Patricia Hului

Francis Xavier Witti or also known as Franz Witti, was one of the first few Europeans to explore the northern part of Borneo.

He was a former navy officer in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and avid explorer.

When Witti came in contact with German adventurer and diplomat Baron Gustav von Overbeck during his journey through Southeast Asia, he was introduced to North Borneo.

Witti was thrilled to know that this place had never been completely explored by any Europeans before.

After his short visit in North Borneo, he went to Europe to look for a job with the British North Borneo Company.

However, he was scared that his nationality would prevent him from getting the job, he then decided to return to Borneo on his own.

In North Borneo, Witti conducted various survey reports in the area. Hence, the British North Borneo Company finally officially hired him in 1877.

Under the company, Witti was in-charge of carrying out expeditions of exploration while identifying the natural resources in the area.

Through these explorations, he became the first European to visit some of the places in North Borneo.

The founding of Kudat town and debunking the idea of Kinabalu Lake

During one of his explorations, Witti discovered oil about 26 km outside present-day Kudat town.

It is assumed that this might be the reason why the Company chose Kudat as their first settlement in British North Borneo.

The town was officially founded on Dec 7, 1881.

Besides the discovery of oil, Witti was one of the first explorers who confirmed that there was no such thing as Kinabalu lake.

In the olden days, the locals believed that there was a great lake at the peak of Mount Kinabalu.

However, the earliest documented expedition to Mount Kinabalu in 1851 and 1858, unveiled the fact that there was no lake.

How did the local people come to believe there was a lake on the submit?

It was believed that during the Ice Age, Mount Kinabalu was covered with ice sheets and glaciers moving slowly down its slopes. As the glaciers moved down, it was possible that the locals could only see the peak. Since it is surrounded by glistening sheets of ice, it looked like there was a lake right below the summit.

The summary of Franz Witti’s journey

Admiral Richard Charles Mayne (1835-1892) was a Royal Navy officer and a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.

During a meeting of the society on Jan 30, 1888, he gave a summary of explorations in British North Borneo.

One of the sources of his presentation for the meeting was Witti’s diaries.

According to his diary, Witti started his journey under the Company from the northwestern end of Marudu Bay on Nov 10, 1880, reaching Papar on Dec 5.

Mayne stated, “This was a long arduous journey, occupying twenty-five days and covering some 150 miles. Passing well to the east of Mount Kinabalu, striking the headwaters of the Sugut river, which flows into the north of Labuk Bay on the east coast, and then turning west to the Padas and Papar rivers, he passed through several villages, varying in size, at all of which the party were hospitably treated.”

Mayne pointed out that Witti had to bribe one of the natives to take him exploringaround Mount Kinabalu. While the local was happy to have a petticoat for his wife (thanks to Witti’s bribery), he was reportedly so scared a big fish would devour them once they discovered the legendary Kinabalu lake. Thankfully, the big fish and the lake never existed in the first place.

As for Witti’s second journey which took place between May 13 and June 17, 1881, he travelled from the head of Marudu Bay to east heading to Sandakan.

In Witti’s own words, he described how excited his local companions were. He wrote, “They questioned one another, ‘What will my employers say? What will our old men at Tempassuk say?’ is the query with me. We did not achieve great things, but the little we did outside the round of everyday business will serve the purpose which it was done; whenever we came to a place for the first time, there we dare show our face again.”

Witti’s third and last journey – which he lost his life – was undertaken on Mar 9, 1882, nearly a year after the second.

He travelled through Kimanis until he reached Pagalan river.

According to Mayne, Witti’s journal ended abruptly on Mar 28. Interestingly, the Dutch sent the copy of his diary to the society some time after Witti’s death.

It is understood that he arrived in a place called Limbawan, somewhere near Keningau. There the local Murut chief named Jeludin warned him not to travel to Peluan (Paluan). This is because there was a feud between Jeludin’s country of Nabai and Peluan.

Nabai and Peluan are tribes belonged to the Murut ethnic group. In the olden days, Murut Nabai lived mainly in Keningau while the Murut Peluan were found near the Padas river in Tenom.

The last European to see him alive was his colleague L.B von Donop in Tambunan. His final letter was written on June 11, 1882, writing from “Naloyan, Dalit”.

The letter was a reply to his boss Sir William Hood Treacher, the first Governor of North Borneo (1881-1887).

Treacher ordered Witti to return to the coast. Instead, he insisted on travelling into the interior where he met his death only a few miles from the Dutch border of Kalimantan.

British Governor of North Borneo’s account of Franz Witti’s death

Speaking of Treacher, Witti’s death was recorded in his book, British Borneo: sketches of Brunai, Sarawak, Labuan and North Borneo (1891).

Treacher gave his account on what happened on that fateful day when Witti died.

“The two principal pioneer explorers of British North Borneo were Witti and Frank Hatton, both of whom met with violent deaths.

“Witti’s services as one of the first officers stationed in the country, before the British North Borneo Company was formed, have already been referred to, and I have drawn on his able report for a short account of the slave system which formerly prevailed.

“He had served in the Austrian Navy and was a very energetic, courageous and accomplished man.

“Besides minor journeys, he had traversed the country from West to East from North to South, and inland to the headwaters of the Kinabatangan and Sambakong Rivers, that he was murdered by a tribe, whose language none of his party understood, but whose confidence he had endeavoured to win by reposing confidence in them, to the extent even of letting them carry his carbine.

‘He and his men had slept in the village one night, and on the following day some of tribe joined the party as guides, but led them into ambuscade, where the gallant Witti and many of his men were killed by sumpitan (blowpipe).

‘So far as we have been able to ascertain the sole reaction for the attack was the fact that Witti had come to the district from a tribe with whom these people were at war, and he was, therefore, according to native customs, deemed also to be an enemy.”

The last two months of his diary and geographical records that he took were reportedly lost during the attack.

Franz Witti was killed by a spear not by blowpipe

Meanwhile, Witti’s colleague and a fellow explorer recorded what he heard had happened in a letter to his mother from Kudat on Oct 28, 1882.

He told his mother, “Poor Witti! He was travelling in a Murut country, and having slept in a native’s home, left the place next morning with his eleven men. They had a small native-made boat, in which they were going down stream. They came to a shallow place, where every one had to get out into the water and drag the boat. The rifles and weapons were put in the perahu. Witti waded ashore to make some notes. In the middle of all this they were attacked by some hundreds of savages, who fell upon Witti and his unfortunate men with spears, sumpitans, swords etc. Witti, it is said, had a spear thrust through his body; and even after receiving this awful wound, he turned and fired his revolver six times. Four cartridges were damp and did not explode, with the other two he killed two men. Of the rest of his followers, three escaped to tell the sad tale, the others were killed or died in the bush.”

Franz Witti knew about the dangers that came with his exploration

Exploring a new country where headhunting was still rampant always came with a price. And the cost of that price for these explorers sometimes is their heads.

As for Witti, he knew the circumstances surrounding his work as an explorer. It was believed that before Witti left Kimanis, he made a will and arranged for the settlements of all his affairs.

As Owen Rutter in British North Borneo: an account of its history, resources, and native tribes wrote, “His (Witti’s) intrepid courage, unfailing humour and disregard or personal comfort mark him as a true explorer, his tact in dealing with natives and his great black beard made him remembered by those among whom he went. ‘Whenever we came to a place for the first time,’ he says in one of his diaries, ‘there we dare show our faces again,’ and the fact he should have met his death at the hands of unthinking savages whose cause he had at heart does but enhance the tragedy of his fate.”

After his death, there were rumours of his body coming through the river flowing into the Dutch territory (Kalimantan). However, this rumour has never been confirmed.

The news of Witti’s death in the hand of headhunters was certainly viral-worthy even in the 19th century. It even made it to the New York Times on Oct 30, 1882 months after his death presumably in June, with the headline “Slain by Borneo Savages; Mr Witti’s Sad Fortunes in the Land of the Head-Hunters.” He was just 32 years old when he died.

In Sandakan, the Chartered Company Monument is built in dedication to the British servicemen or employees who were killed at the end of the 19th century. These servicemen included Witti and Hatton, who died in 1883.

Some of you might have heard of the Sandakan Death Marches. It is a series of forced marches from Sandakan to Ranau cutting through the dense rainforest of Borneo.

Overall, there were 2,434 Allied prisoners of war (POWs) died during their internment at Sandakan camp and the marches to Ranau.

It is widely considered to be the single worst atrocity suffered by Australian servicemen during the World War II (WWII).

After the Battle of Singapore in February 1942, Australian and British POWs were captured and sent to Borneo between 1942 and 1943.

They were interned at Sandakan POWs camp and forced to build a military airstrip.

Just like how the POWs were forced to build the Burma Railway, these prisoners were forced to work at gunpoint with little food to eat.

To worsen the situation, they were given little to no medical attention.

By August 1943, the officer prisoners were moved from Sandakan to Batu Lintang camp in Kuching in order to take more control of the prisoners. This turned out to be a blessing-in-disguise for the officers.

As for those who were left behind in Sandakan, the condition deteriorated significantly following the officers’ removal.

Their food were further reduced and even sick prisoners were forced to work on the airstrip.

Once the airstrip was completed, the prisoners initially still remained at the Sandakan camp.

About The Sandakan Death Marches

In January 1945, the Allied forces successfully dropped a bomb, destroying the airfield. At that time, there were only 1,900 POWs alive at the came.

After the bombing, Captain Hoshijima Susumi ordered the remaining prisoners to march to Ranau, about 260 kilometers away.

The first march took place between January and March 1945. The Japanese picked 470 prisoners whom they thought to be fit enough to carry baggage and supplies. Although the journey supposed to take nine days, the first group was given enough rations for four days.

Meanwhile, the second series of the marches started on May 29, 1945. About 536 prisoners were ordered to march toward Ranau in groups of fifty with accompanying Japanese guards.

The second march lasted for 26 days. With prisoners less fit than the first march, they were even given fewer rations. In the end, only 183 prisoners reached Ranau on June 24, 1945. That was when they found out, there were only six prisoners still alive from the first march.

After the second march prisoners departed, the Sandakan camp was left with about 250 POWs.

At first, since they were so sick, the Japanese initially planned to let them die of starvation. However, on June 9, 1945, the Japanese ordered the final group of 75 men to head to Ranau.

They were so weak, none of them survived beyond 50 kilometres. When a man collapsed from exhaustion, the Japanese guard shot him. In the meantime, the remaining prisoners left at the camp eventually died from sickness or starvation or both.

Here are 10 more facts about the Sandakan Death Marches:

1.Not all 2,428 died during the Sandakan Death Marches

The biggest misconception about the Sandakan Death Marches that there was a total of 2,428 Australian and British POWs died during the marches.

According to historian and author Lynette Ramsay Silver, 1,047 died during the marches which took place between January and June 1945.

Meanwhile, the remaining 1,381 never left the Sandakan camp. They perished due to sickness, starvation or execution by the Japanese Imperial soldiers.

2.The last known Sandakan Death Marches track cutter died in 2018.

Tuaty Akau was the last known Sandakan Death March track cutter. He died on his birthday on Oct 29, 2018, aged 105.

During WWII, he joined his father-in-law who was recruited by the Japanese to cut the trail to prepare for the marches.

He told his story to Daily Express in 2016, “One time my fellow track cutter stopped for a cigarette and was hit on the head with a rod.”

Tuaty also shared how he saw weak prisoners passing by and tried to offered rice to them but was scolded by the guards.

Thanks to Tuaty, a long time dispute between two historians – Silver and Dr Kevin Silver – was finally solved.

Dr Smith argued that the track head to Miruru via the Liwagu Valley while Silver claimed that it never went to Miruru. Tuaty then confirmed Silver’s evidence that the trail never head to Miruru.

Another witness of the march, Zudin (who died in 2017) also confirmed that the trail never passed Miruru.

3.Operation Kingfisher is the rescue plan that never took place

The saddest part of the marches was the fact there was a planned rescue operation.

Unfortunately, the mission (called Operation Kingfisher) never took off the planning desk.

There are several alleged reasons why the Allied forces did not execute Operation Kingfisher.

It was reported that Agas reconnaissance missions incorrectly reported that there were no prisoners left in the Sandakan camp.

Another factor said that there was no adequate air support.

Nonetheless, if only Operation Kingfishers was not abandoned, perhaps many men could have returned to their families.

4.Japanese soldiers reportedly turned to cannibalism

The Japanese soldiers themselves had their own suffering in Sabah during the war.

Dick Braithwaite and Yun Lok Lee wrote in their paper Dark Tourism, Hate and Reconciliation: The Sandakan Experience, “Many Japanese soldiers also perished of starvation and disease in the jungle. In the latter half of the Pacific War, Japanese Troops were chronically under-supplied. In order to preserve their fighting effectiveness under such conditions, individual soldiers who were no longer effective were given a day’s rations and cast out of their military unit and told to fend for themselves. Many turned to cannibalism.”

5.Those who were killed even after the Japanese had surrendered

By the end of July 1945, there were about 38 prisoners (some report stated 33) left alive at Ranau.

Weak and sick, they were unable to do any work. They were then killed by the guards, sadly perhaps up to 12 days after the Japanese officially surrendered on Aug 15. By killing the remaining prisoners, the Japanese wanted to get rid all possible witnesses of the marches.

As for the remaining POWs at Sandakan camp, the last man alive – John Skinner was beheaded on Aug 15 at 7.15am.

Five hours later, Emperor Hirohito announced that Japan had unconditionally surrendered.

These POWs clearly did not have the same fate with the prisoners at Batu Lintang Camp in Kuching.

After the war, there were two ‘death orders’ found among the official Japanese papers at the camp.

The first order was scheduled on Aug 17 or 18 but for unknown reason was not executed. The second order was scheduled to take place on Sept 15. Thankfully, the camp was liberated on Sept 11 by the Australian 9th Division.

The timely liberation of the camp may have saved the lives of over 2,000 men, women and children at Batu Lintang Camp.

6.The White-Japanese, the ‘betrayer’ among the Australians?

Among the six survivors of the Sandakan Death Marches, there was one Australian soldiers regarded as ‘White Jap’ by his fellow survivors. He was Warrant Officer William Hector Sticpewich.

Silver wrote in her website that he was very much hated by his fellow survivors, “So much so that, post-war, they refused to have anything to do with him.

“There have always been question marks over Sticpewich’s behaviour. Described as ‘a Jack of all trades’, as soon as he reached Sandakan he made himself indispensable to the Japanese and, therefore, avoided labour on the airstrip.

“By his own admission, he went to the airstrip on one occasion only – in late 1942 when all POWs, including the sick and officers, were put to work to ensure the first stage of construction was finished in time for a grand opening.”

Unlike other survivors who looked emaciated after their rescue, Sticpewich was reportedly in fantastic condition.

Additionally, Sticpewich was suspected to have killed another soldier Private Herman ‘Alby’ Reither when they both escaped from Ranau on July 28, 1945.

In response to Silver’s investigation, Avtar Singh wrote in the Daily Express that finding fault for war veterans and then going after them in public had to stop.

He opined, “They had suffered enough both during and after the war. And let’s remember, nobody profits from these allegations and these stories.”

7.Tracking the bodies of POWs

After the war ended, the difficult part of searching the remains of more than 1,000 soldiers scattered along the 250 kilometres of jungle trekking began.

One of the soldiers tasked for the job was Stan Roberts. He was a member of 8 Australian War Graves unit. Roberts was deployed to North Borneo in June 1946 to locate the remains and transferring them.

Once the remains were exhumed, they were wrapped in lengths of hessian and carried back to Ranau. There, Roberts searched for any clues to identify the remain.

Since all the army identity discs had rotted, being made from compressed cardboard, there was little to help identify the remains.

A number of those died on the Sandakan Death Marches were given their final resting place at Labuan War Cemetery. Those who could not be identified were reburied as ‘Known unto God’.

8.Why the Japanese did what they did

Yuki Tanaka in Hidden Horrors: Japanese Crimes in World War II gave his insight on why the Japanese soldiers committed such horrendous crimes against the POWs.

“The ill-treatment and massacres of POWs at Sandakan and the Sandakan Death Marches were made possible in large part by the traditional Japanese military ideology and the training procedures that arose from it. Men were trained to follow orders habitually and unquestioningly, and the training evidently worked. Captain Yamamoto Shoichi and Captain Takakuwa Takuo apparently never questioned the orders they were given by their superiors. Their primary concern was how they could carry out their orders, and this thinking led them to commit war crimes. It is insufficient to attribute responsibility to these individuals, however, without placing their behaviour within the context of Japanese military ideology,” he wrote.

Yuki further explained, “Dehumanisation involves a psychological distancing process whereby it becomes possible to act aggressively toward a weaker person without feeling the remorse that would occur in more normal circumstances. When dehumanisation of the enemy reaches its extremes, normally unthinkable acts such as the massacre of POWs become possible. In the situation at Sandakan, the Japanese believed they were under such threat from an Allied Invasion that there was no hope for them; they were destined to dehumanise prisoners and act brutally toward them,

“At Sandakan the enemy bodies that could be counted were those of dead prisoners rather than enemy combatants, but the officers at Sandakan shared the same malignant obsession with counting the dead. The Japanese, partly out of the overwhelming anxiety that they were about to meet their own deaths, felt driven to kill prisoners and then, perversely, were able to use the numbers of dead to reduce their anxiety.”

9.War trials against the Japanese soldiers

Regardless of the reasons, what the Japanese soldiers committed during Sandakan Death Marches undeniably were war crimes.

Sticpewich might be considered a betrayer to some but he was one of the witnesses along with Botterill, Short and Campbell during the war crimes trials in Tokyo and Rabaul.

During the occupation, the Sandakan camp was led by Lieutenant Susumi Hoshijima.

Since he was a military engineer, he was in-charge of building the military airstrip. Hoshijima was promoted to Captain toward the end of the war.

He reportedly told the POWs, “You will work until your bones rot under the tropical sun of Borneo. You will work for the Emperor. If any of you escape, I will pick out three or four and shoot them. The war will last for 100 years.”

In May 1945, Captain Takakuwa Takuo was put in-charge of the POWs.

Too bad for Captain Hoshijima, the war did not last for 100 years. He was found guilty for war crimes and hanged on Apr 6, 1946.

Meanwhile, Captain Takakuwa and his second-in-charge Watanabe Genzo were found guilty of causing the murders of POWs and were hanged and shot on Apr 6, 1946 and Mar 16, 1946 respectively.

As for Lieutenant-general Masao Baba, he was charged with command responsibility for the Sandakan Death Marches. The commander forces in northern Borneo was found guilty and hanged on Aug 7, 1947.

10.The Suicide of Colonel Suga

The person who was responsible of all POWs and civilian internment camps in Borneo during WWII actually was Lieutenant-Colonel Tatsuji Suga.

He was an English lecturer before the war and volunteered as prison camp commander after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour.

In Borneo, there were mainly three interment camps; Batu Lintang (Kuching), Kota Kinabalu and Sandakan. Besides these, there was a brief internment camp on Labuan island.

Suga was based at Batu Lintang and practically absent at other camps.

Unlike other Japanese soldiers such as Hoshijima, Suga was remembered by some internees to be kind.

One Australian civilian internee Rosemary Beatty recalled that Suga would take the children to his residence and served them coffee and fruits. Sometimes he even gave the children sweets.

Whenever Suga was away from Batu Lintang camp, the brutality by the guards increased. It is unknown if it is due to Suga’s instruction or his men took advantage to abuse the prisoners during his absence.

Believed to be a Catholic, he attended masses at the camp during the war. Once, he even rewarded the elderly priests with some papayas. Little did he know, the papayas were obtained by his men from the priests’ own garden.

On Aug 24, Suga himself officially announced to the prisoners at Batu Lintang that Japan had surrendered.

He was heartbroken as he believed that his entire family had been killed in the bombing of Hiroshima.

When the Japanese officially surrendered in Kuching on board HMAS Kapunda on Sept 11, 1945, he was there to attend. Later that day, Suga officially surrendered himself at Batu Lintang Camp.

Together with several of his officers, he was flown to Labuan to await for their trials as war criminals.

According to the website Digger History, Suga was found dead in the morning of Sept 16, 1945. He reportedly committed suicide by stabbing his throat with a table knife. He was also found with a water bottle half-filled with sand. While some reports suggested he struck his own head using the bottle before stabbing himself, other stated that he had help in his suicide.

Did Suga disobey the first death order to execute all Batu Lintang’s prisoners? We might never know.

And did he die with the knowledge of atrocities committed at the Sandakan Death Marches and camp? We also might never know.

One thing for sure, Suga died without knowing that his wife and three of his children had in fact survived the Hiroshima bombing.