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'They killed the lot of them'
Last days at Ranau, 26 June-27 August 1945
The 183 survivors of the second march--142 Australians and 41 British--began arriving at Ranau on 26 June 1945. They found only six men from the first march still alive. Over the next few weeks, despite their exhaustion, sickness and malnutrition, they were subjected to a harsh and brutal work regime. Parties cut bamboo, collected wood for burning, atap for hut construction, and carried 20-kilogram bags of food to Ranau from a dump three kilometres away. This was light work compared to that of those unfortunates who were assigned to haul an average of 130 buckets of water a day up a steep slope for the Japanese officers’ quarters. As Private Keith Botterill later testified, rations for the POWs at this time were barely sufficient for survival, let alone for sick men:
They were given a small cup of rice water a day with about an inch of rice in the bottom. Plenty of rice was available and the Japanese used to get 800 grams a day themselves; they also used to get tapioca, meat, eggs and sweet potatoes and showed no signs of malnutrition.
No accommodation was available for those from the second group and initially they were herded together in an area 50 metres square. There was no place for cooking or basic sanitation, and living quarters were simply the protection of the scrub. Between 30 June and 18 July, as well as working for the Japanese, the POWs built themselves a hut. A measure of their physical condition by this time was the fact that when the hut was finished only 38 were fit enough to occupy its elevated floor space. The remainder were so sick and debilitated by dysentery and other illness that they could only crawl under the hut for shelter.
POW relics found at Sandakan POW Camp, October
1945. AWM Robertson Collection, 121/8
Keith Botterill estimated that in early July men died at the rate of about seven every day. Moreover, the beatings and the bashings continued. One POW who perished as a result of a severe bashing was Sapper Arthur ‘Dickie’ Bird, a survivor of the first death march. By 7 July Bird was sick and emaciated with beriberi, malaria and leg ulcers but, despite his condition, a Japanese guard dragged him out for work. When he tried to explain his incapacity Bird was knocked to the ground and continually kicked for over ten minutes. Later that evening he was observed lying virtually where he had fallen and an effort was made to get him back to the hut. Bird was in great agony and he lapsed into a coma. Nothing could be done for him and he died two days later. An Australian doctor, Captain J B Oakeshott, was so appalled by the manner of Sapper Bird’s death that he purportedly declared:
If anybody is fortunate enough to escape this camp or live it out, this incident with others should be brought to the notice of the authorities and see that justice is brought about.
From this place of degradation and misery four Australians did manage to escape and their stories are told below. After the last escape--that of Bill Sticpewich and Private Herman ‘Algy’ Reither on 28 July--there were approximately 40 POWs still alive at the camp. The daily rice ration had been even further reduced and none of them was capable of any prolonged physical work. From the Japanese camp administration’s point of view, the time had come for their elimination.
In August 1945, within sight of Japan’s surrender, their captors put these sick and helpless men to death. Although there were no POWs left alive to bear witness to these acts, Japanese and Formosan guards later described the final massacres to war crimes investigators. One guard described how the sick were either carried or forced to crawl up a hill to the graveyard where they were each shot through the head. Another guard described the killing of a fitter group of about 10 POWs who were marched a little way from the camp. They were made to sit down after which a Japanese Sergeant-Major told them:
There is no rice so I’m killing the lot of you today. Is there anything you want to say?
Allegedly, the prisoners were also offered tobacco and water. Then they were shot one by one and buried. Sadly, strong evidence suggests that the last POW survivors at Ranau were not killed until 27 August, 12 days after the official Japanese surrender.
At this time, out in the nearby jungle, friendly villagers were taking Private Nelson Short, who had escaped in early July, to an Australian rescue party:
We heard this tat, tat, tat, tat...I said ‘Wonder what it is?’...We found out that was the killing of the last of the men in the prison camp at Ranau. They killed the lot of them.
