Sandakan

Life in the Camp and the Marches.

The AIF section of the Sandakan Cemetery

After the fall of Singapore 80 000 British, Indian and Australian troops became prisoners of the Japanese Imperial Army. Many of these men would be subjected to the horrors of the Thai Burma railway, but around 2 500 were to suffer and even worse fate. They would be sent to Borneo to build an airstrip for the Japanese near the village of Sandakan. After years of brutality, with the fear of an Allied landing somewhere on Borneo, the Japanese authorities decided to move the prisoners over 250 km to the village of Renau, signaling a new level of suffering for the POWs.

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Layout of Sandakan Camp.

Route of the Marches

Courtesy AWM.

William (Bill) Sticpewich (centre) and Keith Botterill (right). Two of the six survivors.

Courtesy AWM

Image of Sandakan camp, showing “The Cage”

Courtesy AWM

Investigators sifting through personal items of prisoners.

Courtesy AWM

Captain Susumi (centre) in discussion with his legal team at the War Crimes Trial.

Courtesy AWM.

Four of Sandakan’s guards.

Courtesy AWM