SANDAKAN HISTORY DOC - Department of Veterans' Affairs

Searching for the Sandakan POWs
Borneo, September–October 1945
Sandakan is today a large city on the north-east coast of the
island of Borneo. In 1945 Borneo was still occupied by the
Japanese, and at the end of the Pacific war in August,
Australian units arrived in the Sandakan area to accept the
surrender of the Japanese garrison. Just 16 kilometres out of
Sandakan, in a north-westerly direction, was the Sandakan
POW Camp. Here, between 1942 and 1945, the Japanese had
at different times held over 2700 Australian and British
prisoners. The POWs were brought from Singapore to Borneo
to construct a military airfield close to the camp. By 15 August
1945, however, there were no POWs left at Sandakan Camp.
Captain G M Cocks, 3 POW Contact and Enquiry Unit, at the Sandakan POW Camp reading
out the name and regimental number from a pair of shorts belonging to a POW to Lieutenant
E K Robinson. All the articles shown here were found in the camp and bore the names and numbers
of Australian and British servicemen, most of whom died in the camp. AWM121783
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