Axis History Forum

by **David Thompson** on 29 Feb 2004 18:24

by **Wm. Harris** on 29 Feb 2004 23:11

A nutshell description of the Battle of Hong Kong and the hardships endured by Canadian PoWs, which included slave labour in mines and naval shipyards in Japan.

http://www.valourandhorror.com/HK/HKsyn.htm

A series of video clips featuring Canadian soldiers who endured brutal treatment in Japanese PoW camps.

http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/general/sub.cfm?source=feature/hongkong/recollect

Additional personal reminisces presented by the Loyal Edmonton Regiment Museum: "They tied our hands together with barbed wire. A lot of boys that fell and couldn't walk because they were wounded so badly, they were cut loose and bayoneted right there. They don't believe in taking too many prisoners..."

http://www.lermuseum.org/ler/mh/wwii/pows.html

by **Dan W.** on 06 Mar 2004 17:26

More info:

If you are looking for a comprehensive overview of the vast system of Japanese POW camps throughout Asia during WWII, including the in-depth personal testimony of those who were there, then this book is the one of the best resources of its kind.

It explores the savage treatment of all Japanese POW's, be they Dutch, British, Fillipino, American or Australian, and looks at the inner workings of each of these POW camps.

by **James McBride** on 07 Mar 2004 05:46

I had this one bookmarked, but it is broken.

http://www.ipsystems.com/powmia/unit-731.html

And this is another one someone mentioned in a discussion with general information and verdicts in trials. Maybe similar information is available in one of those, but I didn't look at them all.

http://www.marshallnet.com/~manor/ww2/unit731.html

by **Wm. Harris** on 29 May 2004 04:00

A well-researched and footnoted account of Japanese abuses against Indian PoWs:

http://www.awm.gov.au/journal/j37/indians.htm

by **Anzac** on 21 Jun 2004 15:42

Tol Plantation
Located on Wide Bay, about 50 km south of Rabaul.
Some 160 Australian garrison at Rabaul were either captured, killed, or bayoneted to death at Tol Plantation after the Japanese occupation. Investigators finally discovered the fate of Lark Force in 1945, when the area was re-occupied after Japanese surrender. For most of those massacred, their only grave was the sea or the bush at Tol Plantation, where those massacred were never properly buried.

Sandakan Death March
Borneo
In 1945 a group of over 2000 Australian and British prisoners of the Japanese in Borneo were taken from Sandakan to Ranau. Of the 2345 men, only six survived. Of those who died, most were never found. At Labuan, Borneo, there is a war cemetery, containing the graves of the thousand men whose bodies were recovered. There is also a monument there with more than a thousand other names engraved on it - those who have no known grave. To some, the Sandakan Death March is Australia's 'Holocaust'. There are virtually no people alive today who were on that particular Death March - only six survived the experience at the end of the war.

Ambon Island, Indonesia
In December 1941, an Australian force known as Gull Force sailed for Ambon Island in the Netherlands East Indies. They were captured. Over 200 Australians were massacred at Laha, Ambon, on 6 February and between 15 and 20 February 1942

Burma–Thailand Railway
In all, 9,500 Australian prisoners of war worked on the construction of the Burma–Thailand Railway, which ran from Bampong, Thailand, to Thanbyuzayat, Burma . Building commenced at each end of the railway. Altogether, 2,646 Australians died working on the railway. Prisoners in Changi were divided into forces to work on the railway in either Burma or Thailand. The railway was completed on 16 October 1943.

Sumatra
On 12 February 1942 just before the capitulation at Singapore 65 Australian nurses embarked on the Vyner Brooke. On 14 February the Vyner Brooke was sunk just off Banka Island; 22 nurses made it to land but were shot by Japanese soldiers. The only nurse to survive was Sister Vivian Bullwinkel; after ten days of freedom she was captured and imprisoned at Muntok. The nurses were moved from Muntok to Palembang , then to Muntok again and finally Lubuk Linggau. At the end of the war, only 24 nurses returned to Australia, the rest having died in captivity.

Malaya
Japanese troops decapitated 200 wounded Australians and Indians left behind when Australian troops withdrew through the jungle from Muar.

Singapore
Japanese soldiers bayonet 300 patients and staff of Alexandra military hospital 9 Feb 1942, Australian patients included.

Aitape
New Guinea
Australian Commando who is captured with Dutch Commandos is beheaded on the beach.

Japanese Unit 731
It also carried out surgery on human victims - live autopsies in fact - and tested the effects of anthrax, typhoid and botulism on prisoners of war - Australian, American, British, Dutch, Chinese and many other nationalities.
[/b]

by **Marcus Wendel** on 21 Jun 2004 16:34

Anzac,

Don't forget to post a source for your claims.

/Marcus

by **Anzac** on 21 Jun 2004 16:54

Marcus,
Sorry. My sources were the Australian War Memorial (http://www.awm.gov.au), my Grandfathers diary - he was in a War Graves Unit and designed and built the Lae War Cemetery in Papua New Guinea. He sometimes had to find out how they died and he was horrified by the acts the Japanese troops had inflicted on the Australian troops.

Other Sources are -
http://www.anzacday.org.au/education/ac ... kan01.html
http://www.pacificwrecks.com/provinces/png_tol.html
http://www.pray4pows.org/australia/deat ... ivors.html

#RP#

by **Anzac** on 22 Jun 2004 06:19

During October and November 1945, the camp site and some of the jungle area to the west was searched by Australian War Graves units and 3 POW Contact and Enquiry Unit. Similar searches were also conducted in the area of a small settlement called Ranau, 260 kilometres west of Sandakan, in the mountains close to north Borneo’s largest mountain, Mount Kinabalu. Eventually, searches were also made all along a jungle track, or rentis, which ran from near Sandakan, through low-lying river swamps and up into the mountains to Ranau. In these areas at various times between 1945 and 1947 were found the personal relics and bodily remains of over 2163 Australian and British POWs. The remains of a further 265 known to have been at Sandakan in early January 1945 were never found.

- http://www.dva.gov.au/media/publicat/sa ... sand02.htm

For their first three days in the swamp country they had a small amount of rice and six cucumbers among 40 POWs. This was, in Botterill’s words, just enough to keep them alive. Group 3 took 17 days to make the trip through swamp, jungle and mountain forest. Of the 50 who had started out, only 37 reached Ranau. Some had simply died of exhaustion and disease: others, unable to go on, were shot or sometimes beaten to death

- http://www.dva.gov.au/media/publicat/sa ... sand04.htm

#RP#

by **Panzermahn** on 17 Jul 2004 07:59

Operation Sook Ching, February 1942, Singapore...Approximately 5,000 chinese and ethnic chinese residing in the malay peninsula and singapore were taken to the sentosa and executed by the Japanese..

Source: The National Development of Malaysia, publication by Kolej Universiti Teknologi Tun Hussein Onn (2003) textbook. Chapter 3, Japanese occupation of the Malayan Peninsula 1941-1945. (TRANslated from Malay)

by **David Thompson** on 17 Jul 2004 15:46

Joachim -- Can we get any more details on that operation?

by **Panzermahn** on 18 Jul 2004 14:31

Hi David,

it's only few statement from the paragraph on the chapter about colonisation and occupation in the Malay penisula from the 16th century onto the 20th century..But i tried to get more info from my lecturer on this...

by **Peter H** on 17 Sep 2004 12:39

Parit Sulong Malaya,1942.

http://www.nesa.org.uk/html/malayan_massacre.htm

A new book has been published on the massacre,The Bridge at Parit Sulong by Lynette Silver

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/09/ ... click=true

by **Zebedee** on 27 Feb 2005 18:04

May I recommend Knights of Bushido by Lord Russell of Liverpool. It is not an 'in-depth study' but it is good foundation material giving an overview of both culture and events. I believe it is now back in print.

http://www.greenhillbooks.com/booksheet ... shido.html

by **zstar** on 12 Jul 2005 14:49

http://english.people.com.cn/zhuanti/ww ... crimes.php

41 pictures by China's official Communist Party Paper People's Daily which commemorates the Japanese War crimes commited in China.

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