The prisoner of war experience - ANZAC Day Commemoration ...

A C T I V I T Y 5
The prisoner of war experience
Your task
To compare the treatment of Australian prisoners of war by
the Germans and the Japanese, to explain why so many
prisoners of the Japanese died, and to explain those factors
which helped some to survive while others perished.
Background briefing
Over 30 000 Australians were taken prisoner of war during
World War 2.
Germany
Many Australians were taken prisoner of war by the
Germans. The greatest numbers were captured in the battles
of Greece, Crete and Tobruk, and in the air war over Europe.
Japan
Japan had successfully invaded and occupied much of Asia
by February 1942. Over 12 000 Australians were taken
prisoner at the surrender of Singapore.
Many of the prisoners of the Japanese from Malaya-
Singapore spent their captivity in Changi prison, in
Singapore.
Many thousands were, however, sent to work on the
Burma (now Myanmar) – Siam (now Thailand) railway.
To maintain its armies in far-flung areas, it needed to
be able to take supplies to them – food, equipment,
medical supplies, ammunition and reinforcements.
There was already a supply route – a railway – from
Bangkok to the Malayan peninsula. What the Japanese
wanted was to continue that railway to Burma. This would
supply their large army in Burma, and allow them to
attack the British. A failure to resupply the army would
mean that it was very vulnerable to British attacks. So
supplies had to be sent – and they had to arrive in time for
a campaign in the dry season. The coastal route to Burma
was very dangerous and subject to allied attacks – so
supply had to be by land. And that meant a railway.
The British had already considered building such a
railway, but had declared that the terrain was too difficult,
and it would be too costly and too dangerous - the
conditions and the diseases in the area would kill many
workers. They abandoned their plans. The Japanese,
however, decided that they could force the railway through
the hills rather than around them – because they now had
unlimited supplies of slave labour, the prisoners of war
and many conscripted local labourers.
They therefore set to work to build the railway from
Thanbyuzayat, in Burma, to Bampong in Thailand.
330 000 worked on the line, 250 000 Asian labourers
and 61 000 Allied prisoners of war – 12 000 of these
Australians taken from Singapore after the surrender. It is
thought that about 90 000 of the 270 000 labourers from
Malaya, Thailand, Burma and India died, together with
about 13 000 Allied prisoners.
F O C U S Q U E S T I O N S
What was it like being a prisoner of war?
What influenced whether prisoners were able to survive?
The building involved 415 kilometres of clearing
ground in the jungle, cutting through hills of rock, and
building bridges. There were 4 million cubic metres of
earth to be moved, 3 million metres of rock to be broken
and shifted, and 14 kilometres of bridges to be built.
There was virtually no machinery available – only a few
elephants, and a lot of men with basic hand tools. The
short time-line meant that men had to be worked hard to
complete their tasks. Camps were set up along the route,
and men had certain quotas to complete by set dates. For
the Japanese, there could be no delays, and no failure if
they were to support their Burma Army. The safety of their
colleagues depended on building the line.
Using the evidence
1 Germany
Look at Source 5.1, the interview with Jack Champ.
a What were the worst aspects of being a POW?
b What survival techniques did the prisoners have?
c Why did some suffer more than others?
d Why was it difficult to settle down after the war?
2 Burma-Thai Railway
Look at Source 5.2.
Describe the conditions of living for the men on the
Burma-Thai Railway.
3 Look at Source 5.3.
a Create a list of what you think the key elements for
survival might be (food, health, religious beliefs, age,
etc?)
b Look at the comments of survivors to test your list.
4 Interview with a survivor – Owen Campbell
Look at Source 5.4, an interview with Owen Campbell
who survived one of the most horrific prisoner of war
experiences – the ‘Sandakan Death March’. Only six men
of 2000 survived this terrible experience. In 1995 he
returned to Sandakan as part of a special pilgrimage. Read
his interview and discuss:
a the sufferings of the prisoners
b how he was able to survive
c his attitude towards the experience
d the problems he had returning to civilian life
e the greatest losses and the greatest benefits of his
experience
f his attitude to the past, and to the future
g the reasons why he wants his story known.
36

Applying issues to today
5 Most Australians who experienced the Second World
War say that they cannot forgive or forget their enemy in
the war, Japan. They also stress that they want young
Australians today to know what happened. Do you think
this emphasis on remembering horrific events, as well as
uplifting ones, is appropriate today?
6 The Australian prisoners of war were brought up on
heroic tales of the fighting ANZAC tradition. A prisoner is
taken out of the fighting, and yet we have great respect for
those Australians who survived the war as prisoners. What
elements of their experience and behaviour do you think
are ‘heroic’?
Using the web
In 1945 over 2000 Australian and British prisoners of war
were held by the Japanese at Sandakan, in Borneo. Six of
them survived. What happened to the rest?
Your task is to discover:
• What the experience of being a prisoner of war at
Sandakan was like
• How many of the prisoners died
• How they died
• Where they died
• When these deaths occurred
• Who was responsible
• What the families of the dead can be told
• What happened to those who escaped
• Why more did not escape
• What evidence exists to carry out war trials against
those responsible for war crimes discovered in your
investigations
• What the problems are with coming to definite
conclusions about what happened.
See the evidence on the ANZAC Day Commemoration
Committee of Queensland site at http://www.anzacday.
org.au
Source 5.1
Interview with a prisoner of war of the Germans – Jack Champ
Feelings on capture
How did I feel – it’s a feeling of complete devastation – it’s
never going to happen to you – killed or wounded perhaps but
never captured – it’s over, you are now a prisoner of war.
Imprisonment in Colditz prisoner of
war castle
Colditz has a reputation of being unpleasant but I didn’t find it
that way. Everyone in Colditz had an escaping record or were
very anti-German. The attitude here was that we did everything
we could to upset the German routine. For example, we often
didn’t turn up on parade, and this caused the Germans trouble
with the counting of us.
Another time we were having identity photos taken. The
photographer was there, and a sentry with a rifle. Suddenly, out
of the window came water bombs and the photographer and
sentry raced off in search of them. We were all called out on
parade and of course we had pinched the camera. There was
disruption for a couple of hours and we could use the camera
to help in escape attempts. There were 30 successful escapes
while I was there.
Jack Champ
Studies
The hard bit was overcoming boredom. I studied for a
chartered accountancy exam in England and after the war
found that I had passed! A lot of people studied.
Red Cross
We got issues of these wonderful parcels – bully beef, tea,
coffee, herrings, tomato sauce. Because of them we were able
to maintain our weight, and play some sport such as footy,
cricket, tennis.
Mateship
Well I think that mateship is terribly important in wartime.
When you are fighting a war you are completely dependent
upon one another. When your own life depends upon the
actions of your friend the bond that is built up becomes
completely impregnable, it’s a wonderful thing, a thing you
never forget.
Letters from home
We were fortunate in that regard – the mail in was eventually
quite good but we were allowed to send only four postcards
and three letter cards out a month. We couldn’t say much
because they were censored but families could write and it
was wonderful to get them, to know that everything was going
all right at home – it was good!
Single/married
It was worse for the married men. Us single blokes didn’t have
much to worry about - but for a married man with children it
was very hard to be separated from those they were so fond
of – some of them hadn’t even seen their children and to go
so many years must have been very hard on them.
After the war
It was hard to settle down after the war. Your whole life had
been the army, and when I got back it was hard to settle into a
9 to 5 job. Fortunately I played a lot of sport, and that kept me
going. After a time I settled down and eventually got back into
civilian life. But it took time, and was difficult at first.
Interview 1995
37

Source 5.2 Experiences on the Burma-Thai Railway
A
The Japanese underfed the troops, gave them no medical
supplies, constantly overworked them, and frequently
bashed men for no reason.
Terrible physical punishments
were often given out, such as
standing in the sun holding
a rock over your head, with
a bashing if you collapsed or
lowered the rock. Sick men
were forced to work.
Based on Hank Nelson,
Prisoners of War. Australians Under Nippon,
ABC, Sydney, 1986/1990 passim.
AWM 38649
B
The reason why most men died is simple: they starved.
The greatest atrocity committed by the Japanese
against the prisoners is that they did not feed them. …
. The few grams of rice, watery vegetable stew and
infrequent flavouring from meat and fish … would not
sustain men who were being forced to work at
maximum effort. They were vulnerable to diseases
which would not have killed, and perhaps not afflicted,
the prisoners had they been well-fed.
Hank Nelson, Prisoners of War. Australians Under Nippon,
ABC, Sydney, 1986/1990 page 51
E.R. (Bon) Hall, Burma-Thai Railway of Death, Graphic Books, Melbourne, 1981
C
We slept on the floor, close up to each other,
men dying, screaming and moaning; spewing
and bogging going on amongst us; delirious
fits and morphine injections by the light of a
candle; fires in the hut all night; men at all
times walking up and down the central
passageway to the latrines; it made it all a
corner of hell brought to earth. This was no
figure of speech if you were lying next to a
man about to die and lying next to him still,
after he was dead.
Douglas McLaggan, The Will To Survive, A Private’s
View As A POW, Kangaroo Press, Sydney,
1995 page 123
The War Diaries of Weary Dunlop, Viking, Melbourne, 1986
38

Source 5.2
Continued
D
The ground turned to mud, your clothes rotted away, your boots, if you
had any boots at that stage, rotted off. The six-foot latrine pits which we
had dug filled up with water and in no time the whole camp area was
crawling with maggots. In the cemetery the graves filled up with water
and the bodies came to the top. But none of this affected the progress of
the railway.
Hank Nelson, Prisoners of War.
Australians Under Nippon,
ABC, Sydney, 1986/1990 page 46
F
Fred Ransome-Smith,
Working on the Thai
Burma Railway of Death
‘Occasionally ... we’d get cases of prawns. But by the time they
reached us the insides of the prawns would be eaten out by maggots.
... I said ‘Meat, you beauty’. There were maggots an inch long floating
on top [of the food] . One bloke sitting alongside me said, ‘Jeez, I
can’t eat that’. I said, ‘Well tip her in here, mate, it’s going to be my
meal ticket home. You’ve got to eat it. You’ve got to give it a go. Think
they’re currants in the Christmas pudding. Think they’re anything.
You’ve got to get the tucker into you.’
The doctrine of consuming everything that was remotely edible was
encapsulated by Albert Coates, the leading medical officer with [the
POWs]: ‘You’ll see your ticket home in the bottom of your [plate].’
Hank Nelson, Prisoners of War. Australians Under Nippon,
ABC, Sydney, 1986/1990 page 42
E
One soldier was examined by a doctor
and he had:
• dysentery – a disease which caused
constant diarrhoea and which
weakened people terribly
• pellagra – caused by malnutrition,
and leading to rashes, then
diarrhoea, and finally dementia
• beri-beri – caused by a deficiency of
vitamin B, resulting in the
accumulation of water in parts of
the body, with consequent
enormous swelling of limbs and
organs
• scabies – a contagious itching
disease
• haemorrhoids – painful swelling of
tissue near the anus
• partial loss of eyesight
• tropical ulcers – cuts or scratches
which became infected and spread
through tissue to the bone, and
which had to be scraped out daily to
reduce contamination
• worms in the bowel
• malnutrition
• semi-starvation
• malaria – a tropical disease which
brought on alternate shivering and
sweating fits.
The War Diaries of Weary Dunlop, Viking, Melbourne, 1986
Many suffered from cholera – which
would waste a person and leave them
unrecognisable within three hours.
All of these diseases were readily
treatable with simple medicines which
were available to the Japanese.
Adapted from Douglas McLaggan, The Will To
Survive, A Private’s View As A POW, Kangaroo
Press, Sydney, 1995 page 138
Rohan Rivett, Behind Bamboo, Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1944
39

Source 5.2
Continued
G
The Australians were angered and many remain embittered by the
apparent indifference of the Japanese to sick prisoners. The sick might
be issued with no food or perhaps half rations. ... The Japanese attitude
to the sick was consistent with their general ruthlessness in forcing as
many men to work as possible, but the Japanese actions also reflected
their different beliefs. Where the Westerners were inclined to see
sickness as misfortune, the Japanese thought it was a sign of weakness.
Sickness, they believed, was a result of a lack of will or ‘right thinking’.
If an individual soldier did not have the power within himself to
overcome his weaknesses then his superiors had a duty to compel him
to greater effort to secure his own well-being.
Hank Nelson, Prisoners of War. Australians Under Nippon,
ABC, Sydney, 1986/1990 page 43
Fred Ransome-Smith, Working on the Thai Burma Railway of Death
Rohan Rivett, Behind Bamboo,
Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1944
Source 5.3
Surviving – or not
A
I had a ‘youngster’ of 41 on my hands. I fed him, washed him and ran around
getting leaves to wipe his behind. ... It was just as important to see that the men
near you were as clean and careful as yourself or else all the care that you took
was useless.
Adapted from Douglas McLaggan, The Will To Survive, A Private’s View As A POW, Kangaroo
Press, Sydney, 1995 page 122
B
HUGH CLARKE: No one would
ever be on his own without
support. ... when you had malaria
you couldn’t eat so your mates
would eat what you couldn’t, and
then of course your turn would
come.
Hank Nelson, Prisoners of War.
Australians Under Nippon, ABC, Sydney,
1986/1990 pages 55–6
Fred Ransome-Smith, Working on the Thai Burma Railway of Death
C
SNOW PEAT: Well, I had a wife
and a little girl. And the will to
live. I said, ‘I’m not dying in this
bloody place, and that’s all there
is to it’.
Hank Nelson, Prisoners of War.
Australians Under Nippon, ABC, Sydney,
1986/1990 pages 55–6
40

Source 5.3 Continued
D
GEOFF O’CONNOR: I hated their guts, and
I wanted to get home. Perhaps I was a
determined, irritable, cranky sort of bugger,
and the more they did to me, the more it
made me spark a bit. I never ever believed
we wouldn’t win.
Hank Nelson, Prisoners of War. Australians Under
Nippon, ABC, Sydney, 1986/1990 pages 55–6
E
The deaths of my friends, the ugly diseases that beset us, the
constant reduction of rations that already seemed impossibly
small, the bestiality of the guards – against all these things ...
I flung up the conscious barrier of ‘It doesn’t matter – nothing
matters’. It was a kind of narcotic, a self-induced drug ... I
withdrew into the ostrich-like burrow where ‘nothing mattered’,
and there, mentally secure, I remained.
Russell Braddon, The Naked Island, in Carl Harrison-Ford, Fighting Words,
Australian War Writing, Lothian Publishing, Melbourne, 1986 page 246
F
I was laying on these bamboo slats … I was skin and bone, 5 stone (32 kilos). Pus was running out of my
leg, and I used to dread having to have it scraped. Brian, this mate of mine, used to come and carry me out
and hold me while it was scraped. He’d often come in where I’d be lying and he’d have scrounged stuff and
give me some and he’d help the fellows alongside me whose mates had gone. He’d come in the night time
and talk. It’s companionship and comradeship that pulled a lot of fellows through. … But we all helped each
other. And this is what survival is about: having a mate.
Alan Davies, in Patsy Adam-Smith, Prisoners of War, Viking, Melbourne, 1992 page 427
G
IAN DUNCAN: The big men died
first. There was just not enough
food to keep them going.
Hank Nelson, Prisoners of War.
Australians Under Nippon, ABC, Sydney,
1986/1990 pages 55-6
H
ROWLEY RICHARDS: We expected that these young bronzed Aussie surfers
and footballers would be the ones who would survive best. In fact that did not
occur. Those who survived best were the 25 to 30 or 35 age group, the next
group would be say 20 or 25, and then the 35 to 40 group. Among the worst
would be the below 20, the 18 year olds who hadn’t sufficient experience in
coping with difficult situations. They were completely lost. And of course the
older people, the over 50s, certainly fared very badly.
But to all these generalisations there were exceptions.
Hank Nelson, Prisoners of War. Australians Under Nippon,
ABC, Sydney, 1986/1990 pages 55–6
Stan Arneil, One Man’s War, Alternative Publishing Co-operative Ltd, Sydeny, 1980
41

Source 5.4
Interview with Owen Campbell, survivor of the Sandakan Death March
42
The horrors of captivity
You could say that 90 per cent of the POWs really suffered things
that you could never really describe happened to them. If you told
the world the actual things that did happen and what they did do,
it would horrify people. I can tell you one. They used to put a hose
down your mouth and turn the tap on and when you swelled up
they’d jump on you.
And of course there were others far worse than that. The tortures
they used to give you were unbelievable and I don’t think any
person who was really tortured by them would keep his mouth
shut. They were such painful tortures and a lot of our boys
suffered that before they were killed... Of course the starvation
diet and being ill and that weakened the boys down to such an
extent that they didn’t have the will to go on, and they just lied
down and said this is it...People in Australia don’t really know
what happened on those death marches because all those who
weren’t fit to march and were stretcher cases they just killed them
where they were. That’s what I heard later.
Escape
I escaped, going on the track after the others had been killed.
I came to a river which was fairly wide, they are not deep,
only where the main channel is, and I knew that there were
crocodiles around and I knew I had to go across because further
down there was a lot of noise and I thought it was a Jap camp.
So I got a bit of a log and was paddling my way across and a Jap
appeared on the bank and opened fire. He hit me in the wrist and
tore all that out so I dived under water and swam as far as I could
and came up but he kept firing but the current dragged me a fair
way out and he gave up after a while and I got out. I had to let the
blow flies at my wrist until I couldn’t stand the grubs or maggots
eating the dead flesh away, then I’d hold it in the water to get rid
of them and then a couple of days later it’d be just as bad again.
But that was all that saved my hand, was allowing the maggots to
eat the dead flesh. When I got out I couldn’t use my hand at all
and the Yanks said ‘We think we’ll cut it off’ and I said ‘You leave
it where it damn well is, I want it, you’re not going to get it.’
Reasons for survival
There is a Supreme Being, whether you believe or you don’t
believe there is, because I don’t care where you go or what you
do because if you are in trouble, you can ask for help irrespective
of what religion you are, if you believe and have enough faith to
believe, you can get strength by believing in your faith. A lot must
have had some sort of faith somewhere to survive what they
survived. There was nothing else for it, you’ve got to draw
strength from somewhere, I can’t think of any other place you can
draw it from that is so perfect...
A lot of the POWs that did survive had sufficient faith in human
beings, in themselves, in one another to help one another survive
the ordeal. Because without that they would never have
survived...
Returning home
What annoyed me when I got home was that no one had told my
wife that I was alive. They’d had me for about eight weeks and
they said they would but they never ever told her. She found out
from a Courier-Mail reporter who came and knocked on the door
and said ‘Are you coming to meet your husband?’. And she said
‘No he was missing believed dead’. He said ‘No he’s flying in this
afternoon’, and that was the first she heard of it. So she got a
shock. It just shows how things go.
I wouldn’t say I have been easy to live with. My wife more or less
knuckled down and understood what I went through. No matter
what happens, she’s been a big help not only to me but to family
and friends who have needed help.
Return to Sandakan
I did have feelings at Sandakan when I walked up to where the old
camp was and things like that. You never forget because when you
are in the services you create a bond with your fellow man that
you don’t create in civilian life. You discuss things with him that
you wouldn’t discuss with anybody else and you create that great
bond of friendship and no matter what happens it will endure
forever and you will never forget it, I can’t anyway.... and there are
still some buried there somewhere I’m sure because I had that
feeling when I was there and so did my wife, that there were spirits
wanting to be released from where they were. You get those
feelings after a while... That’s where all the memories are, back
there. When you go back and see where you worked with your
mates and they are not there here today, well you start to think and
you drift back its only natural but you do drift back because I don’t
care who you are, you work up a friendship and you lose a friend,
that’s part of your life that’s gone, so you can’t afford to lose too
many can you?
War is painful not only for the soldiers fighting on the front line but
for the ones who are left behind. Consider the worry they must go
through and the anxiety they must suffer. You take our wives when
they heard we were prisoners of war, what they must have went
through, it’s unbelievable. They suffered just as much in their own
way as we suffered in our way. Kids are wondering if they are
going to see their father again, it must worry them; the wives and
mothers are wondering are we ever going to meet again. I think
that you have just got to put the past behind you, lift your hand up
and pull the blind down on the past and push the blind up on the
future; that’s all you can do in this life and hope that you have done
the right thing.
Reflections on his experiences
They say you should forget and forgive but it’s hard.
I got nothing against the young [Japanese] people, because it’s
not of their doing, It’s like if you and I have a row, why should your
kids attack my kids, and my kids attack your kids for what you and
I did. That’s the way I look at it, but as for the older generation I
could never forgive nor forget...
The Sandakan story has got to be brought out in to the light and
then gradually let it dim away. That’s what I reckon. Bring it to their
notice and then they’ll start to talk and that will bring it further into
the minds of the younger generation that is coming up. That’s the
only way I can do it.
I think myself that school children should be told that war is
a terrible thing, the horrors of war are something they never want
to experience in their lifetime because I’d never like to see the
young generation go through what I went through. I think that this
is a message that we have to get across. Do not forget the war and
the sacrifices that were made on their behalf.
Interview 1997
AWM 116260
FOR MORE on Sandakan go to
the ANZAC Day Commemoration
Committee of Queensland web site
http://www.anzacday.org.au