Sandakan-Ranau Death March - SABAH BORNEO
Kokoda Spirit is proud to introduce their latest treks in Sabah Borneo “In the footsteps of heroes”.
Borneo is the land of undiscovered treasures offering enriching cultural experiences and natural wonders.
From the vibrant capital of Kota Kinabalu to the majestic Mount Kinabalu, the highest mountain in South East Asia and the home of the Worlds Highest Via Ferrrata, Sabah will spoil you with its laid-back lifestyle and tropical splendour.
Set between the coral reefs and rainforests with world-class resorts and hotels, Sabah is South East Asia’s premier nature adventure destination.
Visit secluded beaches, jungle trek in the “footsteps of heroes”, explore caves, try white water rafting, dive in remote tropical islands, explore for Orang-utans, Proboscis Monkeys and Pygmy Elephants explore the rivers and visit traditional longhouses and immerse yourself in culture.
Kokoda Spirit have designed our “In the footsteps of heroes” tours to enable you to satisfy your adventurous needs while allowing you time to shop, relax and take in the mesmerising and delightful culture.
THE SANDAKAN-RANAU POW DEATH MARCH
The Sandakan-Ranau POW death march follows in the footsteps of the POWs who were forced marched three times between January and June 1945 from their Prisoner of War camp in Sandakan North Borneo, west to the small settlement of Ranau. The very mention of the words Sandakan-Ranau in tandem conjures up visions of tragedy of immense proportions. The Death March is acknowledged as the worst tragedy for Australia in World War II. Tragic though it is, the story of the Death March is an important chapter in the shared wartime history of Australia and Sabah (North Borneo as it was called then).
This track commemorates a tragedy and an atrocity. The tragedy was the death between January and August 1945, within sight of Allied victory in the Pacific war, of approximately 2400 Australian and British prisoners of war held by the Japanese in the Sandakan POW camp, North Borneo.
The atrocity was the manner of the death inflicted upon them by their captors-starvation, overwork, beatings and punishments and the forcing of over 1000 sick and weak POWs on three marches under brutal physical conditions.
In 1942 and 1943 the Japanese brought to Sandakan about 2700 Australian and British POWs, the great majority of whom had been captured at the surrender at Singapore in February 1942. They were used as Labour force to build a military airstrip. In late 1944, as the Allies advanced in the Pacific, the airstrip was bombed and destroyed. Early in 1945 the Japanese decided to move the POWs 260 kilometres west into the mountains to the small settlement of Ranau. On three forced marches between January and June approximately 500 prisoners died. The remainder died at the Ranau and Sandakan camps.
Of all those who had been alive in January 1945, by the end of August only six-all Australians –survived. Two of the six escaped into the jungle during the second march in June 1945. Assisted by local people, they were eventually picked up by Allied units. Another four escaped from Ranau in July and again, with the help of local people, were fed and hidden from the Japanese until the end of the war.
Today the POW dead, whose bodies were recovered, are buried in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission war cemetery at Labuan. Those who could not be identified, or have no known grave, are commemorated on Memorials to the missing at Labuan and Singapore.
What are the Sandakan Ranau Death Marches?
Sandakan and the Death Marches, 1942-1945
Imagine this. It is May 1945. Clad only in ragged loin-cloths, over 500 skeletal creatures, barely recognisable as human, struggle to their feet at the Sandakan POW Compound, on Sabah's north-east coast. Three long years in captivity, half of them on starvation rations and with little or no medical attention, have taken their toll. The grimy, wasted bodies of these once fit and strapping Australian and British servicemen are covered in sores and scabies, their filthy hair and beards matted and lice-infested. Many are suffering from tropical ulcers, some so large that shin bones are clearly visible. Others, bloated from beriberi, lumber along on sausage-like legs. They are bound for Ranau, a small village on the flanks of Mt Kinabalu, South East Asia's highest peak, situated 250 kilometres away to the west, in the rugged Borneo jungle interior.
Most universally the POW’s under the Japanese experienced privation hard labour, brutality, appalling living Conditions and Death. POW’s were bashed by the guards, suffered from starvation and resultant killer diseases and sometimes murder.
By the end of the war in 1945 over 8000 more than a third of Australian prisoners of the Japanese were dead. This represented nearly half the total deaths of the Australians in the Pacific War.
Of the 8000 dead, nearly one quarter died here in Sandakan on the Sandakan Death Marches or at Ranau.
Why were the POWs in Sandakan?
All were members of a 2700-strong Allied contingent transferred to Sandakan by the Japanese in 1942-43, following Singapore's fall. Their task? To construct a military airfield, using not much more than their bare hands.
For the first twelve months or so, conditions at Sandakan were tolerable. However, in mid 1943 the Japanese discovered that the POWs not only had a radio but were in league with a local resistance organisation. The kempei-tai, or secret police, swooped. Arrests and transfers followed. Discipline at Sandakan was tightened considerably and life became much more difficult for the remaining 2,434 prisoners.
Why were they marching to Ranau?
As the war ground on, conditions deteriorated. In late January 1945 the Japanese decided to move 455 of the fittest prisoners to Jesselton (Kota Kinabalu) to act as coolie labourers - only to halt them at Ranau, owing to Allied air activity on the west coast. At the end of May, there was a second march from Sandakan and in mid-June a third, comprised of only 75 men.
As both sea and air were under the complete control of the Allies, a track had been cut through the mountains, linking existing bridle-trails. Unaware that it was to be used by POWs, the local headmen given the task of creating this track had deliberately routed it away from any habitation, across the most inhospitable and difficult terrain possible.
There was no medical assistance and little food. Anyone who could not keep up was ‘disposed of'. Despite this, about half the prisoners completed the march, only to die at Ranau from illness, malnutrition and ill-treatment by their captors. Two Australians managed to escape in the early stages of the second march with the help of villagers, and four more successfully escaped from Ranau into the jungle, where they were cared for by local people.
What happened to the rest of Sandakan's prisoners?
Back at Sandakan, 200 prisoners unable undertake the second and third marches also died, bringing the death toll there to about 1400. Of the 1000-odd prisoners who left on the death marches, about half died in the attempt. The rest died at their destination.
The story of Sandakan and the death marches is one of the most tragic of World War Two. It is also one of the most heroic. Despite appalling conditions, the prisoners never gave up. Their heroism, their determination and their indomitable spirit are testimony to the strength of the human spirit and an inspiration to all. Of the 2434 prisoners incarcerated at Sandakan, 1787 were Australian. The remaining 641 were British. The six Australians who escaped were the sole survivors.
Re-tracing the Sandakan Death March Track
The track cut for the death marches soon became completely overgrown and for sixty years defied all efforts to locate it. However, in August 2005, Australian investigative writer and historian, Lynette Silver, author of the internationally acclaimed book Sandakan - A Conspiracy of Silence, and Tham Yau Kong, a multi tourism award winner, who has almost twenty-years‘ experience in the industry, combined their considerable talents to identify the path taken by the prisoners of war. After sixty years, you too can now walk in the footsteps of the Death March heroes.
Trekking tours cover the last 140 km of the route across the mountains, of which about 100 km involves actual walking. This is by far the most interesting, scenic and challenging section. The first 100 km, from Sandakan to Bauto, is no longer forested, and has been heavily planted with oil palms. The track through this section consists of often muddy estate roads, which have obliterated all traces of the original path.
The POW’s Speak about their experiences
“All the way along the Sandakan Death March track, we smelt and saw bodies. They were Australian soldier’s bodies from the prisoner’s marches. We could recognise them- some we new personally... In all my dealings with the Japanese. I have never seen anyone of our chaps after they have been left with the Japs. Once you stopped, you stopped for good.”
“I’d deliberately get out of bed of a morning, off my bunk and I’d go out to aggravate them in some way or other. I never ever let the Japanese beat me, in my mind. Because they beat me bodily, but they never broke my nerve or my heart.”
“Hoshijma.. gave a speech to us he said that we’d come there to build an aerodrome... And the war would go on a hundred years, and we would work until our bones rotted under the tropical sun in Borneo.”
Ranau
“No one can imagine the filth and the death rate that occurred during the days spent in this cesspool. Mud was ankle deep, sick men were lying about unable to move in their own filth.”
Escape
“We picked the moment when we knew death was imminent, a sure thing in a couple of days and there was no option left. Die in the camp or die in the jungle, so we just decided there and then to go.”
“After I reached allied forces an Australian Colonel came to me and said....we’re going to look for your friends. And I remember this so vividly, that I just rolled on my side in the bunk and faced the wall and cried like a baby and said... you’ll be too late. And it was, for most.”
“When I was in the swamp and I thought I was lost and finished. I sat on this log and it was so murky that I couldn’t see 20 yards away and snakes and scorpions and centipedes were all over the place .And I, I’ll never get out of here and I don’t know which way to go. I’ve lost all direction and didn’t know how I’d got in there and it was thick, thorny undergrowth.
And all of a sudden I thought why are you thinking this way? You’re not going to die here in this place. And suddenly I became angry and I got up and blindly charged this thorny jungle and ripped my way through it, until I could see the sun again. And from there of course I was able to get some sort of directional idea.
|
