time rounding up those they considered to be the  ringleaders – Dr. Taylor, Australian POWs – Captain Lionel Matthews, Rod Wells and Gordon Wyneton,  Detective Lagan and Corporal Abin were taken for questioning to Kempeitai HQ in the town of Sandakan.  This was just the beginning of brutal interrogations and horrific torture – Kempeitai style, including water-boarding.   Please read further

2/4th’s Alf Stevens was also arrested and subjected to terrible torture.  (He was sentenced to 4 years solitary confinement in Outram Road Prsison, Singapore)

Please read further 

Another 100 were rounded up suspected of being involved. For three months they were relentlessly beaten, questioned and tortured to reveal the names of co-conspirators. With military precision the Kempeitei had meticulously searched every inch of the POW camp and through personal belongings in an attempt to identify those involved in building the radio transmitter and for possible links to the underground. They also targeted and terrorised the wives and children of those civilians and locals who were arrested.  

Ma Cohen’s name was included on the list the Japanese had access to.  She was arrested and was the only woman amongst about 250 local men, as well as Australian POWs.  The Japanese were unable to prove her guilt – and those arrested would not give her away.  She was released after some six months.  She was later fined $1,000 – which is quite a lot of money.

The Japanese were brutal with their interrogations and torture,  in the most horrific conditions, particularly towards the Australian POWs with many placed in cages unable to stand, continual torture, no food or water.

Those kept captive by the Kempetai were forbidden to talk amongst themselves. Capt Matthews and most of the Australian POWs unknown to the Kempeitei used morse code to communicate with each other – enabling them to keep abreast of the amount of  knowledge Kempeitei knew and how much each POW revealed.

In late October 1943 more than 200 prisoners were placed on a old ship to sail to Kuching, where they faced further interrogations, torture and finally a Japanese Military  Court to face charges.  Every word was spoken in Japanese and every document written in Japanese.   The accused were never offered interpreters.

Please read the story of the ‘Underground Radio’ 

The Japanese would not have given up on ‘Ma’ Cohen so easily.  She was again arrested and one story is she was sent with her husband on a boat to Kutching for trial.  Her ship was hit  and sunk by a torpedo from a US submarine.  Another story was the Japanese killed her by placing her in a barrel and rolling it about.  It is a tragic ending for a brave and generous lady.

The Cohens had three children, two daughters and the eldest was a son named Yahyah Cohen born 1920 who became a highly regarded surgeon in Singapore.

 

 

The following is a brief overview of the Bagdadhi Jewish population and their movement from Iraq & the Jewish population of Yemen.  It is not a study of religion, rather the journey of the Cohen family’s ancestors.

 

YEMEN JEWISH POPULATION

Yemenite Jews aka Yemeni.

Yemen’s Jewish population in 1948 was 55,000.

After several waves of persecution, the majority of Yemenite Jews emigrated to Israel with ‘Operation Magic Carpet’ between June 1949 to September 1950. Most Yemenite Jews now live in Israel. 

The Jewish population of Yemen was one of the longest-standing in the Arab world, plying its trade of silversmithing for hundreds of years. It was believed small populations remain in northern Yemen.

Today, the fate of any remaining Jews is unknown.

Menahem Cohen came from Yemen, probably to Singapore where he married Mozelle, before moving to  Sandakan.

Yemen:  Synagogue, al-Hajjarah, Haraz Mountains of Yemen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Above:  Yemenite Jews.

 

Jewish population leave behind their home countries of Iraq and Yemen

Iraqi Jews were airlifted  to Israel in 1950 and 1951. Known as Operation Ezra and Nehemiah. More than 120,000 Jews left Iraq, leaving only a small number behind to continue the community’s 2,600-year-old presence, from the Babylonian exile around 586 BCE.

This had been one of the oldest and most significant Jewish communities thriving in Mesopotania until 1941 and the Farhud program, followed by mass migration in  1949 to 1952. Many Iraqi Jews did not want to leave Iraq, they saw Iraq as their home.

Below:  Al-Uzair (Ezra) Mosque and Holy site in Al-Uzair town, south-Iraq.

Al-Uzair (Ezra) Mosque was originally a major Jewish Synagogue and pilgramage site dedicated to the biblical prophet Ezra who is buried there.  Following the mass exodus of Iraqi Jews in the 1950s, the site was transformed into a Islamic landmark.

 

The Meir Taweig Synagogue in Bagdad is the last remaining Jewish Synagogue in this city.

Above:  Sasson Synagogue, Mosul – damaged by recent war.

Below:  Just Surviving – evidence of interior of Sasson Synagogue, Mosul.

 

 

Please read further about Iraq Jewish shrines

 

 

You may wish to read further

Yemini Jewish Population

In 1948 the Yemeni population was estimated to be about 50,000.  There was a small population in northern Yemen –  however today, their safety is unknown.

Following several waves of persecution the vast majority of Yemenite Jews emigrated to Israel with the  Operation Magic Carpet between June 1949 and September 1950.  Smaller communities chose to emigrate to US and elsewhere. 

Please read further about ‘Operation Magic Carpet’

The Jewish population of Yemen is one of the longest-standing in the Arab world, having plied its trade of silversmithing for hundreds of years.

The Grand Synagogue of Aden also known as the Magen Avraham Synagogue or Shield of Avraham Synagogue, was located in Aden, Yemen.

The Great Synagogue of Aden (Al-Milama’l-kabira, Magen Avraham), built around 1858 in Yemen, was a prominent, large-scale structure known for its traditional architectural style. It served as a central community hub until 1944 and was demolished shortly after 1999.

It was a cornerstone of the Adeni Jewish community until their emigration.

 

• Adeni Jews

  Adeni Jews lived in a distinct Jewish community in the British controlled Port of Aden, Yemen from 1839 – 1967.  It was a flourishing, cosmopolitan and trade-oriented society under British rule. Due to their unique, Western-influenced, and prosperous culture, they distinguished themselves from mainland Yemenite Jews. Following the 1947 riots and later 1967, the community emigrated primarily to Israel and London. 

For further reading about the murder, looting and burning of Aden in 1947

Aden’s Grand Synagogue was abandoned during the 1947 anti-Jewish riots in Aden and destroyed in 1994, during the Yemeni civil war.

Below:  There appears to be little or no surviving pictures/photos of the Grand Synagogue.  These show the interior only.

 

INDIA’s JEWISH POPULATION

Above: Mercy Synagogue in Mumbai, India aka Shaar Harahamim and Juni Masjid.  This is the oldest Synagogue in Mumbai and one of oldest in India.  Originally built 1796, it was rennovated, rebuilt and moved to its present location in 1860.  It can hold 300 persons.

Above & Below:  Paradesi Synagogue, India showing entrance before and after restoration.

Below:  Hebrew inscription tablet  Kochangadi Synagogue, in the courtyard wall of the Paradesi Synagogue.

 

1968 the Paradesi Synagogue celebrated its 400th anniversary.  The ceremony was attended by the Indian Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi.

There were three classes of Synagogue members:

1. White Jews were full members. White Jews or Paradesi Jews were recent descendants of Shephardim from Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands.

2. Black Jews or Malabari Jews were allowed to worship but were not admitted to full membership. These Cochin Jews were the original Jewish settlers of Cochin.

3. Meshuchrarim – a group of freed slaves and their descendants brought by the Shephardim. They had no communal right and no synagogue of their own and sat on the floor or on steps outside.  In the first half of the 20^th century, Abaraham Barak Salem, a meshuchrarm, successfully campaigned against this discrimination.

 

Above:  Keneseth Eliyahoo Bagdadhi Synagogue, Founded 1884 Mumbai.

Below:  Interior of Keneseth Eliyahoo Synagogue which is has water damage from decades of monsoons & neglect.  It requires restoration.  The roof, ceilings and walls are damaged, some areas of the floors are sinking and parts of the Victorian stain glass window require replacement.

Keneseth Eliyahoo Synagogue is one of two Baghdadi Jewish synagogues in Mumbai. Funded by the Sassoons, a prominent Jewish family of entrepreneurs and philanthropists, it was built in the classical revival style with a double height prayer hall. According to experts, it has some of the finest stained glass in all of Mumbai.

Above:  detail and beauty of Synagogue windows and walls.

In Bombay Jews flourished under the leadership of David Sassoon, a prominent Baghdadi Jew, who settled in Bomaby in 1832. The Baghdadi Jews, while retaining their Iraqi Jewish culture, also went on to establish themselves as wealthy businessmen and philanthropists in Mumbai. Soon their business flourished and the Bagdadi Jews of Mumbai started settling in the posh Byculla area of south Mumbai.

Please read further about David Sassoon

and

please read further about the Sassoon family

Please read how the Bagdadhi Jews suffered in Indonesia

 

AGNES NEWTON KEITH & COLONEL SUGA

While at Berhala Island Agnes saw Colonel Suga. He called her to his office, Agnes always took her young son George with her.  Suga informed her he had read her book  ‘Land Below the Wind’ translated into Japanese, adding that he liked it.  He informed her he attended University of Washington in the US,  and asked Agnes why Americans were prejudiced against the Japanese.   She always avoided answering this question which came up again several times in future meetings at Kuching. 

ALL POWS ON BERHALA MOVE TO KUCHING.

Suga wanted her to write a book for him, which he would censor.  Agnes responded she did not have time with the jobs she had to tend to daily. (All POWs worked, including the women – usually in the fields)  Most importantly she did not have anything to write with. 

Agnes saw Colonel Suga at Kuching, where he again  asked her to write for him.  Suga was based at the Japanese HQ at Kuching.

Finally she was called into Colonel Suga’s office where he produced an American copy of her book, which had her name inside and had been taken from her house by Mr. Maeda.  Suga asked her to give the book to him by writing his name inside the cover. Suga pulled her husband Harry’s fountain pen out of his top pocket and handed it to her!  (He had obviously acquired the pen and book from Mr Maeda).  

Suga’a orderly then produced pineapple, biscuits and very sweet coffee for her and George.  Then Suga broke the news – “You are going to write the ‘Life and Thoughts of an Internee” for me in your spare time.  This is an order.  After a little more time when Agnes said she had not the time with her camp duties, no equipment and said he ‘could not order her what to say!’

All right!  He said. And walked out.

He gave her pen, ink, pencil and paper and ordered the office to release a confiscated typewriter for her use and ordered her to go.

Agnes was sleepless worrying about how she would cope, she was dealing with the camp Commandant Suga, the man who was in charge of the all POWs on Borneo/Sarawak.   The women’s  Camp was already short of able-bodied women to work and she knew she could not do both, work and writing.

The next day she was informed by her camp master she was to be released from community camp work by Suga’s order.  The Japanese office was to pay $3 a month into the community fund as her salary.  She was to continue doing part time work in the camp as a substitute for women who became ill.

Agnes Keith, her son George and her husband Harry Keith survived Kuching.  The numbers of of death had been enormous due to malnutrition. There was such a shortage of food, the women would cut grass to give to their children with the minimal food provided.

At the time of liberation on September 11, 1945, the camp held 2,024 survivors, including 1,392 POWs and 632 civilian internees.   

It is believed Between January 1945 and the Japanese surrender on August 15, 1945, over 500 POWs died, often at a rate of two or three per day due to dysentery and starvation.

The camp had a fluctuating population reaching up to 3,000 prisoners (including civilians).   Reports indicate that of the approximately 2,000 British POWs held there, over 1,300 died, or roughly two-thirds of that population.

Below:  Lintang Barracks, Kuching 1941-45.  (We wish to acknowledge this map was copied from ‘Kuching in Pictures 1841-1946’ – having been unable to find another map anywhere!)

Above:  Agnes with Australian Officers following Surrender.

Above: Aerial photo of Lintang Barracks, Kuching.

 

Above:  George Keith

 

THE ‘THREE MUSKETEERS’ – POWs FROM WESTERN AUSTRALIA

KEATING, JENSEN & MARSHALL – arrested Sandakan sent to KUCHING FOR TRIAL

They were sappers from 2/6th Field Park Company RAE,  this RAE unit provided essential technical skills, equipment and materials in support to fighting units such at 7th and 8th Divisions.

They mostly trained at Sandy Creek, South Australia.

Arrived Malaya May 1941 – part of 8th Division during the Malayan Campaign

• The company arrived in Malaya in May 1941 as  part of 8th Division during the Malayan Campaign and the Fall of Singapore. Those who survived became POWs of Japan following the Surrender in Singapore

  •  As POWs in Singapore the Japanese sent a POW work Party which included the three ‘Musketeers’ to the island of Pulau Bukom where the Japanese were desperate to have the oil depot and tanks in working order. 

•  Instead of placing the petroleum depot in full working order “Snowy” and his mates, using their mechanical knowledge, and managed to sabotage the diesel motors by removing vital parts and making the petroleum, including aviation fuels, impossible to pump.

• The Japanese thought the Australians incompetent!

• Next, Keating, Jensen and Marshall were sent to maintain three X 30 foot mainland to Paulau Bukom island supply boats.

• They attempted an escape by stealing one but of all the things that could go wrong – they ran aground and had to sneak back to camp making the boat appear to have slipped her moorings. The three had titled themselves as the “The Musketeers” and they were determined to escape home to be with their families once again.

 

_________________

POWs  Singapore – North Borneo

(‘B’ Force Borneo comprising 1495 Australians of which 145 were officers were next to leave Singapore following on from ‘A’ Force Burma  (ratio of about one officer to every 10 men is extremely high).  They departed Singapore 8 July 1942 on passenger-cargo ship ‘Ume’ Maru to Sandakan)

Jensen, Keating and Marshall went to Berhala Island then Sandakan with ‘E’ Force Borneo from Singapore.

‘E’ Force originally comprised 500 British and 500 Australian POWs, departed Singapore 29 March 1943 sailing on a small cargo tramp ship de Klerk to Kuching (Sarawak) where the Australians remained 8 days, accommodated at the Lintang Barracks.  The 500 British POWs disembarked at Kuching.

The 500 Australian POWs were sent to Berhala Island (North Borneo).  In early June 1943 ‘E’ Force was moved to Sandakan.

On the ship ‘de Klerk‘ there was a large number of POWs planing-to-escape. There was even talk of taking over the ship until senior officers quashed the idea!

Sapper WX8818 Edward James (Ted/Teddy) KEATING,

Sapper WX9682 Carl Edgar ‘Snowy’ JENSEN,           

Sapper WX10932 Donald George MARSHALL

and another POW named WESTON were onboard.

The 500 Australian POWs next sailed on ‘de Kerk’ to Berhala Island.

During the stopover at Berhala Island, the three musketeers planned to and achieved acquiring local maps and information for their escape.

Any escape had to be run by a senior officer – in this instance they approached Lt. Charlie Wagner who agreed on the plan, in fact he stated he would join them and would lead them.

Unknown to them, Wagner changed his mind and left with Lt Rex Blow in an earlier escape leaving Keating and his mates absolutely fuming.  It was a terrible blow for these men who had planned for so long and pursued maps and information.

(The above information from ‘Snowy’ Jensen, the only one of the three to survive and return to WA)

Please read further about TEd KEATING

 

The seven POWs who escaped were

Capt Ray Steele,

Lts Rex Blow, Charlie Wagner * and Miles Gillon

Sapper Jim Kennedy,  

Privates Rex Butler and Jock McLaren ,

and the eighth was Sgt Walter Wallace, who had earlier escaped from 8 Mile Camp.

* WAGNER was KIA Liangan, Lanao Province, Mindanao,Philippines, 21 December 1943, aged 27 years

Cpl Koram was one of the guards at Berhala and was contacted by some officers of ‘E’ Force,  asking him to bring Wallace to them from the mainland (Sandakan).  Koram was in fact the central figure of this escape, i.e. the main character involved in POW escapes.

The seven escapees met up with  SGT WALTER WALACE who was hiding just outside Berhala Island POW camp – and they took him with them.  (Walter Wallace with two other Australian POWs escaped 30 April 1943 from the 8 Mile Camp.  They had  separated – the other two POWs were betrayed by locals and executed, however Wallace was fortunate, the locals he met kept him safe.)

The group of 8 POWs had an adventurous escape and finally made their way by boat to Tawi Tawi, Philippines where they joined a local guerilla group – fighting the Japanese on Mindanao Island. Butler and Wagner were later killed in action.  In 1944 Steele, Kennedy and Wallace were evacuated by submarine to Australia.  They were able to present to the Australian government the facts and terrible plight of the Sandakan POWs.

Below: Jock McLaren

 

Below:  Rex Blow from AWM.

At Sandakan the Musketeers never gave up on escape ideas.

The collapse of the underground movement resulted in many arrests by Japanese Military Police, the Kempeitai – included were the Three Musketeers.

Ted Keating, Snowy Jensen and Don Marshall with others, were arrested for being involved in an escape plan and Underground Radio.

POWs and at least 50 local civilians were arrested, interrogated and bashed for three months at the Kempeitai HQ located in the town of Sandakan.  As well as terrible and serious interrogaton injuries the group received little food and water.   Finally they were shipped to Kuching (mostly in small cages unable to stand or stretch out) for a Japanese Military trial.

Tragically it was at Kuching that Ted Keating who was seriously ill, suffering a large ulcer and extensive injuries from his beatings by the Japanese at Sandakan died before he reached his trial.

Western Australian Ted Keating father of two children, aged 36 years died 11 Feb 1944 from excessive beatings and torture received at Sandakan and Kuching Prison whilst waiting for his trial over his involvement in an escape plan at Sandakan.

 

 

Below:  Capt Matthews would be executed

The trials held 29 February 1944 were spoken and written in Japanese only –  they were all found guilty – Capt Matthews (the ring leader) was sentenced to be executed as were several Sandakan civilians and members from the local Constabulary who had assisted the POWs. Their executions took place immediately.

The eight men executed with Captain Matthews were:

• Jemadar Ojager Singh
• Alexander Funk
• Sergeant Abin (of the North Borneo Armed Constabulary)

• Ernesto Lagan
• Heng Joo Ming
• Wong Moo Sing
• Felix Azcona
• Matusup Bin Gungau (of the North Borneo Armed Constabulary)
• 
• Above Ernesto Lagan
• Jemadar Ojager Singh
• 

 

 

Most of the others were given a range of sentences of solitary confinement (in confined area) at the infamous Outram Road Prison, Singapore. ‘Snowy’ was given a two year sentence, Don Marshall 4 years. They were shipped to Singapore.  Some POWs and civilians received a surprising light sentence, and other’s for no known reason  (except to the Japanese) received harsh sentences.

Below:  Don Marshall – was one of 9 children born in Kalgoorlie to Mary Agnes Giblett (d. 1947) and John Arthur Marshall (d. 1943) .  They married NSW 1890.  Donald died in Outram Road/or Changi Hospital of beri beri 1944.

__________

Ted Keating WX8808

 

This story was included in the address by Cheryl Mellor at Boyup Brook Sandakan Service, 2019.

“Ted Keating, father to the late Steffoni Brackenbury, an active, charming and respected member of Ex-POW Association, enlisted from the Goldfields as did Mr Ron Badock from 2/4^th MGB who passed away December 2016, just short of his 98^th birthday.

Ron was a marvellous source of battalion history. He visited Boyup Brook every year, his children continue the family tradition and we have his daughter Cheryl Johnson and her husband Graeme here today.

Talented footballers, Ron and Ted were part of a large contingent of men boarding the train from their hometown of Norseman to Perth after receiving their ‘Notice to Attend for Enlistment’ advising them to report to Norseman Railway Station 10.00am 8th October 1940.

The train was filling with new enlistments, previously employed in the mines. They all knew each other, or knew of their families, played footy together, drank together, etc.

The train may well have come from as far away as Esperance, through Salmon Gums to Norseman, stopped at Widgiemooltha through to Kalgoorlie and onto Perth.

By the time the train reached Coolgardie, the very thirsty mob had drunk the bar dry.

Of course there was no air-conditioning in 1940 – October weather can be pretty warm and dry in the Goldfields and certainly those small carriages with their hand-push-up small windows were not efficient to cool the carriages when filled to capacity.

As the stream driven train began to pull out of Coolgardie station, Ted Keating, 6’6” tall, a strongly built young man of 16 stone came running down the platform, carrying a 5 gallon keg on his shoulder – his contribution to satisfy the boys on board suffering from dry throats!

Great applause greeted the gregarious and talented footballer from Norseman. The men of the Goldfields showed their appreciation with whistling and loud shouting to honour his amazing effort to keep them supplied in liquid amber.

With a huge smile on his face, Ted was quickly assisted on board the carriage.”

Please go to AWM to hear Teddy Keating’s story with the Last Post

And a video of this service

 

_______________

WX9682 Carl Edgar ‘Snowy’ JENSEN, Sapper 2/6th Field Park Coy, RAE

 

‘Snowy’ was born to Danish parents in Fremantle 1911.  His father was seaman from Sonderborg on the island of Als, Denmark and jumped ship at Fremantle.  He went prospecting and fortunately found a gold nugget which he sent to Denmark  requesting his family to arrange the passage of a young woman known to the family and Snowy.  She arrived in Fremantle and the couple married.

They resided in Fremantle and had a large family of three sons followed by three daughters.  Snowy was the younger of the three boys.  His father who spoke fluent German was the Manager of the German Club.  Following the outbreak of WW1 anti German Sentiments were running high.  The local police recommended the family leave Fremantle until the war was over. The Club was vandalised.

During this time schoolboy Carl spent time at York and Nannup, developing a love of the outdoors and the land.  Carl developed skills and played Aussie Rules Football.  He played with the North Fremantle ex Scholars and in 1930s Carl and three seasons with East Fremantle League team including the 1933 premiership win.

At that time and for many years following, football players had to earn their own income.Carl left to go mining in the Goldfields.  This was the Depression and work was not easy to find.

Snowy ended up in Geraldton where he drove a provisions truck to the stations and Carnarvon.  Between locations, he was a busy man,  he captained the Fire Brigade ‘A’ Football team to an undefeated premiership in 1937.  He lived at the Esplanade Hotel in Geraldton and it was here he met his future wife Elsie, daughter of the owner.

When Carl returned to Perth Elsie then 21 years old followed and lived with Carl’s mother.  Carl and Elsie were talking of marriage.   About this time Carl was offered a position with Shell Oil Coy in North Fremantle –  the position was for married men only. A wedding was hastily arranged.

In 1941 Carl enlisted with AIF and following several weeks of basic training , he found himself sailing on troopship Zealandia for Singapore.  With his blonde hair he soon earned the nickname ‘Snowy’ and quickly bonded with two other Western Australians and Goldfields boys – Ted Keating and Don Marshall.   They were inseparable.     Don wasn’t married however Ted Keating was father to two young children including a young daughter as was Carl.

When Singapore surrendered they became POWs.  The three men vowed to look after each other and were determined to escape.

The three mates were sent with a work party to Palau Bukum Island at the damaged refinery formerly owned by the Asiatic Petroleum Coy. The Japanese were very eager to have Petroleum Coy back in working order and in particular the blending plant to produce aviation fuels.  The men sabotaged the diesel engines instead of repairing – removing vital parts so that the refinery would never work.  The Japanese believed the Australian POWs were simply incompetent.

They also serviced two motor boats used for transferring supplies from the mainland. Of course they saw it as an opportunity to escape and stole one of the 30 foot boats intent on sailing back to Australia!  But they ran the boat aground and were forced to sneak back into camp and hoping it would seem the boat had slipped its mooring!

Some time later the ‘three musketeers’ left Singapore with ‘E’ Force to sail to North Borneo. At Kuching they were able to acquire maps, contact names and information to be used for escaping at Berhala Island before sailing onto to Sandakan.  All escape plans had to be approved by an Officer.  There were quite a few escape groups waiting their turn to leave.  The knew the officer they approached.  He appeared to be most happy with their plans and offered to join the escape party, more importantly as their senior officer.

‘Snowy’ was arrested at Sandakan when the Underground Radio was discovered.  He was beaten, tortured and finally sent on a ship 17 October with all those the Japanese thought guilty, to the Japanese HQ Court at Kuching. It was here ‘Snowy’ was sentenced  to two years at Outram Road Gaol.  His Mate Don Marshall was sentenced to four years at Outram Road. Tragically Don Marshall died of illness at Sandakan.

Worse was the Third Musketeer Ted Keating died at Kuching  of illness and from prior beatings. Keating never made it to the Japanese courts.

‘Snowy’ Jensen later in life

‘Snowy’ died 9 April 2003.

 

Below:  ‘Snowy’ and his three daughters.

WX10932 DONALD ‘DON’ GEORGE CEDRIC MARSHALL

Below:  Marshall’s name is second from the bottom

b. Coolgardie 17 Nov 1906 to parents John and Mary Agnes Marshall (nee Giblett) and he was one of 9 children.  When he enlisted Don was 34 years old.   His parents were residing 10 John Street, Cottesloe.

His older brother Malcolm Angus Marshall (known as Peter) born in 1911, died as a result of an accidental gunshot in childhood play (at the age of 5 years) in 1916. He is buried in the Kalgoorlie Cemetery, W.A

Another brother Jack, born in 1902 Coolgardie also enlisted and survived to live to 80 years of age. Brother Robert Douglas born 1909 Coolgardie also enlisted.  He survived to return home. Neil Ronald Marshall was born in 1904 at Coolgardie.   The oldest son Francis Keith was born in 1894. Don had three sisters.

Don’s father died in 1943 and his mother in 1947.

 

His occupation was recorded as Electricity Welder.

Marshall enlisted with 2/6th field Park Coy where he met up with Keating and Jensen.

At Singapore they became POWs of Japan.

The three men were arrested at Sandakan accused of assisting the ‘Underground Radio’ sent to Kuching where Keating who was very ill died, and Marshall and Jensen were sentenced to imprisonment at the notorious Outram Road, Singapore.    Don Marshall was sentenced to four Years at Outram Road Gaol. It was here Don Marshall died 11 Aug 1944 of illness.

 

 

Above:  Kings Park.

 

 

 

https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/R1685724

 

Read further about Rex Blow :  He was a champion swimmer

From Blow’s Bigraphy

Having narrowly missed selection to represent Australia at the Pacific Surf Games in Hawaii in June 1939, and  the Olympic Games scheduled for Tokyo in 1940, Blow looked set for further sporting success when World War II intervened. On 3 November 1939 he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) and was posted to the 2/5th Field Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery. Commissioned in July 1940 as a lieutenant, he was transferred to the 2/10th Field Regiment, with which he sailed to Singapore in February 1941. While stationed at Malacca, Malaya (Malaysia), he met Diana Mary Wiseman, daughter of a prominent British expatriate, whom he married on 16 August 1941 at St Andrew’s Cathedral, Singapore. On 8 December Japan invaded Malaya. He saw action there and in Singapore, before becoming a prisoner of war (POW) when the Allied forces surrendered on 15 February 1942.

After spending several months with a POW work party erecting a memorial to Japanese war dead at Bukit Timah.  In March 1943 Blow was placed on a draft of about 500 Australians sent to Sandakan, British North Borneo (Sabah). In June he and seven others escaped in boats from a temporary camp at the entrance to Sandakan harbour. They reached nearby Tawi Tawi Island, where they joined United States forces in the Philippines, and engaged in guerrilla warfare against the occupying Japanese. Appointed commanding officer of the 1st Battalion, 125th Infantry Regiment, and then chief of staff in the 108th Infantry Division (Philippine Commonwealth Army), he led many successful actions and, in 1944, was promoted to captain, then temporary major. On 3 April he led an attack that was halted by heavy machine-gun fire from strongly entrenched enemy forces. Exposing himself to fire, he climbed a coconut tree to direct mortar barrages that forced the enemy to retreat. For his courage and inspirational leadership, he was awarded both the Silver Star by the United States Army and the British (Imperial) Distinguished Service Order.

 

 

‘In June Rex Blow and seven others POWs including 2/15th Officer Charlie Wagner, escaped in boats from Berhala Island off the coast of Sandkan.

They reached nearby Tawi Tawi Island, where they joined United States forces in the Philippines, and engaged in guerrilla warfare against the occupying Japanese.

SANDAKAN MEMORIAL SERVICE

TUESDAY 9 SEPTEMBER 2025

HELD BOYUP BROOK

 

Boyup Brook was especially cold on this morning, in fact it was very cold across the whole south west.  Visitors welcomed the opportunity to warm up with coffee/tea and a splendid morning tea hosted by the Boyup Brook Shire.

Service MC was Colin Hales, who is also President of Boyup Brook RSL.  The Catafalaque Party was represented by 515 ACU Bunbury who did an excellent job.

Sandakan Scholarship Recipient for 2024 Amalia Cailes gave her presentation outlining her memorable visit to North Borneo and the Sandakan Anzac Day Service.

Two young boys from St Mary’s Catholic Primary School gave a Prayer of Remembrance. Followed by a song by the Boyup Brook Distlrict High School Choir.

Colin Hales gave the address.

The previous day the Sandakan Scholarship for 2025 had been awarded to Clancy Westphal, 14 years old who had constructed a replica punishment cage which was on exhibition.

SANDAKAN SPEECH by CLANCY WESTPHAL

BOYUP BROOK 2025

DIARY ENTRY – MARCH 3, 1945

PTE EDWARD ‘NED’ LAWSON, 2/18^TH BATTALIION. (Fictional name based on real events))

 

(Sound Cue:  Jungle ambience – birds chirping, insects buzzing, distant rustling of leaves)

The jungle around us is deceptively beautiful, lush, green and alive but it masks the decay and desperation that have taken hold of this place. It’s early morning, I think, though time has lost its meaning here.   The sun is already high enough to cook the canvas roof above me and the air is thick with humidity.   I didn’t sleep last night.  The coughing never stops and someone, maybe two, passed in the dark.   We don’t ask names anymore it’s easier that way.

(Sound Cue:  muffled coughing, soft groans, distant footsteps crunching on dirt)

They’re calling roll again.  The guards shout in Japanese.  Their voices sharp and impatient.  If you’re slow to respond, they beat you.  If you collapse, they leave you where you fall.  I’m trying to stand but my legs feel weak.   My stomach hasn’t known food in days and the rice they give us when they give it, is barely enough to keep a man alive, we receive 80 grams of rice a day which is 108 calories even though an average man needs 3500 calories for the same work.  Because of this we are skin and bone and our uniforms are hanging off our bodies like rags.

(Sound Cue:  Barked command in Japanese, followed by slap and a grunt)

Just now Jacko stumbled.  He didn’t move fast enough.  He’s being dragged to the punishment cage, a bamboo box no bigger than a dog kennel measuring 170cm by 130cm in size, left out in the sun.    Men spend days in there crouched in agony, their skin blistering, their body has been defeated.  No food.  No water.  Just heat, flies and silence.  It’s meant to break you.  And it does.

(Sound cue:  Buzzing flies, creaking wood, faint whimpering)

I’m shaking constantly now.  It’s not just the fear, though that’s always present, it’s the fever.  Malaria maybe.  Or beri beri.  Or both.  It doesn’t matter.  There is no medicine here.  The Japanese guards don’t allow Red Cross parcels through.  We were told they were sent, but we’ve never seen them.  Our medical officer does what he can, but he’s working with nothing, no medication, no bandages, not even clean water.

(Sound Cue:  Rain begins softly, then intensifies, distant thunder and cries)

It’s raining again.  The monsoon season has turned the camp into a swamp.  The mud is ankle-deep, and we’re still forced to work.  We haul logs, dig trenches and build an airstrip that will never be finished.  Yesterday I watched a man collapse from exhaustion.  He was shot on the spot.  No Hesitation.  No mercy.  His body dragged away like he was worth nothing.

(Sound Cue:  Gunshot echoing, followed by silence)

There’s talk of another march.  They call it the ‘death march’ to Ranau, 260 km through dense jungle.  Only the strongest are being chosen.  Those who collapse along the way will be shot.  Those too weak to begin will be left behind to die slowly.  Till now a dozen prisoners have accepted.  It will be a miracle if they can survive.  The rest of us aren’t sure if we should risk it, most of us aren’t willing and the other half aren’t capable.

(Sound Cue:  Marching boots, laboured breathing, jungle sounds fading in and out)

I’m writing this now hiding the pages beneath my blanket.  If they find it this will probably be the last you will ever hear from me.   I’ll be punished.  Beaten, maybe even worse.  But someone has to know.  Someone has to remember what happened here.  We were soldiers once, Australian and British men, proud and brave.  Now we’re shadows of ourselves, clinging to scraps of dignity and life in a place designed to erase us.

(Sound Cue:  Whispered prayers, pencil scratching on paper)

Even here, in this forgotten corner of the world, we try to hold onto something, brotherhood, humanity, the idea that we even mattered.  We share what little we have.  We comfort each other when the pain becomes too much.  We bury our dead with whatever honour we can put together.  And we hope, somehow, that the world will hear our story.

(Sound cue:  Wind through the trees, distant birdcall, fading footsteps)

If this page survives, let it speak for those of us who won’t.  Let it scream what we couldn’t.  Let it bear witness to the cruelty we endured and the courage we tried to hold onto.  The world must never forget Sandakan.

_____________

This was the diary of Edward ‘Ned’ Lawson. 

After hearing this story it showed me that it’s up to us to keep these memories going for generations to come.   War is unforgiving and miserable and no-one deserves to go through that pain, by learning about the Sandakan story we can honour the 2,428 men who died as POWs at the hands of the Japanese.  Their stories rest where they lay and must never be forgotten.

Below:  Clancy Westphal and his mother

 

Clancy’s replica of the punishment cage.

 

 

 

Above:  Mrs June Edwards aged 100 years, sister to WX7883 William ‘Bill’ Herbert Beard, d. Sandakan 10 July 1945 aged 34 years.

 

 

 

Above:  Boyup Brook District High School Choi

 

Above:  Brian Osborne, now 80 years,  son of WX7634 Sydney Albert Osborne who died at Sandakan 21 June 1945 aged 31 years.

When Syd Osborne sailed to Singapore in 1942 Brian was 3 months old.  Syd and his wife were Fairbridge Farm School children.  Brian was the youngest of two boys born prior to 1942.

THE SANDAKAN ODE

They are not dead, not even broken

only their dust has gone back home to earth,

for they, the essential they,

shall have rebirth whenever a word of them is spoken.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Above:  Bernie O’Sullivan at Boyup Brook 1991.

The condensed version of Bernie O’Sullivan’s address 1991 Boyup Brook.

POW NX40325 JIMMY DARLINTON, 2/18^TH 

A TRUE AUSTRALIAN LEGEND from SANDAKAN 1943

Sandakan guards were both Japanese and Formosan

 

 

Above:  Jimmy Darlington on board ‘Queen Mary’ sailing to Singapore – fighting Ron Sykes for Heavyweight Champion

North Borneo POWs working at speedo rate at Sandakan aerodrome were given a very small break Christmas 1942.   Commander Hoshijima was now determined stage two of the aerodrome should be completed as soon as possible.  Hence POW working party quotas were increased and sick were forced to make up the numbers. (1)

In most POW Camps, Australians adopted their own system to pool rice rations ensuring their sick received more food than the miserly portions Japanese admin had ordered throughout all POW Camps (their logic was sick POWs must receive a much smaller allocation of food because they weren’t working!).   Hoshijima decided to put a stop to this custom and determined the POW rice ration be taken to the aerodrome, cooked  and consumed there.  He also ordered a crackdown on anybody trying to obtain food outside prescribed hours.

The beatings, bashings and being caged continued.  The worst was being sentenced to the suspended humiliation cage at Sandakan right outside the guard’s house for all to walk past and for every guard the opportunity to mistreat prisoners.

The following story has been covered by several books and authors.  Their stories vary somewhat – however as none of us was there, and every book or story is slightly different, I have taken the liberty of putting the story together as best I can.

(1) As well as ongoing and extremely dangerous, was the popular pastime of going out through the wire to forage for food,  entertainment included ‘Gunboat’ Simpson’s popular gambling den and there were always impromptu two-up games.   The most popular entertainment was boxing and sometimes wrestling.  Boxing champion was part-aboriginal Jimmy Darlington from NSW.  Jimmy was champion boxer on the ‘Queen Mary’ transport ship from Australia to Singapore, he had boxed at Singapore prior to battle and was 8^th Division champion.

Sandakan offered a variety of boxers:

Ritchie Murray – talented semi- professional welterweight

‘Gunboat’ Simpson – heavyweight champion of Victoria

Jimmy Warren – Queensland’s reputed lightweight boxing champion

Others always waiting to have a go included  Billy Young’s mates:   (‘The Story of Billy Young’ by Anthony Hill)

Sandakan & Outram Road Survivor – Jimmy Finn, John or ‘Snowy’ Bryant, Keith Gillett, ‘Punchy’ Donohue, Clarrie Grinter (driver to Hoshijima).

The best was by far was Jimmy Darlington.

Admirers often gave Jimmy extra rations which in turn he shared with other mates from his home town of Barrara. It could be said Jimmy was a talented, intelligent and uneducated (part Aboriginal) man who could fit in anywhere.

(2)   He was also generous and gentle, but beware anybody who made reference to his aboriginality.

Jimmy let it be known among friends that if a guard hit him without just cause he would hit him back.

0n 17 Feb 1943, shortly after the noon meal at the Drone ‘Mad Mick’ stopped off at the POW cookhouse and proceeded to wash his dirty underpants in one of the 44-gallon cooking drums.  One of the cooks, an older, grey-haired and much-liked POW made the mistake of pointing out that washing one’s smalls in the cooking pot was not accept able.  ‘Mad Mick’s answer was to knock the cook flying after which he began hitting him with his sword stick as he lay on the ground.

First in the waiting queue was Jimmy Darlington.    He stepped forward saying words to the Japanese guard effect to ‘ ‘Lay off, he is an old man’ and gently pushed the guard away.  The guard immediately swung a punch at Darlington who ducked and blocked with his left hand and hit the guard with a right upper cut to his jaw.  The guard was knocked out cold and was not seen again for some weeks.  It was thought his jaw was broken.  Other guards quickly arrived, hitting at Darlington who continued to block their blows with his arms and at this point, and remained on his feet.

Darlington was immediately set upon with rifle butts and sticks being wielded by other guards who came from every direction.

The melee began moving towards one of the skip-lines, more guards descended.

Many including a number who were unfamiliar with the POW and had fixed bayonets to keep other prisoners away.  Their response was rapid and highly organised.   The guards seemed to instinctively know what to do – they had special form of torture in mind for Darlington. They fought and hit him until Jimmy, all bloody lay out on the unconscious on the ground.

From a nearby pile of split wood, the guards began picking out pieces with the sharpest of sharp edges.  They made a platform making sure all the sharpest sides were sticking upwards.  Jimmy was dragged over to the platform and made to kneel.  The guards then began to wedge other sharp edged wood pieces ensuring the sharpest edges were placed between the joints of the knees.  Further wood was wedged between his arm joints and his back.

In view of every POW working at the Drome Darlington’s kneeling body is bound by wet ropes – his arms trussed behind his back and tied to his legs.  His right arm is drawn back at such an agonising angle behind his waist that jimmy wakes from his unconscious state in excruciating pain.  Guards ram a piece of sharp edged wood behind his knees and they jump on either end like a seesaw.  When Jimmy fainted or fell off the wood guards would revive him with a bucket of water, set his body upright again and the process was repeated again and again for half a day.  As the ropes dried out in the heat they cut deeper and deeper into Jimmy’s flesh cutting off circulation.  His hands and feet turn purple, then black.

His fellow POWs know Jimmy will die unless the ropes are released.  They distract the guards’ attention by screaming and yelling and throwing down their tools, while drome ambulance man on duty Sgt W. ‘Mac’ McDonough rushes to Jimmy to cut the binding ropes to release the pressure.

McDonough is later bashed for his effort.

Darlington lives, but only just.

Covered in blood and wounds, his arm badly broken, his face puffed up and his eyes shut Jimmy is taken back to camp and thrown into a small wooden ‘cage’ out of sight of the men.  Jimmy curls up alone and quivering.  One of the ‘six survivors’ Braithwaite recalls seeing Jimmy brought into camp – he was insane with rage.  He was tied with his arms behind his back and his legs tied to his arms.

M.O.s plead to help him, but the Japanese refused.

Darlington is given no food for 2 days.

Although out of physical sight, POWs can think only of Jimmy.  His pain as he howls without end throughout the night becomes their pain.  His wails are heard right throughout the camp but nobody is permitted to go to his aid.  The Japanese refuse medical aid.  They are happy ….. Jimmy’s wails will act as a warning to the men.

He passes out and later in the night regains consciousness waking the whole camp resuming his hideous howls begging the guards to kill him.  By now the guards can barely stand his howls and send for an Australian doctor.  Capt Domenic Picone brings water laced with morphine from the POW’s precious reserve supply, easing Darlington into a sleep.

The next morning Jimmy’s ruined body is dragged out of the cage past the shocked faces of Australian POWs standing to attention and dumped in a truck bound for an unknown destination.  At this point, Capt Ken Mosher falls out, strides across the parade ground and shakes the near-lifeless hand of his faithful adjutant.

There is no reprisal from the silent Japanese.

Jimmy is taken to a local prison placed in a wooden punishment box, questioned and tortured.  It was not long after that Billy Young and his mates who had been caught trying to escape, arrived at the same prison and received the same treatment as Jimmy.   Two of Billy’s mates had limbs deliberately broken by guards.  The POWs were here two months in small wooden punishment boxes being enterrogated about their escape plans.  Finally they were deemed not part of a wider underground spy network and the men with Jimmy Darlington were put on a boat to Kuching to be tried in a Japanese military court.

Billy and Jimmy were surprised to be reunited on board with their other five Sandakan mates who they thought had successfully escaped.

At Kutching the group of Australians were handcuffed and chained together, not knowing what was in store.  At the Court hearing the Australians were then handcuffed to five local Chinese.  The Chinese were called first, each was tried (in Japanese) and sentenced to execution.

The group of Australians were now terrified.  Their court procedures were also in Japanese with no translators.

What a shock to receive their sentence of imprisonment at Outram Road Gaol, Singapore.  Later, perhaps some of them may have preferred execution.

‘Until now, no POWs have witnessed such prolonged and merciless cruelty.  The severity of Darlington’s torture draws a line in the sand’ wrote Braithwaite.  “The men now know there is no end to the Japanese forms of cruelty’.

Sometimes out of sight but now never out of mind, are two wooden punishment cages.

Out of sight to POW accommodation is the small cage which stands behind Japanese barracks, looking like a large dog kennel.  Six feet long, five deep and four high – two or three prisoners are intended at one time.

A larger one is soon built to stand in front of the guardhouse which will hold several men.  Made of 2” X 1” wooden bars,  they are larger than ‘Tiger cages’ the South Vietnamese will use in Vietnam to isolate, humiliate and torture prisoners.

A third cage is built in Sandakan township to punish locals and exhibit Allied POWs to the civilians.

The ‘cage’ is a feature of Japanese POW camps.

The Kuching ‘cage’ is of barbed wire on a wooden frame.  In order to curb growing resistance, POWs are ordered to construct two larger cages in their camp.  The largest built October 1944 is 15 feet X 9 feet X 9 feet for group punishments, cramming in as many POWs as possible.

The POWs are forced to sit cross-legged for days.  Initially the maximum sentence is 30 days but this is later extended to five or six weeks or longer.  Dressed only in loincloths, possibly a shirt, POWs are exposed nightly to swarms of mosquitos. There is no food for the first week and thereafter one serve rice per day.  Prisoners are permitted two daily toilet visits, but for those with dysentery (nearly every POW suffered at some time) the men defecate and urinate between the bamboo slats within view of any passing guards and prisoners.

POWs guilty of minor infringements can be thrown in the cage – typical crimes include stealing food, ‘going slow’ i.e. working slow at the Drome, failing to stand to attention in presence of guards and leaving work parties without permission.  In the coming years scores of POWs will be locked in the cages with little water and no food.  Many will die.

One of the ‘six survivors’, Keith Botterill is sent to the cage on three occasions for stealing food.  His longest sentence is 40 days, more than the supposed 30 days.  Botterill said:

“First seven days no food, no water for first three days, forced to drink until you are sick on the third night.  Every evening you received a bashing – hit with sticks and fists, kicking.  No wash in that 40 days”.

 Botterill shared the cage with17 others with lice and mosquitos.  No talking although POWs whispered.  They must kneel every day and at night the men would lay side by side, squashed up in the confined cage.

Every morning the men would be taken out of the cage for exercise or PT.

Botterill recalled ‘This consisted of a severe bashing’.  Guards would commonly be seen jumping on the backs of prisoners doing push-ups.  ‘Men are carried back into the cage crying.  Some collapse but a bucket of water is thrown over them’.

Miraculously there are exceptions to the reign of violence.
Some guards try to help the men in the cage.

‘Sparkles’ so named for his easy going nature, is one of the rare ones –  he smuggled food at night, passing it through the slats to the men.  ‘Sparkles’ also smuggled food into the camp.  Ordered to bash prisoners on the slightest pretext, Sparkles often restrains himself to the anger of his superiors. Or he performs as perfunctory bashing then apologises to the POWs.

Most condemned to the cage contract malaria and all suffer severe malnutrition. Their mental health deteriorates engendering chronic fear and depression. Men wish for death which is precisely the Japanese intention.

According to “Fighting Monsters” by Richard Wallace Braithwaite, POWs hardly ever retaliated – history shows there were only two instances at Sandakan one being Jimmy Darlington.

How difficult was it control one’s temper under provocation? There was temptation to thump a smaller bloke who was hitting you for no good reason and being utterly unreasonable took courage and strength.

Darlington’s army record lists fines for ‘drunkenness’ and ‘indecent language’ however he served as an effective and reliable batman to Capt. Ken Mosher of 2/18th. Darlington was only 5’ 8” tall but excelled in the ring and was the pride of 8th Division’s boxing line-up and could any deck any man twice his size. His backers earned a lot of money.

His war record dated 1 April 1942 says he is ‘Missing – POW Borneo ‘.
We know Jimmy is sent to North Borneo with ‘B’ Force to build an aerodrome at Sandakan.
Jimmy Darlington’s record states he was ‘recovered from Japanese at Changi POW Camp.’

On 7 January 1946 Jimmy is discharged from the army ‘on compassionate grounds’.

According to the Jimmy’s medical report he ‘ has deep scars on both arms, his right leg, right thumb and right arm are all horribly misshapen and he has suffered a terrible break.’

Paul Ham in his book “Sandakan’ writes ‘Jimmy’s brain is numb and incommunicative’.

Darlington with Billy Young and other Australian POWs were  sent to trial at Kutching, on the north west coast of North Borneo.  Kutching is the location of Japanese HQ  for all of Borneo POW Camps and Japan’s 37th Army. The men were subjected to further brutality and questioning by Kenpeitai (Japanese Police).

Kutching is also where the Officers of Sandakan POWs were rounded up sent to from Sandakan August 1943 to relocate to Batu Lintang camp.  This move was a Japanese attempt   to weaken the POWs now without leaders. Conditions for the remaining prisoners worsened, with reduced rations and sick prisoners forced to work on the airstrip

Jimmy and Billy Young were separately sentenced to Outram Road Gaol, Singapore.

The POWs were placed in a horse float and sailed to Singapore – to Outram Road Gaol.

\

It is believed Jimmy’s arm was operated on during a trip to Changi Camp Hospital whilst at Outram Road Gaol.  Following his trial at Kutching,he was sentenced to Outram Road Gaol, Singapore – a notorious hell hole. During the trial at Kutching Billy Young was able to nurse Jimmy and take care of him as Billy was also facing the Japanese court because he had attempted escape.

Above:  Prisoner Cell

Above:  regular baths for scabies

 

The Australian legal team despised Hoshijima – they were reeling from the horror of learning NO POWs had survived Sandakan except the Six Australian Survivors who had escaped – and thank goodness were able to provide valuable knowledge of the Sandakan POWs and their dreadful deaths at the hands of cruel Japanese.

Hoshijima’s behaviour throughout the trial at Labuan was cocky.  He was seen laughing and joking with his legal team and he was obviously confident of his Japanese commanding role.  He was sentenced to death by hanging and hung Rabaul 6 April 1946.    Please read further.

For your interest there were 71 men from 2/4th who were sent to Sandakan with either ‘B’ or ‘E’ Force.  They all perished except WX227 Alfred ‘Alf’  STEVENS who was rounded up, arrested with the underground radio group of 20 Australians and 50 civilians to face trial at Kutching, North Borneo also men like Jimmy Darlington, Billy Young and any POW sentenced at Kutching to imprisonment at Outram Road Gaol.   Alf was sentenced to prison at Outram Road Gaol.  He survived to return home to WA.  Please read his story

Please read our stories on Sandakan POWs.

Below:  Statement of Atrocity or Crime re Jimmy DARLINGTON

Below:  Barraba Historical Society

 

Below:  Nov 1945 Jimmy signs up for a boxing match!

 

December 79 years ago at Sandakan POW Camps, North Borneo two young Western Australian POWs extremely ill with tropical illnesses were fighting to stay alive.   Australian medical staff working desperately to keep them living without midicines. 

There was no Christmas shopping 1944 North Borneo WW2

SANDAKAN WHERE ONLY MISERY EXISTED

 

Kalgoorlie born WX5222 Les O’Neil  (above) was one of 71 POWs from 2/4^th sent from Singapore to work at Sandakan Airfields in North Borneo.  Les was with ‘E’ Force Borneo which departed Singapore on 2 March 1943.

In 1936 Les moved back to Goldfields from Perth to work at Kurnalpi mining near Kalgoorlie.  It was from here Les enlisted July 1940 to join AIF, later becoming part of ‘B’ Coy 9 Platoon as a Driver.

In December 1944 the Sandakan airfields were being regularly bombed by allied planes from the east coast.  The Japanese in turn ordered POW work parties to make hasty repairs, until finally by end of December 1944, the airfields were too badly damaged, no longer able to be repaired.

On 12 December 1944 Les O’Neil became ill at Sandakan No 1 Camp was assessed by an Australian MO saying he could not work.  But Japanese guards would make the final judgement as to whether O’Neil should work and if he was sufficiently ill!

Goldfields’ boys Les O’Neil and Tom Smith (below) were sent to very primitive POW hospitals, separate from their barracks.

With few medical supplies O’Neil and Smith with their compromised immune systems due to several years of very little food, poor diet and excessively hard work faced survival odds.   O’Neil was unable to fight acute gastroenteritis and died four days later on 16 Dec 1944 aged 36 years.  Tom Smith died 18 December aged 32 years.  Neither were married however came from close knit families.

We know Les and Tom were nursed by dedicated orderlies and doctors who would have fought desperately to save their mates.

These young Western Australians in the prime of their lives, who dreamt of being free, returning home to their families and perhaps marrying, having children of his own never saw Australia again.

 

 

Norseman born WX8731 Thomas (Tom) Ernest SMITH (above) who arrived at Sandakan with ‘B’ Force Borneo in 1942 nearly 12 months earlier than ‘E’ Force, became seriously ill and sent to hospital where he died 18 Dec 1944 of Pulmonary Tuberculosis and beri beri aged 32 years.  Tom born 1912 Norseman is younger brother to Robert (Bob) Leighton Smith WX8736 (below) born 1908.  The brothers enlisted 23 October 1940 and joined 2/4th’s ‘B’ Company, No. 8 Platoon.

Bob Smith was KIA  Singapore 11 February 1942 when fighting with 8th Platoon under the command of Lt. MacKinnon.  Bob was one of four men from 8 Platoon to tragically die that day, the others were – Sgt Richard Sandilands who was second-in-charge, Don Day and Raymond Carruthers.

Below:  Sandilands, Don Day and Carruthers.

Tom’s mother Sarah Smith lost three sons to WW2.  https://2nd4thmgb.com.au/story/sarah-jane-smith-mother-loses-three-sons-ww2/

Not a single 2/4^th soldier survived Sandakan.

Approximately 2,400 Allied servicemen including 1,787 Australian POWs mostly perished between Jan-Aug 1945 at Sandakan and ‘marching’ to Ranau.

Just 6 Australian men survived the horrors of Sandakan in WW2.

Please read story of Sandakan and its brave POWs.

https://2nd4thmgb.com.au/story/b-e-forces-borneo-sandakan/