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Operation Kingfisher, the rescue mission that never took place

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Do you know that there was a so-called rescue plan for the Sandakan Death Marches code-named Operation Kingfisher?

The death march was a series of forced marches in Borneo from Sandakan to Ranau which resulted to the deaths of 1,047 prisoners-of-war (POWs). Meanwhile, the remaining 1,381 never left the Sandakan camp and died there.

If there was a rescue plan, how come the prisoners were never rescued?

Operation Kingfisher and Operation Agas

The Allied forces reportedly knew there was a POW camp at Sandakan thanks to Operation Agas.

The operation was a series of reconnaissance operations carried out by Z Special Unit in 1945.

Overall, the operation was executed in 5 parts. It commenced in March 1945, continuing up to September and October 1945.

In Operation Agas 1, Major F.G.L Chester landed at Sandakan along with six other personnel in early March 1945.

They managed to gather information such as the train schedule to and from Beaufort, cargo movements, and details of local timber mining.

Additionally, the operatives found out that there were Allied POWs being held at Sandakan.

Unfortunately, they were unable to get close enough to the camp to investigate.

They ultimately reported in error that the Sandakan camp had been abandoned. They reportedly didn’t know that there were 800 POWs were still alive at that time.

Many reports suggested due to the error in intelligence that the rescue mission was called off.

Or did the Allied forces know there were hundreds of men still alive yet chose not to rescue them?

Operation Kingfisher never takes place because there was no plane available?

The person who might have the answer for this was Field Marshal Sir Thomas Albert Blamey.

He was the commander-in-chief of the Australian Military Forces. Blamey was also the commander of Allied Land Forces in the South West Pacific Area under the command of American General Douglas MacArthur during WWII.

Blamey’s speech at the Second Annual Conference of the Australian Armoured Corps on Nov 19, 1947 somewhat addressed the reason why Operation Kingfisher never took place.

He declared, “We had high hopes of being able to use Australian parachute troops. We had complete plans for them. Our spies were in Japanese-held territory. We had established the necessary contacts with prisoners at Sandakan, and our parachute troops were going to relieve them. The parachute regiment didn’t know what was planned, of course. But at the moment we wanted to act, we couldn’t get the necessary aircraft to take them in. The operation would certainly have saved that death march of Sandakan. Destiny didn’t permit us to carry it out.”

His speech naturally caused a stir in the media and public back then as he was suggesting the American did not provide the necessary aircraft for the rescue mission.

Moreover, imagine the family members of the victims knowing the fact that their loved ones could have been saved.

Was it a cover up?

Mark Felton in his book The Final Betrayal: Mac Arthur and the Tragedy of Japanese POWs shared there is more than just no ‘airplane available’ for Operation Kingfisher.

“It has been suggested that there was a cover-up at the highest levels of government over the failure to launch Operation Kingfisher, especially when it became widely known after the war how many prisoners had been murdered by the Japanese on the death marches. The fiction that General MacArthur sealed the fate of the starving prisoners at Sandakan and rubbished Kingfisher by refusing to provide material support for the mission is not correct.”

Operation Kingfisher never get off the drawing board

Australian Jurist Athol Moffitt informed the National Conference of the Veterans’ Review Board that the truth was the Allied forces never even planned to execute the rescue mission.

Moffitt stated, “Rescuing the prisoners would have required a major offensive and it probably would have only resulted in the prisoners being shot anyhow … it was decided nothing could be done”.

According to Paul Ham in the book Sandakan, the Allied forces deduced that the rescue plan was ‘impractical’ and ‘unacceptable’.

It would require carrier-born combat aircraft (no carriers were operating south of the Philippines in 1945), a 600-bed hospital ship and a large task force to pull the rescue mission.

Ham stated, “All this shows that MacArthur was not the only commander dismissive of the rescue proposal. Perhaps it is consoling to feed families the myth that Kingfisher was close to being realised, the hard truth is that top brass had no intention of approving the project.”

So why did Blamey blame MacArthur for not providing the so-called airplanes?

Some historians believed that Blamey accusing MacArthur was to cover up his men’s bungle in gathering intelligence.

If Blamey really did that, it wouldn’t be the first time. Before the war when he was the Chief Commissioner of the Victoria Police, his attempt to cover up the shooting of a police officer led to his forced resignation in 1936.

Many historians managed to refute Blamey’s reason. The declassification of the Kingfisher files in the 1970s revealed that the Royal Australian Air Force in fact had enough aircraft.

Felton pointed out in his book that “The Australians had absolutely no reason to ask MacArthur to divert some of his aircraft to support Kingfisher because they already had more than enough themselves, something that Blamey conveniently forgot.”

The lives of hundreds of POWs versus of the lives of people in Borneo

This might sound cruel but some historians believed that Operation Kingfisher was considered a low priority for the Allied forces. Since it was a low priority, the mission was subsequently aborted.

The Allied forces, mainly the Australians were reportedly looking at the bigger picture at that time, the Operation Oboe.

It was the last major Allied campaign to liberate Japanese-held British Borneo (Sabah and Sarawak) and Dutch Borneo (Kalimantan).

Dr Ooi Keat Gin in his paper Prelude to Invasion: Covert Operations Before the Reoccupation of Northwest Borneo, 1944-1945 stated, “Preparations were in earnest for the launching of the Oboe operations, and it would have been a diversion of effort to mount a rescue attempt in the midst of the overall invasion plan. There was a genuine fear that an attempted rescue operation might effectively sign the death warrant for all POWs and civilian internees.”

“As for the sad ending of the Sandakan POWs, their rescue took a backseat to the execution of the principal object, namely the reoccupation of Borneo and the defeat of Japan.”

Basically, the Allied forces were busy planning to free a whole island so the lives of less than 800 sick and malnourished men were not high on their priority’s list.

And their intention was clear since during the Borneo Campaign made their first landings in Tarakan, Balikpapan, Labuan and Beaufort in Borneo but did not land in Kuching, Sandakan or Ranau where the Allied POWs located.

The mystery remains

But the one mystery remains, why did Blamey said there were no aircraft available if they never wanted to rescue them in the first place?

Perhaps telling the public that they almost rescue the POWS and blaming the Americans for not providing aircraft was more comforting for the families, rather than telling them “We did not rescue your husbands and sons because they were not our priority. And we did not actually believed the Japanese would kill them”.

Nonetheless one thing for sure, if Operation Kingfisher actually took place against all odds, hundreds of men would have been given a chance to go back to their families.

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Some of the Sandakan POWs who were commemorated at Kundasang War Memorial.

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The cession of Sipitang by Brunei Sultanate to British North Borneo

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Just like Sarawak, many of North Borneo (present-day Sabah)’s territories were part of the Brunei Sultanate.

These territories were slowly annexed by the British North Borneo Chartered Company (BNBC) into the British North Borneo including Sipitang.

The people of Sipitang (Sepitong, Sipitong or Si Pitong)

So what is it like in Sipitang during those days? Owen Rutter in his book British North Borneo: an account of its history, resources and native tribes (1922) had some answers.

Describing the little town, Rutter wrote, “Sipitong, the headquarters of the district, is near the mouth of the Sipitong river, which flows into Brunei Bay. It is a lonely little station; although the district is the centre of the native sago industry it has never been developed by European enterprise, chiefly owing to the transport difficulties, an although it has been partially opened up with bridle-paths it is one of the least-known districts in the country.”

Rutter also pointed out there was Bruneians settlement found in Sipitang. While they were mainly farmers, the Bruneians were more known as boat builders. He wrote, “The Sipitong Bruneis being especially famous. They are of course immigrants pure and simple, but have firmly established themselves in the country of their adoption.”

“… they are noted in particular for the pakerangan, a canoe-shaped boat, but wide of beam and about thirty feet long, with a single square sail, or paddles for river work.”

The treaty to cede Sipitang to North Borneo Chartered Company

The annex took place on Nov 5, 1884 through an agreement between the Sultan of Brunei and BNBC.

Here are some of the contents of the treaty:

“His Highness Abdul Mumin, Sultan of Brunei and the Pangeran Bandhara and the Pangeran di Gadong for themselves, their heirs, successors and assigns hereby certify that the whole country from and including Si Pitong (Sipitang) and the whole country from and including Si Pitong and the country drained by it, on the South, to and including Kwala Paniow (Kuala Penyu) and the country drained by it, on the North, is hereby ceded to the British North Borneo Company, its successors and assigns, for so long as they choose to hold the same, as also the rivers Bangawan and Tawaran and the districts drained by them. Padas Damit is not included.”

The treaty which was signed by British North Borneo first governor William Hood Treacher from BNBC, also stated its terms.

“The Company and its representatives to pay annually to the Sultan or his heirs of $3,000 – five years’ cession money viz- fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000) being paid in advance on the completion, of this agreement of which seven thousand dollars ($7,000) shall be received in copper coin at par.”

Governor Treacher also shared about the annex in his book British Borneo: Sketches of Brunai, Sarawak, Labuan and North Borneo (1891).

“In 1884, after prolonged negotiations, I was also enable to obtain the cession of an important province on the West Coast, to the South of the original boundary, to which the name of Dent Province has been given, and which includes the Padas and Kalias rivers, and in the same deed of cession were also included two rivers which had been excepted in the first grant – the Tawaran and the Bangawan. The annual tribute under this cession is $3,100.”

BNBC’s expansion in North Borneo

While there is a little detail on what were the reasons Brunei Sultanate was willing to cede her territories to the company (besides the annual tribute paid to the Sultanate), one thing for sure; Sipitang was not the last area annexed by the BNBC.

After Sipitang, the company also acquired Mantanani (1885), Padas (1889) and Mengalong as well as Merantaman areas in 1901.

By 1901, an administrative office was set up in Sipitang called the Province Clarke, named after Lieutenant General Sir Andrew Clarke.

Sipitang
Sipitang Esplanade in 2016.

Today, Sipitang town is known to be the closest town in Sabah to the Sarawak border.

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How the human races were formed according to a Sihan legend

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The Sihan people are among the few tribes in Sarawak that are vulnerable to extinction along with smaller tribes such as the Ukit and Kejaman peoples.

According to the Borneo Post in 2012, there are less than 300 Sihan people left in Sarawak.

Unfortunately, they have been assimilated into other Orang Ulu groups such as the Kayans and Kenyahs.

Their only unique legacy now is their own language and mythology which are different from other tribes.

Here is a folklore on how human races were formed according to a Sihan legend:

Long time ago, all human beings came from only one race.

At Ulu Kajang river, many groups of people wished to cross the river.

However, none of them were able to swim.

Therefore, they decided to build a huge bridge out of rattan.

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The groups of people started to build a bridge in order to get to the other side of the Ulu Kajang river. Credits: Pixabay.

After they built it, each group of people began to walk across the bridge.

The Punan, Kayan, Kejaman, Sekapan, Lahanan and the Sihan walked first.

After too many people crossing the river, the bridge broke.

The rest of these people such as the Iban, Malay, Chinese and the Europeans flowed down the river instead of using a bridge.

The Sihan people believed that the European who flowed furthest down the river became white, their hair silvery and their eyes blushed due to the coldness of the water.

The Sihan and the other groups who walked first who had already reached the other side of the river before the bridge was broken, remained in the upper part of the river to this day.

The source of this Sihan legend

The late Iban ethnologist Benedict Sandin recorded this particular legend on Feb 27, 1961 when he was working as the Sarawak Museum’s Research Assistant.

His informant for this legend was Salik Gawit, a Sihan headman from Menamang stream. Salik was 56 years-old when he was interviewed by Sandin.

According to Salik, he is not sure why his race is called Sihan (sometimes spelled as Sian).

He told Sandin, “There is no river of that name that had been inhabited by our ancestors. I can assure that my race are not foreigners. We are the people who are the origins of this place.”

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How a magic mushroom caused people to speak in different languages

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How everyone began speaking in different languages according to a Taman legend.

Have you heard of Psilocybin mushroom? Widely known as ‘magic mushroom’, this type of fungi is usually consumed for its hallucinogenic effects.

Once consumed, the person may experience euphoria and change in consciousness, mood and even perception.

They may even experience visual and auditory hallucinations.

As fascinating as this magic mushroom may sound, it is not as interesting as a type of mushroom found in a Taman legend.

The Taman people belong to the Dayak group of Kalimantan.

Though they are few in number (estimated at about 30,000 people), their culture and mythology are colourful.

How a magic mushroom caused people to speak in different languages

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An illustration by pixabay.com

Long time ago, the descendants of the first man and woman were numerous and they all spoke the same language.

Then one day, one of them came across some magic mushrooms. Everyone ate them and instantly fell into a drunken stupor.

When they woke up, they started to ask each other what had happened.

Oddly, nobody really understood each other.

They began to seek those who spoke the same language and started to form groups with them.

The dispersal

Not long after this happened, a great flood inundated the land.

The whole island of Borneo was covered by water except Mount Cemaru. It is a mountain located at Long Apari district of Mahakam Ulu at East Kalimantan, Indonesia. Standing at 1681m high, the mountain is the source of Mahakam river.

Many Dayak people took refuge there during the flood.

However, most people built rafts, sampans and other larger boats which took them to the four corners of the earth.

With these people migrating to the different parts of the world, that was how these languages became dispersed.

University of Hull researcher Victor T. King collected this legend during his trip to West Kalimantan from July 1972 to Sept 1973 and recorded it in his paper “Main Outlines of Taman Oral Tradition”.

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Japanese immigrants in North Borneo before World War II

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Somewhere near the Tanjung Batu Street of Tawau, Sabah there is an old cemetery site. There, Japanese people were laid to rest.

One might assume that they died during World War II (WWII) when Sabah was under Japanese occupation.

However, a vast majority of them died way before the Second World War.

Who were these Japanese immigrants and why were they buried so far from their home?

The four stages of Japanese immigrants entering North Borneo

According to Hara Fujio in his paper Japanese activities in North Borneo before World War II: Focus on Labour Immigrants, the Japanese penetration into North Borneo (present day – Sabah) can be divided into four phases.

The first stage took place from 1884 to 1910 when the British North Borneo Company (BNBC) who administered North Borneo needed cheap labour.

At the same time, the Japanese government wanted to push out the surplus population who mainly consisted of poor peasants.

Hence, more than a few hundred Japanese peasants entered North Borneo during this first phase.

Unfortunately for them, the harsh tropical climate was too much to handle. Moreover, their welfare were not well taken care of and many died from sickness. Due to this, the Japanese immigration into North Borneo came to a standstill from 1896 to 1910.

Then, the second phase of immigration started from 1911 to 1920. During this time, many large scale concessions were granted to Japanese plantation companies.

However, the British government began opposing the immigration of Japanese into her territories including British North Borneo. The British suspected the Japanese had an ulterior motive for willing to ship out their citizens as labourers.

Regardless, the BNBC was in need of labourers and was reluctant to refuse the entry of the Japanese immigrants.

From 1921 to 1936, a new type of immigration was introduced to those who came to North Borneo.

The labour immigrants were allowed to invest in projects , subsidised by the Japanese government. Meanwhile, the hard work of manual jobs were given to the Chinese or local Sabahans.

The secret Japanese state scheme in North Borneo

Finally, the final phase of Japanese settlement scheme in North Borneo started from 1937 till 1941 in Tawau

Hara pointed out, “The fundamental difference from former Japanese immigration schemes was that it was secretly initiated and subsidized by the Ministry of Colonisation (MC). In other words, it was a secret state project under the disguise of a private project by Nissan (a Japanese company). This was because the Japanese authorities thought that of the government’s involvement was known to the British or the Sabah government, the project would not have been approved in the first place.”

Under this secret scheme, the MC’s subsidy was used for the construction of a hospital and a school for settler families and the passage fees. On top of that, the MC also provided low interest-rate loans for constructions in North Borneo.

They were more than labourers, they were spies for the Japanese empire?

If you have never watched The Americans (2013), it is period spy thriller television series.

It is about two Soviet KGB officers posing as an American married couple living in the suburbs of Washington DC.

Similarly, the British government began to suspect that the labourers sent to North Borneo at that time were spies.

In the book British Intelligence and the Japanese Challenge in Asia, 1914-1941, its author A. Best noted that there was a spate of reports of Japanese land purchases in Malaysia, the Dutch East Indies, the Philippines and North Borneo.

“To those in the intelligence community it appeared that all too often the Japanese bought plantation land in areas of strategic importance,” Best stated.

Outside of North Borneo, there were reports Japanese nationals involved in the distribution of pan-Asian propaganda to the indigenous people in Dutch Indies. Even in Malaya, there were Japanese planes flying their flags in a manner designed to impress Japanese power on the Malays.

“Watching these activities from London, MI2c, the branch of the Military Intelligence Directorate (MID) that dealt with East Asia, noted in July 1917 that the Japanese, utilising their ‘intricate and highly organised system of secret service’, were extending their influence into every corner of the region, and that it was possible that they would be willing to support rebellions against European colonial rule.”

Espionage activities in North Borneo by Japanese immigrants

Meanwhile in North Borneo, there were some incidents which were considered as proof of Japanese espionage.

In the paper Anti-Japanese Activities in North Borneo before World War Two 1937-1941, Danny Wong Tze-ken gave several evidence which ‘lend credence to the theory that intelligence networks operated in North Borneo prior to the war.

Giving one of the proofs, Wong stated, “One example is the sudden expansion of Nomura and Company after August 1940, when it opened a rubber estate near Sandakan. Thai authorities arrested one of the managers at its Sungai Golok office (in the Malay Peninsula) for making a map of the surrounding country and police buildings, strengthening the view that the firm acted as a course of intelligence.”

Then in October 1940, the consul at Sandakan Taku Taniguchi, made an extensive tour of North Borneo, Sarawak and Brunei. Some said the tour was a thinly disguised exercise to select suitable landing sites for an invading force.

Looking back, was it just coincidence that the reports of espionage coincides with Japanese government’s secret settlement scheme in Sabah?

Life as Japanese immigrants in North Borneo

The Japanese community in North Borneo numbered 1,737 in 1941. 84 per cent of them were living in Tawau or on Si Amil island. Many of them had been living there since the 1890s.

In North Borneo, these Japanese immigrants took up all kinds of professions, apart from labourer in fishing and plantation companies.

For the young female Japanese immigrants, they were working as hairdressers and masseurs and even as prostitutes in Japanese-owned brothels.

The book Sandakan Brothel No.8: Journey into the History of Lower-class Japanese Women by Tomoka Yamazaki offered a glimpse of how a teenager named Osaki was forced to work as a prostitute. She came to Sandakan thinking that she was working as a cleaner.

Others came here working as barbers, dentists, physicians and traders.

Overall, according to Ooi Keat Gin in Rising Sun over Borneo, the Japanese communities in North Borneo kept a low profile, living their lives inconspicuously.

“The Japanese as a whole, maintained a cordial and hospitable attitude towards the local government and population, particularly the indigenous peoples,” Ooi stated.

Repatriation of Japanese immigrants

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Japanese civilians leaving North Borneo after the surrender of the Japanese. Credit: Public Domain due to copyright expired.

Things changed drastically for the Japanese immigrants in North Borneo after WWII ended.

The Japanese companies which invested in North Borneo lost their investment immediately after the Japanese surrendered.

All Japanese citizens (military and civilians alike) were repatriated back to Japan.

Shigeru Sato in his paper More Bitter Than Sweet: Reflecting on the Japanese Community in British North Borneo 1885-1946 stated that about 2600 Japanese were shipped from Tawau to Jesselton (Kota Kinabalu) after the war.

There, they waited for several months in an internment camp. Altogether the civilians consisted of 720 men, 505 women and 608 children.

They even formed temporarily school in the camp which enrolled 250 primary school pupils and 30 high school students.

Finally, the repatriation ship for civilians left Jesselton on Mar 25, 1946 and arrived a week later in Hiroshima Bay.

Japanese troops disarmed Jesselton North Borneo
Japanese troops disarmed, Jesselton, North Borneo. Credits: Public Domain due to copyright expired.

Life back in Japan

Those who came from mainland Japan were allowed to proceed to their home villages.

However, those who were from Okinawa’s fishing villages were made to wait in Kagoshima. They waited there until mid-August in makeshift shelters in the cold weather.

For the children who were born in the tropical climate of Borneo, they could not stand the harsh cold conditions. Furthermore, they did not have access to warm clothes, medicine and food.

Sadly, more than half of the children died while awaiting repatriation.

As for the Japanese military men from British Borneo, many of them were civilians before they conscripted into army in the late 1944. More than 10 per cent of them died while working during the war and waiting for their repatriation ship.

Explaining about their situations, Shigeru stated, “In prewar Japan, primogeniture was widely practiced, and eldest sons inherited most of the family property, if the family had any. There was pressure on the other children to leave and find a livelihood elsewhere, like Borneo. When they left for Borneo, they had little to to lose in Japan.”

Nonetheless, how these people re-adapted to postwar Japan is poorly studied and information is hard to obtain.

One thing for sure, Shigeru claimed, some repatriates were eager to return to Borneo.

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7 things Kayan women were forbidden to do when the men left for headhunting trips

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In the olden days, Kayan men were renowned as notorious headhunters. Their reputation as fierce warriors spread so wide and wild that they were often mistaken as cannibals.

Whenever the men went for headhunting trips, the women were left in the longhouses fending for themselves.

These headhunting trips usually took months before they could return to their loved ones.

In the meantime, the Kayan women would take care of the household and their farms, making sure their families had enough to eat.

Back in those days, the Kayan people also had their own traditional beliefs and shamanism.

Besides commencing their usual chores, the Kayan women were forbidden to do certain things due to their beliefs.

7 things Kayan women were forbidden to do when the men left for headhunting trips:

Ethnologist Benedict Sandin published his paper The Traditional Folklore of the Kayan of Upper Rajang when he was a Senior Fellow in Universiti Sains Malaysia.

From his interviews with the elders of Kayan from Upper Rajang river, he recorded seven things wives, sisters, mothers and close female relatives were not allowed to do.

  1. Eat the meat of barking deer, as this animal was believed to produce bad luck.

2. Eat the dongan fish (a type of freshwater fish) as the stripes on its body also could mirror the marks the warriors would receive on their bodies made by the enemy on their warrior son or husband.

3. Eat the cabbage of palm of any kind, in order not to blind the warrior’s eyes while fighting against his foe.

4. Hold a needle, so that the legs of the warriors were prevented from being pricked by thorns and spikes made by the enemy.

5. Have sexual intercourse with another man, in order that the warrior or husband mat not fall down under the body of his foe. Besides this, it was believed that the warrior would act as if he was having sexual intercourse in front of his foe.

6. Eat mekai leaves (Albertisia papuana), to prevent the eyes of the warrior from being unclear when drawing out his sword from its scabbard and thus give a chance to the enemy to cut him.

7. Wake up late in the morning, so that the warrior husband will not be slow to fight while on the warpath.

Henry Ling Roth in The Natives of Sarawak and British North Borneo

Anthropologist Henry Ling Roth recorded similar dos and donts for women in his book The Natives of Sarawak and British North Borneo.

However, he did not point out which tribe that practiced them and generalized them as Dayak women.

Regardless of what happened during the headhunting trip, the women would continue their daily activities as usual. Roth noted, “As long the men are away their fires are lighted on the stones or small just as if they were at home.”

Apart from carrying on with their daily jobs, the women carried out a couple of tasks symbolically to protect their men from afar.

For example, the women spread mats and kept the fires up till late in the evening and lit them again before dawn.

This was to ensure men during the war expeditions would not get cold.

Roth added, “The roofing of the house is opened before dawn, so that the men may not lie too long and fall into the enemies’ hands.”

It is good to know that women had their own roles when it came to headhunting and warfare.

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Fighting for Japan: The Korean and Formosan soldiers during WWII

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When a soldier serves in a war for his country, it is out of patriotism. But what happens when soldiers fight in a war for a country that colonised them?

After World War II (WWII), many Korean and Taiwanese (Formosan) soldiers were convicted for war crimes alongside Japanese troops.

How did they end up fighting for a nation who conquered their home countries in the first place? Was it voluntary? What happen to them after the war has ended?

The recruitment of Taiwanese Imperial Japan Service

Taiwan and the Penghu Islands were under the Japanese empire between 1895 and 1945.

It started when China’s Qing dynasty ceded Taiwan province in the Treaty of Shimonoseki after Japanese victory in the First Sino-Japanese War.

At first under Japanese rule, the Taiwanese were not allowed to serve in combat and they were working mostly as translators for the Japanese army operating in China.

When the United States joined the war in 1942, Japan started to recruit Taiwanese in combat capacities.

Many Taiwanese joined the service for the sake of their families. Those who served were given extra food for their loved ones.

Meanwhile, the Republic of Formosa was a short-lived republic that existed in Taiwan from May 23 to Oct 21, 1895.

Even though the republic only lasted a few months, many Taiwanese who served during WWII were called Formosan soldiers.

Officially, they were Taiwanese Imperial Japan Servicemen referring to any Taiwanese person who served in the Imperial Japanese Army or Navy during WWII.

Overall, it is estimated a total of 207,182 Taiwanese served in the military of Imperial Japan in both the Second Sino-Japanese War and WWII.

臺籍日本兵出征前 Drafted Taiwanese soldiers during World War II
Taiwanese servicemen in the Imperial Japanese Army. Credits: Public Domain.

The recruitment of Korean Voluntary Unit

Meanwhile, Korea was officially under the Japanese empire when Japan formally annexed the Korean empire in 1910 in the Japan-Korea Treaty of 1910.

Starting from 1938, Japan started to enlist Koreans into the Japanese military as the first Korean Voluntary unit.

By 1944, all Korean males were drafted to either join the Imperial Japanese army or work in military-related industry.

According to Utsumi Aiko of Keisen University, many of these men feared they would be shipped to Japan as indentured servants if they did not join the army.

Others were perhaps attracted by the high pay rates offered, about 50 yen per month, an amount that was considered a large amount at that time.

Korean and Formosan soldiers as Prisoners-of-wars (POWs) camp guards

According to Yuki Tanaka in his book Hidden Horrors: Japanese War Crimes in World War II, after the Japanese army decided to employ Korean and Formosan soldiers as POW camp guards, they came up with a set of instructions.

Entitled “Outline for Dealing with POWs”, the instruction detailed two principal reasons for the use of non-Japanese guards in prison camps.

Yuki stated:

“One reason was to destroy the lingering sense of superiority attached to white people by many Asian societies that had been colonised and consequently to elevate the Japanese as ‘white substitutes’. By having Koreans and Formosans guard white prisoners under Japanese command, the Japanese military hoped that the old ‘pecking order’ would be reversed- that non-Japanese Asians would come to see whites as inferior, subjugated people and the Japanese as the ‘natural’ leaders of Asia. The other, more mundane purpose was to free up more Japanese men to be sent to the front line. On May 15, 1942, 10 days after the outline had been distributed, the recruitment of Korean and Formosan guards began.”

These non-Japanese soldiers were trained in Japanese and forbidden to use their native language. They were also given Japanese names.

The Formosan guards were sent mostly to Southeast Asia including Borneo while the Koreans were scattered around the world including the Central Pacific.

The cruelty of Korean and Formosan soldiers

POWs who survived the war claimed that the troops from Japan’s colonies such as Korea and Taiwan were the most vicious abusers of prisoners.

One of them, Arthur Lane told The Telegraph in 2014, “ The Japanese guards were bad, but the Koreans and the Formosans were the worst. These were men who the Japanese looked down on as colonials, so they needed to show they were as good as the Japanese. And they had no one else to take it out on other than us POWs.”

Lane was one of the 180,000 to 250,000 Allied POWs who was sent to work on the infamous Death Railway. In the end, about 102,000 Allied prisoners died.

In another example case of mistreatment of POWs by Korean guards took place in North Sumatra.

Around February 1945, there were 12 Korean guards assigned for approximately 1,500 t o 1,600 prisoners as they were tasked to build a military road.

While it was fortunate that there were no deaths reported during the construction, the guards frequently beat the prisoners who fell out of line to make them keep walking.

This is not the only example of Korean and Formosan soldier’s brutality. Survivors of Batu Lintang POWs camp as well as Sandakan POWs camp had all claimed Formosan soldiers were worse than the Japanese.

Justice Bert Rolling who represented the Netherlands at the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal once stated, “Many of the commanders and guards in POW camps were Koreans and it is said that they were sometimes far more cruel than the Japanese.”

Explaining the cruelty of Korean and Formosan soldiers

So why were the Korean and Formosan soldiers cruel towards the POWs?

In the book The Routledge History of Genocide, Cathie Carmichael and Richard C. Maguire stated that the Germans did the much the same in the death camp system, where brutal Ukrainian auxiliaries worked under SS supervision.

“Japanese officers and soldiers routinely treated Korean and Formosan soldiers with utter contempt, beating and humiliating them even though they were ostensibly allies. In turn, Allied POWs consistently noted that Korean and Formosan guards were among the most brutal of their captors as these humiliated underdogs of the Japanese war machine worked off their shame and loss of face on POWS,” they stated.

Carmichael and Maguire gave an example of Sandakan POW Camp in North Borneo (present-day Sabah). The Australian POWs noticed a dramatic changed in the level of brutality once a large party of Formosan guards arrived in April 1943.

They noted, “The Japanese treated the Formosans as their inferiors and the Formosans took to delivering mass beatings of POW work details under the flimsiest of pretext.”

Meanwhile, Yuki explained there is no coincidence that was why the Korean guards on the Burma-Thailand railway and the Formosan guards in Borneo were capable of great cruelty.

“It was an effect of the power structure that operated within the prison camp system.”

The retaliation of Korean and Formosan guards

There were many instances when these Korean and Formosan guards went against the Japanese soldiers.

In Sandakan, there was a Japanese officer who was murdered by a Formosan guard. According to Michele Cunningham in Hell on Earth: Sandakan-Australia’s greatest war tragedy, the guard was angry because Captain Takakuwa and Lieutenant Suzuki had beaten him for having a dirty rifle.

The beating was a trigger point for him as he was also discontent generally with the way the Japanese treated the non-Japanese guard.

The guard took a rifle and fired at Takakuwa, wounding him in the soldier and then killed Suzuki with a shot right in the head.

He also wounded a couple more soldiers before throwing a grenade that failed to explode. The Formosan guard then committed suicide by shooting himself.

There were cases of Korean and Formosan soldiers, however, who did not abuse the POWs over whom they were left in-charge.

One guard, who went by the name Toyoda Kokichi, would reportedly cook chicken, rice and fish for the POWs with supplies he had bought from local villagers using his own money. Moreover, he would allow the POWs under him to take it easy and work at their own pace.

In most cases, retaliating against the Japanese resulted in severe punishments (sometimes execution) upon the Korean and Formosan soldiers themselves.

awm 123170
Military police guard four Japanese officers of the Borneo Prisoners of War and Internees Guard Unit, outside the Australian 9th Division Headquarters where they were to appear at a war crimes trial, Labuan Island, December 1945. AWM 123170

What happened to the Korean and Formosan soldiers after World War II?

After the Japanese surrendered marking the end of WWII, it also marked the end of Japanese rule over Korea on Aug 15, 1945 as well as over Taiwan.

In total, there were 5,379 Japanese, 173 Formosans and 148 Koreans who were tried.

Of these number, 984 were sentenced to death, 476 to life imprisonment and 2,944 to some of punishments.

As for the Korean and Formosan soldiers, 23 Korean and 26 Formosan were sentenced to death.

Those who went home alive did not carry on living a normal life.

In 1995, Joan Kwek the daughter of Hugh Waring, one of the Australian officers in Sandakan and Kuching came across a Japanese language book in the National Library of Australia.

The book, the title of which was translated as Cry of the Colonial Soldiers Imprisoned as War Criminals, was written by a former Formosan guard in Kuching named Okabayashi Takemitsu.

Kwek, who was proficient in the Japanese language stated, “The book was a cry of resentment against the Japanese who taught him to be a guard, the Australians who convicted him as a war criminal with a sentence of 15 years, the Australians who mistreated him while a prisoner himself for ten years on remote island prisons near Borneo and New Guinea, the Japanese who said he was no longer Japanese after he finally finished his sentence (Taiwan was by then no longer a Japanese colony), and the Japanese who continue to deny him any form of compensation or pension for his sacrifice in the name of the Emperor.”

Like Okabayashi Takemitsu, many non-Japanese soldiers sought for pension and compensation from the Japanese government after the war.

Some were granted some kind of compensation after battling their pleas in courts, but in most cases the amount was much less than what the Japanese soldiers received.

Formosan Guards

Not all were happy with the Korean and Formosan soldiers seeking for compensation

Of course, not everyone was happy with the fact that these veterans were seeking for Japanese compensation after the war.

Lane, who had witnessed many atrocities as an Allied POW, was one of them.

Speaking to The Telegraph, Lane said, “These men volunteered and they all knew exactly what they were doing. And they mistreated us because they wanted to please their masters and knew they could get away with it. They joined up for kicks, when Japan was winning the war, and they took advantage of that for their own enjoyment.”

For Lane, instead of getting compensation or apology from the Japanese government, he believed a more fitting result would be to have them taken out and whipped for what they did to the POWs.

In the end, a total of 207,183 Taiwanese served in the Imperial Japanese Army and 30,304 of them were declared killed or missing in action.

It is unsure how many Koreans were missing or killed in action during WWII as they fought for the Japanese. However in 1944, the total number of Korean military personnel was estimated at 242,341.

What do you think KajoReaders? Do you think the Korean and Formosan soldiers deserve apology or compensation from the Japanese government? Let us know in the comment box.

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The Japanese empire once wanted to buy North Borneo as a colony

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On Nov 1, 1881, the British North Borneo Chartered Company (BNBCC) was formed to administer and exploit the resources of North Borneo (present-day Sabah).

The territory then became a protectorate of the British Empire in 1888.

At that time, BNBCC was lack of funds to develop the territory.

Hence, the company started to offer territorial concessions to outside parties including the second White Rajah of Sarawak, Charles Brooke and the Japanese empire.

Apart from offering North Borneo for concessions, the company also sought outside resources for manpower to develop the territory.

After failing to secure Indian and Javanese labour, the second governor of BNBCC Charles Vandeleur Creagh wrote to Japan inquiring for labours.

Sabihah Osman in his paper Japanese Economic Activities in Sabah from the 1890s until 1941 stated the Japanese Foreign Ministry responded to the request by introducing “emigration agencies” for this purpose.

He pointed out, “The Japanese government thus encouraged emigration to the less populous and undeveloped countries. For this purpose, it amended its emigration law in 1894 in order to increase protection for Japanese immigrants, a move that led a large number of Japanese to go overseas. Besides migration Sabah, Japan sent migrants to Micronesia, the Caribbean, and North and South America.”

For the Japanese government, sending its citizens to foreign countries was a way to solve overpopulation and unemployment. Or was there another purpose?

So why was the Japanese empire willing to send their citizens to labour in North Borneo?

According to Hara Fujio in his paper Japanese Activities in North Borneo Before World War II: Focus on Labour Immigrants, sending a labourer to a new territory was the first step to colonisation.

“The theory that in order to establish a Japanese colony, agricultural emigrants should firstly be sent, followed by commodities and merchants was shared by the Shokumin Kyokai (Colonisation Association),” Haru wrote.

Organised by Japanese former Foreign Minister Enomoto Takeaki, the CA was led by an executive council consisting of influential politicians, bureaucrats, aristocrats, nationalists and expansionists.

The Japanese Consul to the United Kingdom in 1891 wrote in a report to the Japanese government that, “If several hundred to several thousand Japanese emigrated to North Borneo for agricultural purposes, Japanese villages will surely be formed there. Once villages are established, merchants would follow one after another to form Japanese towns.”

From there, the Japanese started to send citizens to North Borneo since the 1890s. Some were peasants who did not own any land in Japan.

By 1941, the Japanese community in North Borneo numbered 1,737 with 84% of them living in Tawau working various jobs such as labourers, hairdresser, barbers, physicians and dentists.

The price of North Borneo

BritishNordBorneo AreaOfTheCharteredCompanysProperty
Dr. Johnstone; A.J. West (Officers of the Company) – British North Borneo Chartered Company: Views of British North Borneo, Printed by W. Brown & co., limited, London, 1899. Credits: Public Domain.

In the same time, the Japanese also showed some interest in buying North Borneo as a colony.

Shuzo Aoki from the Envoy Extraordinary and Minister of Plenipotentiary in Berlin sent a cable on Nov 7, 1893 to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Munenori Mutsu.

The cable stated, “Are Imperial Government inclined to buy the Territory of the North Borneo Company for value within 500,000 pounds in order to make Japanese Colony thereof? If so, I will negotiate with British Government regarding cession of its sovereign right. Area thereof is about 1/3 of Japan. An early decision required.”

Meanwhile, Shuzo himself thought that Japan should buy the territory. He envisioned that North Borneo would be a colony to absorb the problem of overpopulation in Japan and its geographical position might contribute significantly to future Japanese commercial and military purposes and interests in the area.

In the meantime, the Japanese Consul in Shanghai, General Oogashi carried out his own feasibility study about the purchase of North Borneo.

He claimed that the BNBCC would sell North Borneo on the condition that the Japanese empire agreed to guarantee a 5% dividend per annum to the company’s shareholder or pay a lump sum of £500,000.

Despite the interest of both Shuzo Aoki and General Oogoshi, the Japanese empire declined to purchase North Borneo simply because they could not afford to.

£500,000 in the year 1893 is worth around £64,672,918.22 in 2020. That is close to 65 million pounds!

Due to financial difficulties, the deal never came through and North Borneo remained under the company until 1946 when it became a British crown colony.

As for the Japanese migrants who came to North Borneo to work, all of them were repatriated to Japan after World War II.

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How paddy came from a girl’s body according to a Dayak Taman legend

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The Dayak Taman people is a small indigenous group found in West Kalimantan, Indonesia.

There are roughly 30,000 people in this ethnic group. Apart from the Embaloh language, the Taman language is not close to other languages in Borneo.

However, like any other Dayak groups in Borneo, the Taman people have many legends and folklore of their own.

Here is how the Taman people discovered paddy:

According to researcher Victor T. King in his paper “Main Outlines of Taman Oral Tradition”, before the discovery of paddy, the Taman people were nomadic like the Bukat and Bukitan. These two are also Dayak groups found in Borneo.

They had no knowledge of rice cultivation and lived simply off sago, jungle fruits, vegetables and fish.

So how did they discover paddy?

King, who went to a field trip to West Kalimantan from July 1972 to September 1973, interviewed a Taman elder named Bau.

Bau revealed to King a common legend known by most people of his tribe of how their people started rice cultivation.

Once there was a young girl who was an only child. One night her father dreamed that a spirit came to him and told him that his daughter must die.

It was to be the father’s job to kill her.

The spirit said that when her body disintegrated, it would became paddy and that if the father planted the paddy, it would grow and he would always have a plenty of food.

Just as in the Old Testament where Abraham was asked to sacrifice his son Isaac, the man’s decision echoed Abraham’s own.

The next day, the father called the girl to have a morning breakfast. He asked her, in a sad voice, to wear her best clothes, and after she finished her food, he asked her to lay down on a rattan mat with her eyes closed.

Killing the daughter

Paddy 2
Paddy. Credits: Pixabay.

The girl did not share the same fate as Isaac in the Bible.

The father then proceeded to cut his own daughter in half using a parang.

Her body started to decay and transform into paddy grains, which he then planted it in his field. However as time passed, nothing happened.

Then one day, he caught sight of an old, white-haired woman carrying a basket full of rice over her shoulder.

The old woman told him that the rice would not grow by itself.

Since it derived from a human being who has a spirit, the paddy too had its own spirit that must be pleased.

One had to perform various rituals to ‘feed’ and coax the rice.

The old woman, whose name was Piang Ambong, then taught the man different kinds of paddy ceremonies.

Since then, the Taman people have always offered gifts and prayers to paddy spirits so that they will be blessed with plenty of rice.

Read more:

Legends of how paddy came to Sarawak

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That time when the Daughter of the Sea Dragon King caused a flood

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In January 1963, the people of Bau, Siniawan and Batu Kawa experienced a flood like they never seen before.

Apparently, the locals believed that it was caused by the capture of the Daughter of the Sea Dragon King.

Who was the Daughter of the Sea Dragon King and how did she cause the major flooding in these areas? Here is an account of what happened written by Ong Kwan Hin to the Sarawak Gazette on Mar 31, 1963:

Readers of the Sarawak Gazette would have come across a vivid account, and have seen the pictures of the flood at Bau, Siniawan and Batu Kawa by Messrs S Cottrell and Des Carbury in the February issue.

This flood at its peak period in late January, 1963 was the worst ever experienced before in living memory. Various parts of the first division of Sarawak were affected, and in other parts of the country flooding also took place. It was a generally agreed that never before in the known history of Sarawak had there been such calamity.

The Chinese devotees of the various temples offered prayers and supplications all over the country for a heavenly release from the afflictions of the prevailing rain and stormy seas.

Signs were sought for, and horoscopes were cast, and consulted as to what the bad weather and the trouble in Northern Sarawak and beyond augured for the people.

Worshipers and devotees of the various guardian deities who manifested themselves through mediums in trances flocked to supplicate for relief and assurances.

The assurances obtained were disquieting – more affliction in the form of floods or an epidemic of sickness, seemed to be what the gods could presage of the future.

The capture of Daughter of the Sea Dragon King

On the fifteenth day of the second moon (Mar 10), the Lim Hua San Temple situated at Tabuan Road was visited by devotees, who went there to pray with incense sticks and burn joss papers and send up supplications for good weather.

In the midst of the worship one of the worshipers, who was an old woman, went into a trance. While in her trance, in which one of the several deities venerated in the temple manifested itself, the deity proclaimed that yet more terrible flood and form of mad sickness would take its toll.

For months in the Museum at Kuching (so proclaimed the deity) one of the tortoises brought from Muara Tebas had been held captive and she was a daughter of the Sea Dragon King.

The flood waters would one day rise as high as the Museum Building to release this daughter and Princess from the wooden tub in which she was exhibited.

On being asked by the devotees present as to what must be done to alleviate the prevalent bad weather resulting from the wrath of the Sea Dragon King – a deity in his own right – and to forestall such a calamity in store, the deity stated that the Princess must be released.

Pleading for the freedom of the Daughter of the Sea Dragon King

According to the deity, an appeal must be made direct to the Curator of the Museum, and the appeal must be through the writer’s eldest song, Ong Kee Hui, in his capacity as Mayor of Kuching.

On doubts being expressed by the devotees that Mr Tom Harrisson would willingly free the captured tortoise Princess, the deity stated that no matter how difficult the Curator would be, his heart could be made to relent.

If and when Ong Kee Hui had released the Princess the Ong family (according to the deity) would be honoured and visited with blessings for this generation and succeeding generations.

The Sarawak Tribune in its issue dated 14th March on the trance stated that it was medium at the Muara Tebas temple. This is not correct.

From my knowledge of both temples I know, and this can be confirmed, both do not have mediums.

I went to see the senior monk living at the Lim Hua San Temple to get a first hand account a few days before sitting down to record the above facts.

He could not tell me which deity, of which there were several in the temple, had manifested itself through the old woman worshiper.

It was generally believed to be one of the Buddhas. The identity of the old woman was not discovered as this might lead to understanding, and personal embarrassment in such a case for her and her family.

A deputation of three ladies- one the wife of a proprietor of a well-known firm in Kuching, another whose husband works with a prominent textile firm, and one of the wife of a physician -called on Mrs Ong Kee Hui on the 12th March.

Mrs Ong was told the facts and as Kee Hui was not in, she promised to take up the matter to him.

Meeting up with the Sarawak Museum

I was consulted, and on the morning Mar 12, 1963, Kee Hui made a request to Tom Harrisson, the Curator of the Sarawak Museum for the release of the tortoise to the Muara Tebas temple as it belonged to that area.

Harrisson agreed to hand it back through me as one of the trustees of the temple.

On the afternoon of the 13th March at 2.30pm, I went down to the museum accompanied by my wife, Kee Hui and his wife, and my ninth son Ong Kee Pheng to effect the release of the Princess. The Information Office which acted as ‘go-between’ was there to photograph and record the occasion. Mr Lo Chi Yin (Museum Archivist) was there to meet us.

In recognition and appreciation of Mr Harrisson’s courtesy in freeing the Princess, the Hokkien Association which looks after the Muara Tebas Temple, and of which Ong Kee Hui is the Chairman, presented the Sarawak Museum with three Jade Buddha statues.

The ‘go-between’ -the Information Office was promised the gift parchment scroll, to be suitably inscribed with an invocation to the Three Kong Deity asking for countless blessings to be bestowed on its work in the future. The Princess was left in the Museum for that night.

A search for a launch was without result, but the Heng Hua fishing folk offered us the use of a Kotak.

These people had been following the fate of the Princess with deep interest. They had even thought and talked of liberating her by kidnapping, and then be the hostages to be put in jail for this unlawful act.

As their livelihood is in the sea, they are as a people extremely careful to keep on the right side of the Sea Dragon King.

Thus they would have preferred to face an irate mortal Curator than the wrath of a deity.

Releasing the Daughter of the Sea Dragon King

Eventually my son Henry Ong succeeded in renting a speedboat from the Kuching Boat Club for $35. This plus fuel and driver charges amounted to $54 for the whole trip the cost of which were subscribed to by some devotees and members of my family.

On the morning of the 19th day of the 2nd moon (Thursday 14th March, 1963) we called at the museum for the Princess at 8.30am.

We then drove up to Pending and embarked on board the speedboat. This day was the Birthday of Kuan Im – the Goddess of Mercy, a very auspicious one for liberating the Sea Dragon Princess.

The party consisted of my wife, my fifth son Henry, Mrs Ong Kee Hui, three of the women devotees (including the two who came originally to see Mrs Ong Kee Hui) and on old monk from the Lim Hua San Temple, who chanted prayers and invocation all the way.

We were met at Pending by the Tua Kampong Dawi Aron of Kampong Semilang, Muara Tebas, who told us that he had heard the story about the Princess over the radio the previous night. He expressed regret that his capture of Her Highness had caused so much trouble.

He had found the Princess in the trap he set for catching prawns.

When we later arrived back in the afternoon we found him still waiting at Pending to find if the Princess had been safely released.

Prayers at Muara Tebas Temple

Muara Tebas Temple
Muara Tebas Temple

On arrival at Muara Tebas at 9.30am we brought the Princess up to the Temple.

The chief nun who greeted us found that Her Highness was the same tortoise which had previously been brought by her from a Malay fisherman and liberated in the sea.

There was a small hole punched in the shell where she had put stick of incense when after chanting prayers, she had released her.

We offered incense sticks, joss papers and our prayers to the deities at the Temple. I suggested that after having been reared in fresh water, the Princess should be released on dry land.

But the deity Kuan Im indicted by signs that she must be given back to the sea.

That afternoon, on our way home, we took the speedboat right out to the middle of the exactly facing the temple.

There, while the old monk recited prayers and invocations, Her Royal Highness, daughter of the dreaded and mighty Sea Dragon King deity was released.

As she went back to her own element she went into and out over the water three times, each time stretching out her royal neck to look hard and long at us.

Then she sank away from sight and while we all repeated the “Lam Boo Oh Mee Toh Hood”, she disappeared to join the denizens of the deep.

The Consort of the released Sea Dragon King’s daughter

About one week after the Princess of Sea Dragon King was released at Muara Tebas, another tortoise was found at Matang.

This time the temple devotees claimed that it was the Consort of the Released Princess.

It was reported the tortoise was sold to a bus driver who then handed it over to the Hun Nam Siang Tng Temple of Sekama Road.

After consulting the deity, the devotees released it on the birthday of the deity at the Guan Thian Siang Tee Temple in Carpenter Street which fell on the third day of the third moon.

That year, the date fell on March 27, 1963.

This was not the first time a mystical creature was held responsible for a flood in Sarawak. In 1942 for example, a dragon was believed to be the cause of a major flood in Belaga.

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