AdrianPOW

Changi Prison – Australian POW’s Over 30,000 Australian soldiers became prisoners of war (POW’s). A third of these prisoners were taken by the Germans and their allies, while the other two thirds were left to the mercy of the Japanese. Those who were captured by the Japanese, either fighting or after Singapore surrendered were treated brutally by the Japanese, with a complete disregard for the laws and expectations put in place to maintain basic human rights for the POW’s.

Many prisoners were forced to live in inhospitable jungles, endure hard labour, work for days at a time, often starved, received no medical treatment and were regularly beaten, taunted and abused. It usually ended in the deaths of the Australian prisoners.

On the 15th of February, 1942, Singapore surrendered to the Japanese forces, and in doing so many of the Australian soldiers serving there were captured as POW’s. Exactly 14,972 Australians were taken prisoner in Changi prison, a British garrison, on the north-east tip of Singapore. The nearly 15,000 POW’s were made to live in the Selarang Barracks, a building originally built to house a maximum of 900 people. This meant it was extremely over crowded, hot, had a lack of food and water, and illness spread extremely quickly.

Given the obvious overcrowding, lack of food and water and illness, the Japanese allowed the prisoners to sleep outside, on stretchers they made out of wood. Unlike many of the prisons, the commanding officers of the British and Australian soldiers were allowed to discipline and maintain control, while in prison, to keep up morale and to keep the prisoners from bad behaviour.

Sandakan and the Death March

Some of the Australian POW’s from Changi prison were relocated to Sandakan in 1942, with the purpose of building an airstrip. To start with, they were treated reasonably, and better than the conditions had been at Changi. However, as time went on, bashings increased and their rations reduced.

By late 1944, the allied forces advanced towards Borneo, the Japanese captor’s sent approximately 2,000 Australian and British prisoners away from Sandakan, towards the West to reach Ranau. Most of the prisoners were sick, and almost all of them weak from the poor conditions, the beatings and the lack of food or water. These prisoners were made to walk the 260 kilometres, along uneven jungle terrain to Ranau.

Not surprisingly, many of the prisoners died on the way, their bodies lost on the jungle paths. The ones who simply couldn’t go any further were killed, and those too weak had been left at Sandakan, where they died or were killed. Only six of the prisoners, all Australian, out of about 1000 of them, made it to Ranau, all the others died or had been killed on the way. This is known as the “Death March”, and is still the worst atrocity committed against Australians during war.

Bibliography Australian War Memorial Site: [] [] Wikipedia Articles: [] [] [] ABC Website [] Macquarie University []