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'They had not any food for a week'
Last days at Sandakan Camp
29 May-15 August 1945
As the POWs for the second march to Ranau were being mustered at Sandakan on 29 May, the Japanese burnt the POW camp. Approximately 288 prisoners, too sick and weak to go, were left in the open air to fend virtually for themselves. In mid-June the Japanese officer in charge received instructions to take these POWs to Ranau. Those who could not walk would be disposed of in some manner. Consequently, 75 of these emaciated men set off on what was to be a third march westward into the jungles and swamps. Little is known of the fate of these 75 but what is certain is that they did not go far. Most were dead before the party was much more than 60 kilometres away from the camp.
Remains of the burnt-out Sandakan POW Camp looking towards the big tree.
AWM120463
By the end of June there were still some 80 to 90 POWs alive in what remained of the camp. Food now consisted of a small amount of rice, some tapioca, coconut oil and scraps smuggled in to them by some Chinese camp workers. Living quarters were nothing more than lean-tos made from sticks, blankets and whatever else came to hand. Most of the surviving evidence of life and events at Sandakan in July and August 1945 comes from camp guards interrogated after the war and Chinese workers. One of the latter, Ali Asa, a water boy, described the camp at this time:
After the truckload of men [the 75 taken away on the last march towards Ranau] had gone all the PW remaining were left in the open in No 2 Camp site, there were no houses left. These men were sick. About 10 to 12 PW died every day. In August I was ordered by the Japs to take some ubi kayu [yams] to the PWs, at this time there were only five alive. They asked me when I was going to bring some food as they had not had any food for a week.
It was clear that the Japanese now in charge at Sandakan had no intention of allowing any of the POWs to survive the war. On 13 July, 23 men still capable of walking were taken out of the camp towards the now defunct airstrip. A little later, Wong Hiong, a young Chinese camp worker, heard shots and when the guards returned he asked what had happened:
I asked them what they had been shooting and they said ‘ducks’. I asked how many they shot and they said 23. One of the Japs told me that the 23 PW were shot because there were not enough trucks left to take them away for the march.
Yashitoro Goto, a Japanese guard, later testified to war crimes investigators about this ‘duck’ shooting:
It was Takakua’s [Captain Takakuwa Takuo] order so we could not disobey. It would be a disgrace to my parents so we carried out the orders. Taking the PWs to the airport near the old house on the drome, all those who could walk. There were 23 PWs and under Morozumi’s [Sergeant Major Hisao Murozumi] order we lined them up and shot them. The firing party kept firing till there were no more signs of life. Then we dragged the bodies into a near-by air-raid shelter and filled it in.
Aerial reconnaissance photograph, taken by the 307th Bombardment Group.
The POW sign erected in September 1944 (upside down in the middle
of the photograph) can be clearly seen. Sandakan POW Camp.
After the massacre of the 23 most of the remaining 28 prisoners died from disease, starvation and exposure during the three weeks leading up to the Japanese surrender on 15 August. Guard Goto Yashitoro described the condition of the camp in its final days:
All the PWs left were too sick to fend for themselves. We did not cook for the PWs at this stage. Those who were able to crawl about were caring for the others. These PWs either died from lack of care and starvation, being too weak to eat. The last died about 15 August.
Goto failed to describe how the last prisoner, an Australian, actually died. Chinese worker, Wong Hiong, witnessed the final horror of Sandakan:
His [the last POW’s] legs were covered with ulcers. He was a tall, thin, dark man with a long face and was naked apart from a loin cloth. One morning at 7 am 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. Fifteen Japs with spades were already at the spot. Morjumi [Sergeant Major Hisao Murozumi] 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. Morojumi cut his head off with one sword stroke. Morojumi pushed the body into the drain with his feet. The head had dropped into the drain. The other Japs threw in some dirt, covered the remains and returned to the camp.
So died the last POW at Sandakan Camp on the day the Emperor of Japan broadcast to his people that the war was over and that Japan was surrendering.
