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The Berhala Eight, the daring escape from Berhala Island during WWII

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Located in Sandakan Bay, Malaysian state of Sabah, the Berhala island is a small forested island.

Before World War II (WWII), the island was used as a layover station for labourers coming from China and the Philippines. There was also a leper colony on the island.

Then during WWII, the Japanese used the quarantine station as a makeshift internment camp for both prisoners-of-war (POWs) and civilian internees.

The POWs and civilian internees were stationed on Berhala Island before they were sent Sandakan POW Camp or Batu Lintang Camp respectively.

In June 1943, the island witnessed a thrilling escape of eight POWs worthy enough to inspire a Hollywood movie.

The eight-member group later became known as The Berhala Eight.

Jock McLaren of Berhala Eight

The Berhala Eight were Lieutenant Charles Wagner, Sergeant Rex Butler, Captain Raymond Steele, Lieutenant Rex Blow, Lieutenant Leslie Gillon, Sapper Jim Kennedy, Private Robert “Jock” McLaren and Sergeant Walter.

Among them, the widely known one was Jock McLaren.

During World War I (WWI), McLaren was serving in the British Army. After the war, he moved to Queensland, Australia where he was working as veterinary officer.

When the WWII broke out, he joined in the Australian Imperial Force.

According to Senior News, McLaren was assigned in British Malaya when Singapore fell to the Japanese army.

He was then captured as a prisoner of war alongside 80,000 British, Indian and Australian troops in Singapore.

However, McLaren was not going to bow down to the Japanese and stay in Changi prison quietly. Together with two other soldiers, he made his escape from Singapore.

They almost made it to Kuala Lumpur before they were betrayed to the Japanese by the local Malays.

By September 1942, McLaren was back where he was first imprisoned at Changi prison. But, ass the saying goes, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try again.”

So he planned his escape again. This time, he managed to slip into a group of prisoners called ‘E’ Force.

As part of ‘E’ Force, McLaren was among 500 British and 500 Australian POWs who departed Singapore on Mar 23, 1943.

They boarded SS De Klerk, an abandoned Dutch passenger-cargo liner which was refloated by the Japanese who renamed it ‘Imabri Maru’.

The ship reached Kuching, Sarawak on Apr 1 and departed eight days later for Berhala Island.

On Apr 14, the men of ‘E’ Force arrived on the island where they stayed for six weeks before being transferred to the Sandakan POW Camp.

The Berhala Eight, the daring escape from Berhala Island during WWII
SS De Klerk. Credits: Public Domain.

Life on Berhala Island for the ‘E’ Force

According to the War Memorial Australia, the Berhala Camp was enclosed by barbed wire, was set back about 160 yards from the sea.

The toilets were outside the wire, which gave intending escapees and excuse for being outside the camp.

Once again, McLaren tried to escape. He knew that once he been transferred to Sandakan POW camp, it would be harder for him to escape. For him, the escape had to be made from Berhala Camp.

Together with Kennedy, the duo joined a wood-carrying party during their stay at the Berhala Camp. This allowed them to move around the island while planning an escape plan in their heads.

They saw the leper colony there had a small boat. McLaren then planned to use it for their escape.

Meanwhile, another escape party was being formed by Steele, Blow, Wagner, Gillon and Wallace.

Both parties made contact with a corporal from North Borneo Constabulary, Koram bin Anduat to help with their escape.

Koram advised them to make for Tawi-tawi island in the Philippines which was about 250km west of Sandakan.

McLaren then realised that it would be a long, hard and dangerous row to Tawi-tawi. He needed another man so he approached Rex Butler.

As described by Hal Richardson in his book One-man War: The Jock McLaren Story (1957) on the escape as:

“A tall thin grazier from South Australia who had been a buffalo shooter in the Northern Territory and could shoot a buffalo’s eye out at fifty yards. Butler appeared to have the necessary nerve too. There was no room in the party for a man who was likely to crack when the heat was on.”

McLaren believed that Kennedy could withstand the pressure. After watching Butler moving around the camp and his coolness under the provocation of guards, he was confident that Butler was the man for his escape team.

McLaren, Kennedy and Butler made their escape from Berhala Island

On June 4, 1943, the Japanese bought a large barge and ordered the POWs to be prepared for transfer to Sandakan the next morning.

The Berhala Eight took it as a sign that they must escape that night before being transferred.

Under the pretense of using the restroom, the eight Australians left the camp in the middle of the night.

The men then collected their hidden supplies and clothes before going into hiding in the forest.

The next day, after stealing a boat from the leper colony, McLaren, Kennedy and Butler began their gruelling journey to Tawi-tawi.

With no sail, and with just the use of wooden paddles, the three men paddled their way through the raging ocean for their lives.

The men travelled by night in order to avoid the tropical heat.

Even with their frail bodies after spending the past 16 months on little food in the POW camps, the trio made it to Tawi-tawi island.

Thankfully, the men were welcomed by friendly locals on the island.

Koram helping Steele and the rest to escape Berhala Island

In the meantime, Steele and the rest four men were still on the Berhala Island.

When McLaren and his group stole the boat from the lepers, it did not go as smoothly as planned. The lepers actually keep on pursuing them.

After that, the lepers went to the Japanese to report on the incident.

Now, it became dangerous as the Japanese are looking for the remaining five escapees.

That was when Koram and his wisdom came to work.

According to Bayanihan News, on the night of the last POWs had been transferred to Sandakan, Koram borrowed a pair of boots from one of his Australian friends.

“Then he quietly made his way to the cluster of houses near the shore. He untied one of the boats belonging to an islander, made a hole in the bottom of the boat and shoved it into the flowing waters of the estuary where it was carried some distance away before it sank out of sight in the deep water.

He stole two more boats, and did the same with them. He then put on a pair of Australian army boots which he had managed to get hold of earlier, and stomped around on the spot on the seashore, leaving a lot of tracks. Then he quietly returned to the mainland undetected.Early the next day, there was a great hue and cry when the three islanders awoke to find their boats gone. They reported the matter to the Japanese, who went to investigate.

When they saw the boot prints in the mud they concluded that the Australian POWs must have taken the boats and escaped from the island, and they immediately mounted a search at sea. They never realized that the escapees were still on the island.”

Steele and the rest made their escape using kumpit

With the help of local guerrillas, the remaining five POWs made their escape from the island.

Using a local boat called kumpit, the POWs were told to lie in the hold. Then planks were placed on them with sacks of rice on top of the planks.

There was one nerve-wracking moment when a Japanese destroyer stopped the kumpit to check on it.

Thankfully, the Japanese decided not to board the boat but let it pass.

On June 24, all members of The Berhala Eight reunited on Tawi-tawi.

The Berhala Eight staying to fight

Due to lack of transportation and the need for experienced leaders, The Berhala Eight stayed with the guerrillas to fight against the Japanese.

Unfortunately, Butler was killed in action while on a fighting patrol at Dungun river of Tawi-tawi.

His body was then decapitated by the local Moros who were friendly with the Japanese.

Meanwhile, the rest of the POWs made their way to Mindanao to join the American and Filipino guerillas under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Wendell Fertig.

The Berhala Eight, the daring escape from Berhala Island during WWII
Colonel Fertig wearing red goatee and conical hat in the Philippines during World War II. Credits: Public Domain.

On Dec 21, 1943, Wagner was killed during an engagement with the Japanese at Liangan in Lanao province.

After battling with the Japanese for some time, Gillon, Steele, Wallace and Kennedy were evacuated from the Philippines by the USS Narwhal on Mar 2, 1944.

Meanwhile Blow and McLared remained with the guerrillas until the Australian government requested their return.

The impact of Berhala Eight

In the book Fighting Monsters: An Intimate History of the Sandakan Tragedy, Richard Wallace Braithwaite described the impact of the escape on the remaining POWs.

“The key to the success of the ‘Berhala Eight’ was help from local people, and this worried the Japanese. From now on, they killed recaptured escapees and punished the camp from which they escaped through cutting rations. As a result, senior Allied officers were by this stage strongly discouraging escapes.

“The Australian prisoners probably did not realise how seriously the Japanese viewed this development of local collaborators helping prisoners escape. All this undoubtedly reflected poorly on Hoshijima (Sandakan POW Camp’s Person-in-Charge Captain Susumi Hoshijima) and invoked a strong response. While all POWs at Sandakan suffered harsher treatment, the Australians were seen by the Japanese as the main problem.

“Most prisoners now acknowledged the likely consequences for the individual and for the camp of any escape attempt. Most became content to stand on the side of the chessboard but continued to dream of escape.”

When the Berhala Eight made their escape, they would not have thought of how the Japanese would retaliate against the remaining POWs and local people who tried to help the prisoners.

Nonetheless, their escape from Berhala Island saved their lives as they then missed the infamous Sandakan Death Marches and executions of Sandakan POW Camp.

The Berhala Eight, the daring escape from Berhala Island during WWII
Jock McLaren (at left) returning to Berhala Island in October 1945. Awm121749. Credit: Public Domain (Copyright Expired).

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What happened to the 300 prisoners of Labuan POW camp during WW2?

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What happened to the 300 prisoners of Labuan POW camp during WW2?
Flying over the prisoner of war camp (POW) in Batu Lintang at a low height, RAAF Beaufighter pilots reported sighting white POWs, clad in khaki shorts, who excitedly waved as the RAAF aircraft flew over to drop leaflets announcing Japan’s surrender. Credits: Public Domain (Copyright expired). https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C242106

When it comes to prisoner-of-war (POW) camps in Malaysian Borneo, most people immediately think of Batu Lintang in Kuching and Sandakan POW camps.

What is less known is that Labuan had a POW camp for some time during World War II (WWII).

The purpose of Labuan POW Camp

By 1944, the Japanese military decided to build an airstrip on Labuan to give additional air cover for Brunei Bay.

Captain Nagai Hirawa was appointed to command the Labuan POW Camp. He arrived in Labuan with 300 British POWs from Sandakan on June 16, 1944.

Another 200 POWs arrived from Kuching on Aug 15, 1944.

According to post-war investigation report, the camp was originally sited on the grounds of the Victoria Golf Club.

However due to the constant air raids by Allied forces over the waterfront area, the campsite was moved to a new compound 3 miles north of the harbour.

It was here that the POWs were kept until they departed for Brunei on Mar 7, 1945.

Tracing the steps of the prisoners

Agnes McEwan and Campbell Thompson summarised briefly the footsteps of POWS in Labuan.

“In August 1944, Tom Tadman, Charles Shun, John Parker and Frederick Wain were among a group of 300 sent to Labuan to construct an airfield intended for the defence of a fleet anchorage planned for Brunei Bay,” they stated.

Reportedly, life was not too bad for the POWs. Things changed in October that year when the Allies began bombing airfields in the region, including Labuan.

The Japanese started to reduce rations for the prisoners and then the death tolls began to increase significantly.

On Jan 23, 1945 Captain Nagai left for Ranau and his place was taken by Sergeant Major Sugino.

McEwan and Thompson wrote, “By March 1945, 188 of the prisoners taken to Labuan had died. Due to the proximity of Allied shipping, the remainder began the move back to Kuching.”

On their way to meet deaths

Captain Nagai claimed that POWs were given quinine for their malaria. Even so, with the lack of food combined with heavy labour that they were forced to do, it came as no surprise why many of them did not survive.

The group arrived in Brunei on Mar 8, 1945 and remained there until the beginning of May.

By this time, only 82 men arrived from the initial 300.

From there, the remaining 82 men were taken to Kuala Belait and on to Miri on May 28.

Then on June 8, the POWs had now been reduced to 46. The Japanese ordered them to make their way into the jungle along a rough track where they rested for two days.

McEwan and Thompson stated, “There the Japanese officer in charge, Sergeant Major Sugino, received news that the Australian 9th Division had landed at Brunei Bay, only 125 miles away. As a precaution against the prisoners being rescued, Sugino decided to put into operation the Final Disposition – the murder of all POWs.”

They were shot to death and their bodies buried by the guards.

In search of one of the soldiers continues

In 2017, the Telegraph reported on how a retiree living in London had spent much of the past 75 years looking for his brother’s grave.

Len Tadman talked about how he and his two sisters had visited Singapore and Borneo five times trying to retrace his brother’s steps.

So what happened to Len’s brother, Tom Tadman?

McEwan and Thompson in their book revealed some of the fates of these prisoners of Labuan POWs camp, including Tom’s.

Tom, or Lance Bombardier Thomas Tadman, died in Brunei on Apr 3, 1945. His cause of death is unknown.

Meanwhile, others who were part of the Labuan group like Gunner Charles Shun, Staff Sergeant John Parker and Gunner Frederick Wain who died in Labuan at different times throughout 1944 to 1945 were also never recovered.

What happened to Labuan POW camp?

What happened to the 300 prisoners of Labuan POW camp during WW2?
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

Soldiers of the Australian 24th Brigade landed in Labuan on June 10, 1945. They quickly captured the harbour and main airfield.

Meanwhile, the Japanese offered little resistance as they were greatly outnumbered.

When the Australian forces arrived at the abandoned Labuan POW camp in June, they only found unmarked graves.

After the Allied forces liberated POW camps in Batu Lintang and Sandakan, they started to round up the Japanese soldiers and their Formosan guards responsible for abuses and killings.

They housed them in the former Labuan POW camp site and turned the site into a military court.

Labuan became one of the 16 locations of the war crime trials held between December 1945 and January 1946.

During one of the trials, Sugino was charged with having ‘caused to be killed 46 POWs at Miri on June 10, 1945’. He was found guilty and sentenced to death.

Of the 300 POWs who had left for Labuan in 1944, not even one was left alive. Hence, none was left to tell their stories of what really happened at Labuan POW camp.

What happened to the 300 prisoners of Labuan POW camp during WW2?

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The forgotten Javanese forced labourers of Sandakan during WWII

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The forgotten Javanese forced labourers or romusha of Sandakan during WWII

The Allied Prisoners of Wars (POWs) who were taken to Sandakan during World War II (WWII) had one job, to build an airstrip for the Japanese.

The site of the Sandakan airstrip was selected during WWII for a United Kingdom’s Royal Air Force (RAF) airfield.

However by the time the Japanese had occupied Borneo, the British only managed to clear the area of vegetation.

When the Japanese arrived in Sandakan, they decided to complete the airstrip to use it as a refueling stop between peninsular Malaya and the Philippines.

In order to do that, the Japanese military needed manpower. They then transferred some 1,500 British and Australian POWs from Singapore to work on it.

Before they arrived, the Javanese forced labourers, also known as romusha, were already there breaking their backs working on the 1.4 km runway by hand.

These Javanese forced labourers were WWII’s version of human trafficking victims. While the Allied POWs were soldiers, the romushas were civilians.

Some were children that were taken from their homes in Java to work in a foreign land as Japanese slave labourers.

How the Javanese were taken from their homes to Sandakan

One of the rare insights on what it was like for the Javanese forced labourers in Sandakan can be found Richard Wallace Braithwaite’s Fighting Monsters: An Intimate History of the Sandakan Tragedy.

In 2013, Braithwaite managed to interview Haji Losah bin Sondikormah, a former romusha still living in Sandakan.

Losah was only 12 when he was picked up by Japanese soldiers as he was walking home from school in Sragen in Central Java.

He was imprisoned in a camp in Solo for three months while more Javanese forced labourers were brought in. At first the Japanese sent them to Jakarta. Then, 6,000 of them were put on a ship for Sandakan.

Most of them were boys around the same age as Losah but some were men in their 50s.

According to Losah, they arrived in Sandakan in 1942 before the Allied POWs.

Besides working on the airstrip, they were also working on the roads in the town area.

Life in Sandakan

Losah recalled that the Allied bombing started in 1944 as they were put to work on the airstrip at night. In one raid that he remembered, 300 Javanese forced labourers were killed.

Braithwaite wrote, “The Japanese only provided them with rice. They made salt from seawater and occasionally were able to collect wild fruit and tapioca. They were not allowed to develop gardens but secretly grew the green vegetable, kang kong.”

While the Allied POWs were able to trade some vegetables or other food with whatever possession they had, the Javanese forced labourers did not engage in trading as they had nothing to trade in the first place.

During the first year of Sandakan POW camp, the prisoners were given some medical treatment while the Javanese had no medicine at all.

Making things worse for them, they did not know what kind of disease or sickness that they were suffering from.

Many of them eventually died in large numbers due to disease.

The Japanese did not guard them like the Allied POWS but some of them were given arms and responsibilities to guard the rice store.

The forgotten Javanese forced labourers of Sandakan during WWII
The ruins of huts in the prisoner of war camp, Sandakan, North Borneo, October 1945. Those who were too ill for the march were eventually murdered here. Courtesy Australian War Memorial: 120457

Working under the Japanese

“They were organised into groups of 24 under a Javanese hancho who did not have to do manual work. Everyone had to go to work each day, irrespective of the health. No one was paid,” Braithwaite stated.

Besides working on construction, the romushas were the coolies of the Japanese. One of the things they had to endure was becoming the Japanese undertaker. Records and testimonies had showed that they were the ones tasked to bury dead prisoners especially after execution.

Overall, the Javanese forced labourers were treated as equally brutally as the Allied POWs.

Losah shared to Braithwaite that he once saw a friend have his ear sliced off by a Japanese soldier with a shovel.

With the Allied POWs, the Japanese had an English interpreter for them to communicate. One of the commanders of Sandakan POW camp, Captain Susumi Hoshijima could speak fluent English (though he often chose to have his interpreter translate his speech).

As for the Javanese, the Japanese gave them orders in a mixture of Japanese and Malay, neither of which they understood.

In order to survive, the Javanese tried to cooperate with the Japanese and no one tried to escape.

They were under threat of death not to communicate with the Allied POWs and were all kept away from the them.

The forgotten Javanese forced labourers of Sandakan during WWII

“There were too many deaths”

Some of the Javanese forced labourers tried to report to the Japanese when they saw the POWs outside the wire.

As it turned out, being an informant was a dangerous thing to do.

If the Japanese failed to find the ‘escaped’ prisoners, the Javanese could be arrested and even beheaded for giving ‘false information’.

Losah himself saw a POW outside the wire on two occasions but turned a blind eye.

Braithwaite wrote, “Haji Losah did not pray to Allah and could not remember ever seeing anyone else do so. When I asked why, he simply replied that there were too many deaths.

Arguably, the poor Javanese labourers had a worse camp life than the Australians at Sandakan.

Toward the end of the war

After the Allied POWs were sent in phases for the infamous Sandakan Death Marches, the Japanese set the camp area on fire sometime in May 1945.

Yuki Tanaka in his book Hidden Horrors: Japanese War Crimes in World War II wrote that most of the POWs left at the camp were too weak to have undertaken the march.

“Because the camp buildings had been burned down, the prisoners were forced to improvise huts from whatever materials were at hand. These huts were without walls, and the roofs made of leaves and blankets, offered little protection from the often heavy rains.”

According to Tanaka by this time, apart from the prisoners, there remained one Japanese soldier, Sergeant Hisao Murozumi, 16 Formosan guards, a few Javanese labourers and five Chinese kitchen staff.”

If there were only a few Javanese labourers left, what happened to the rest of thousands of them?

They most probably had died due to diseases, bomb raiding and hopefully managed to escape for their lives.

What happened to these Javanese forced labourers after the war?

Hungry, sick and malnourished, those who survived the war were left abandoned by the Japanese.

Writing for Daily Express, Tan Sri Herman Luping stated, “Sure enough, soon after the war these Javanese labourers were roving the villages crying and begging for food as they were so hungry.”

After the war, the Allied POWs were honoured and remembered though memorials and writing.

Befittingly, some were given recognition and awards posthumously for their bravery and sacrifices.

While these Javanese forced labourers were working on the same airstrip with the Allied POWs, there are no commemorations to remember those who had perished.

Among those who survived, it is estimated only a thousand from the whole British Borneo (Sabah and Sarawak) returned home to Java.

Some like Losah, assimilated with the local communities and callSabah home.

According to Braithwaite, the romusha were seen as nobody’s responsibility.

He wrote, “It is clear that when Australian War Graves units discovered mass graves that were not Australian or British, the bodies were ignored.”

While most of the bodies of Allied POWs that were found after liberation were exhumed and reburied at Labuan War Cemetery, the bodies of Javanese forced labourers are most probably still lying somewhere in unmarked graves in Sandakan.

Although there could have been up to 6,000 of them working on the Sandakan airstrip during WWII, hardly anybody remembers them now, as if they were never there in the first place.

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John Skinner, the last man executed at Sandakan POW Camp

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“In the Sandakan prisoners’ compound, Warrant Officer Hisao Murozumi had his sword raised. It would be the last atrocity in this camp in this backwater of war. Terrible things happen in battle. In the heat and smoke of it, morality enters a strange world. Killing is survival. What Murozumi was about to do was barbarism. A prisoner, tall, thin, wearing only a loincloth was pushed down to kneel beside a slit trench. A black cloth was tied around his eyes. His hands were free because he was too weak to struggle. Murozumi carefully took his stance. It was a matter of pride to do this properly. He stood legs apart, arms above his head, the blade in a two-hand grip pointing directly backward, eyes fixed on the bare, supremely vulnerable back of neck. The sword flashed, John Skinner was beheaded and guards shovelled earth into the trench.”

That was how Cameron Forbes described the final moment of John Skinner in his book Hellfire.

Who was John Skinner? Why was he beheaded mercilessly? And what happened to the Japanese officer who swung his sword to kill Skinner?

John Skinner and his brother Edward “Ted”

According to The Sydney Morning Herald, John Skinner and his younger brother Edward were from Mount Mackenzie near Tenterfield, Australia.

When World War II broke out, the brothers were working for a timber contractor. Their job was considered a reserved occupation or essential service.

During WWII, this kind of occupation was deemed important enough to the country that those serving in such occupations were exempted from military service.

However, the brothers believed they should do their duty, so they enlisted.

Both were then posted to 2/10 Field ambulance and sent to Malaya.

After Singapore was defeated by Japan on Feb 15, 1942, they both became prisoners of war (POWs).

In July that year, they were among 1,500 POWs who boarded a Japanese hell ship and were sent to Sandakan in North Borneo (now Sabah).

The brothers separated at Sandakan POWs Camp

At first, life at the POW Camp was bearable. The POWs were tasked to build an airstrip for the Japanese and they had food to eat.

Things reportedly worsened in August 1943. Some suggested it was due to the arrival of Formosan guards who were more cruel than the Japanese.

Another factor might have been because the Japanese moved the Allied commanders and high-ranking officers who were imprisoned in Sandakan to Batu Lintang camp at Kuching.

Since then, there were no one left to fight for the rights of the POWs and boosted their morality. The Japanese also started to cut down their food and medicine supply, causing many to suffer from starvation and sickness.

In the beginning of 1945, the Japanese started to march the POWs westward into the mountainous town of Ranau, which was about 260km away.

They were sent in three phases. That was when the two brothers were separated as Edward was chosen to march to Ranau.

However, Edward was determined to survive and the only way to do that was to escape.

Together with him were Owen Campbell, Ted Emmet, Keith Costin and Sidney Webber.

They took along 12 tins of rice, six tins of salmon and some dried fish, all stolen from the Japanese.

Unfortunately, the group had one main problem, they were sick and malnourished.

The Fate of Edward Skinner

They made their escape on June 8, 1945, taking the small window of opportunity when an Allied plane flew over causing panic and chaos.

In Never Surrender: Dramatic Escape from Japanese Prison Camps, Mark Felton wrote that the group only managed to “painfully hobble a couple of miles through the jungle towards the coast before exhaustion and sickness stopped them in their tracks.”

“The following day Campbell had an attack of malaria severe enough that he could not walk any further and the whole group rested up. On 10 June Campbell felt sufficiently recovered to try again, but this time Ted Skinner’s dysentery meant that another member of their party was immobilised and once again the group rested in the jungle.”

That was when the group separated. Emmet, Webber and Costin went on heading to the coast. Campbell stayed with Edward.

Then, Edward did the unthinkable when Campbell went out to look for food.

Believing that he would not survive as he was sick with dysentery and he did not want to delay Campbell, Edward reportedly committed suicide by slitting his own throat.

His action came as a surprise for Campbell, as Edward was known for his faith and to always be carrying a bible with him during his imprisonment.

The last group of POWs at Sandakan POW Camp

Meanwhile, the key witness who watched what had happened to the remaining POWs at Sandakan was Wong Hiong.

At that time, he was a 15-year-old Chinese boy who worked in the Japanese cookhouse.

Since the remaining POWs were not able to march to Ranau, they were left in the open on stretchers, simply to die.

Paul Ham in his book Sandakan described the dehumanising situation that the POWS had gone through.

“The only food they get is a small rice ration; they drink whatever happens to fall on their faces. Some are barely able to open their mouths. The stronger ones manage to keep a few scant belongings by their side; a dixie, a blanket, a razor. The ration disappears and a small bucket of rice is dumped in their vicinity. Most prisoners can’t reach it.”

Wong tried to help the prisoners by stealing a little course of salt from the camp kitchen. But he was caught and beaten. Another friendly local named Ali Asa brought them some tapioca and kangkung. The men nibbled them uncooked.

Ham stated, “An English officer, Lieutenant Phillip Young dies on 26 July, and the rest fade away. In the first week of August, five survivors remain: the Australians John Davis, 34, Walter Hancock, 42, Ivan Sinclair, 36, and John Skinner, 31; and one British soldier Harold Rooker, 31. They beg for more food, but Ali Asa refuses: the Japanese threaten to shoot anyone caught helping the prisoners.”

On the morning of Aug 15, only one still alive among the group and that was John Skinner.

The witness of John Skinner’s death

John Skinner, the last man executed at Sandakan POW Camp
The ruins of huts in the prisoner of war camp, Sandakan, North Borneo, October 1945. Those who were too ill for the march were eventually murdered here. Courtesy Australian War Memorial: 120457

When Sergeant Hisao Murozumi executed Skinner, he did not expect to have any witnesses.

After the war ended, Murozumi testified at the Labuan War Crimes Tribunal in January 1946 that remaining POWs were not massacred.

He claimed that they all died one after another of illness starvation between July 13 and Aug 15.

Moreover, he commented that they did not shoot the remaining prisoners because they knew they would die in any case.

“We did not cook for the POWs at this stage; those who were able to crawl about were caring for the others. These POWs eventually died from lack of care and starvation, being too weak to eat. The last POW died about 15 August 1945. From 13 July to 13 August, 30 odd POWs died from malnutrition and lack of medical attention. As they died, their bodies were thrown into slit trenches by Javanese coolies and buried.”

Wong Hiong’s testimony

John Skinner, the last man executed at Sandakan POW Camp
The Australian Imperial Forces section of a cemetery at Sandakan camp. Credits: Australian War Memorial

Murozumi’s testimony clashed with Wong’s. Wong testified, “The one surviving POW came from No 3 Camp (Australia). His legs were covered in ulcers. He was a tall dark man with a long face and was naked except for a loin cloth.

One morning at 7am, I saw him taken to a place where there was a trench like a drain. I climbed up a rubber tree and saw what happened. Mirojumi (Murozumi) was with the man and fifteen Japs with spades were already at the spot. Mirojumi made the man kneel down and tied a black cloth over his eyes. He did not say anything or make any protest. He was so weak that his hands were not tied. Mirojumi cut his head off with one sword stroke. Mirojumi pushed the body into the drain with his feet. The head dropped into the drain. The other Japs threw in some dirt, covered the remains, and returned to the camp. The Japs went away the next day and that was the finish of my job.”

Was Murozumi charged for John Skinner’s death?

Unfortunately, John’s death was not one of the cases prosecuted during the war crime trials.

One main reason was Wong’s statement only came to light in April 1947, long after the Labuan trials were completed.

Besides, Yuki Tanaka in his book Hidden Horrors: Japanese War Crimes in World War II wrote that at that time Murozumi was already serving a life sentence for his other crimes at the Sandakan camp.

“With only one witness and relatively little forensic evidence, the cases might well have been considered too weak to make successful prosecution a likely outcome,” Tanaka wrote.

Five hours after John was executed, Emperor Hirohito announced Japan’s unconditional surrender marking the end of WWII.

After the war, John was buried in an unmarked grave at Labuan War Cemetery until author and military historian Lynette Silver identified him. Now his grave bears his name while his brother’s body has never been found.

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The attack on Captain de Fontaine in British North Borneo

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Somewhere in a village called Kawang in Sabah, stands an obelisk called the De Fontaine Memorial.

It was built by the British North Borneo Company (BNBC) to remember what took place on that spot on May 12, 1885.

On that day, a group of British officials from the BNBC and members of the North Borneo Armed Constabulary were attacked by the local Bajau people while they were on an expedition to search for a Murut chief called Kandurong.

The memorial was named after Captain de Fontaine. He was a member of the Singapore Police Force prior to taking up his career as the Chief Inspector of North Borneo Armed Constabulary.

What better way to know what took place on that day other than reading the news report on the incident?

On June 5, 1885, The Straits Times published the news “Amok in the Kawang river”.

News reporting the death of Captain de Fontaine

“The government launch ‘Kimanis’ arrived at Sandakan before daybreak on the 15th May, from the West Coast, bringing the most sad and unexpected intelligence of an emeute on the Kawang river, in the vicinity of Papar resulting in the loss of valuable lives.

“It appears that on the 10th instant, Resident Davies, Captain de Fontaine, Dr Fraser, Assistant Resident Little, and Mr J.E.J. Wheatley, with a party of Constabulary, arrived at Kawang, which was selected as the most direct and convenient point of departure for an expedition to the village of a Murut chief, one Bandurong.”

Before they started their punitive expedition, the company’s entourage realised they did not have enough Dusun baggage carriers.

They needed 50 baggage carriers to carry their items into the mountainous jungle of Crocker Range.

However, they only had 20. The British then asked the Bajau headmen of Kawang village to provide the remaining 30 baggage carriers.

When the Bajaus refused to do so, the British resident warned them that their village would be fined.

The tension between the British officials and Kawang villagers became more intense when they discovered a stolen water buffalo at the village.

Even after the Bajaus had returned the stolen water buffalo, they still refused to provide them with more porters.

Since the company did not have enough porters, they started to discuss postponing the punitive expedition.

The incident becomes bloody

The attack on Captain de Fontaine in British North Borneo

And that was when things turned bloody – even before the BNBC had to face the famous Murut chief, Kandurong.

“The Europeans and the Officers of the Constabulary were standing about under a tree in a large plain near the village, when two men came up with muskets in their lands and entered into an apparently friendly conversation with Dr Fraser. Without any warning, one of the men suddenly discharged his musket, killing the doctor instantaneously.”

After that, the killers tried to escape.

The news stated, “they then endeavored to escape by rushing across the plain towards the jungle when Captain de Fontaine, in the most plucky manner, pursued them.

All this happened in the space of a few minutes only, and no one had time to support Captain de Fontaine before he tripped and fell on the ground, when the Bajows turned on him and inflicted no less than nine spear wounds on different parts of his body, three of his assailants falling, however to his revolver.”

The news report further stated, “Until further intelligence is received, it is impossible to say whether the treacherous attack was premeditated or whether, as some think, the first gun went off by accident, giving rise to the panic which has had such results. Under the circumstance, therefore, we deem it right to refrain from comment.”

Was the attack premeditated?

However in British North Borneo: An Account of its History, Resources and Native Tribes (1922), Owen Rutter stated that there is no doubt that this outrage was premeditated.

He believed that the Bajaus had prepared the previous day for almost certain death.

“In his description of the attack Mr Whitehead (who was not actually present) offers excuses for the Bajaus, indeed from the way in which he writes one might suppose that they were defending their lives, their women and their property, whereas nothing was further from the case, and their onslaught was a unprovoked as it was treacherous. With the exception of the nine Bajaus (all of whom were either killed and wounded) none of the community took part in the disturbance and consequently no fine was imposed upon the village.

As for Rutter’s thought of what prompted the attack, he opined that the locals were worked up by Orang Kaya Awang who then lived in Kinarut. He was there when the attack took place.

At that time, Kinarut was not yet under the company but still under the Brunei sultanate. Orang Kaya Awang was believed to be against the company and a strong supporter of the sultanate.

The de Fontaine Memorial

Besides Captain de Fontaine, the incident also took the lives of Dr Fraser, Jemadhar Asa Singh and two more Sikh officers.

Meanwhile, Little and eight other policeman were wounded.

On Nov 20, 1911, The Strait Times reported that a memorial would be built in memory of the incident.

“The tree under which they were standing, an isolated tree in the midst of a plain, has ever since been regarded as a memorial, and was known as the “Government Tree.”

After the tree had fallen, a small pillar was built on the site.

Finally, an obelisk was built in September 1912 which is still standing to this day.

The price to pay for a punitive expedition

It was irony for the forces of North Borneo Armed Constabulary who found deaths even before going to a war with the local people.

Like many punitive expeditions held against alleged rebels in Borneo, many could not proceed without the help of the local people as part of the armed forces or even porters.

The company had to abandon their punitive expedition against Kandurong due to the Kawang incident.

But the BNBC did not forget about him as they sent another expedition against Kandurong in 1888. The war between Kandurong and the company did not end until January 1892 when a peace agreement was achieved between both parties.

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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.

Operation Kingfisher, the rescue mission that never took place
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.

The cession of Sipitang by Brunei Sultanate to British North Borneo
Sipitang Esplanade in 2016.

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

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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

Japanese immigrants in North Borneo before World War II
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 immigrants in North Borneo before World War II
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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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.

Fighting for Japan: The Korean and Formosan soldiers during WWII
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.

Fighting for Japan: The Korean and Formosan soldiers during WWII
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.

Fighting for Japan: The Korean and Formosan soldiers during WWII

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

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