Sandakan Revisited

october | december 2012

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Aussies and Brits return to remember Sandakan

by Roderick Eime

Roderick Eime attends the memorial service and reflects on this almost overlooked atrocity.

Australians are recalling their military history with great enthusiasm.

The dawn services at Gallipoli and Kokoda are booked out years in advance and young Aussies are turning up in droves to keep the ANZAC spirit alive. But away from the well-known battlefields of Gallipoli, New Guinea and the Western Front, Borneo is turning up as the latest destination for the new travel trend: military ‘pilgrimages’.

For many years the tragedy of Sandakan went unacknowledged.

Thanks in a large part to Australian author and researcher, Lynette Silver, whose two books ‘Sandakan - A Conspiracy of Silence’ and ‘Blood Brothers’ helped restore the heartwrenching saga of the so-called Death Marches to the study list of significant military events.

THIS PAGE: Visitors paying respects at the Sandakan Memorial service; FACING PAGE: CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: The restored Kundasang Memorial with Mt. Kinabalu in the background; Australian WWII veterans attend the memorial service; Australian army personnel stand on guard as wreaths are laid.

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During WWII, Sandakan was the site of a particularly brutal POW camp housing mainly Australian, but also British servicemen who were captured after the fall of Singapore in 1942. Their main task was to build an airstrip, a facility that is still in use today. In the closing months of the war, the Japanese feared an Allied invasion along the Eastern coast of Sabah and hurriedly closed the camp and moved the prisoners inland. This triggered one of the most horrific and inhumane events of the entire Pacific Theatre.

weak or ill to be moved were killed and buried in mass graves while the rest were mustered for long, tortuous marches inland to Ranau, 250 kilometres to the west through dense jungle.

August, a special ceremony will take place at the new obelisk installed at the site. But the ceremony does not commemorate the 2400 fallen soldiers alone, it also recognises the suffering of the local Sabah population under the brutal occupying Japanese and the bond that formed between them during those desperate times.

This abbreviated account does not do the story justice, but at the end of the war only six survivors were left to tell the story. All of them had escaped en route and been sheltered by locals at great risk to themselves.

Sandakan Memorial Park is situated about 11 km outside of Sandakan city centre, the former site of the camp now locates the suburb of Taman Rimba.

Buses and taxis service the location.

Orion Expedition Cruises includes the Sandakan Memorial ceremony in its annual Borneo itineraries. See www.orionexpeditions.com >> Borneo  For more details on Sandakan, the memorial park and other attractions, see www.sabahtourism.com

A long-forgotten memorial at Kundasang was restored in 2004, mainly through the private efforts of Mr Sevee Charuruks, a retired ThaiChinese businessman. (see breakout) Today, the site of the old camp and what little remains has been converted into a permanent memorial and museum for the soldiers who died there and on the marches. Each year on the 15th of

Image. Roderick Eime

The story of the Sandakan Death Marches is now belatedly told to school children along with the well-worn tales of Gallipoli, Kakadu and Ypres. The famous Australian War Memorial in Canberra only dedicated a section to the event in 1995 and there has been much handwringing about why the story was suppressed for so long.

Image. Roderick Eime

While it has been difficult to accurately recreate the details because of the few survivors, it is now regarded as fact. Prisoners too

Image. Roderick Eime

Image. Roderick Eime

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Located in the shadow of Mt Kinabalu, the Kundasang War memorial was built in 1962 to commemorate the 2428 POWs who died on the Sandakan-Ranau Death Marches and acknowledge the suffering of the local population under Japanese occupation.

Mr. Sevee Charuruks (left) kwisemustered a team to restore the neglected memorial in 2005 using his own funds and those raised through his efforts. He was awarded an honorary MBE in 2007.Â

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