While we joked about "surviving" the jungle for 2 nights, intentionally trying to find crocodiles, and persisting against the "onslaught" of mosquitoes, there's a serious side to being in North Borneo. A side we were to see more of as we returned to Sandakan.
During the Japanese occupation of North Borneo from 1942-1945, almost 2500 Australian and British prisoners of war were incarcerated at Sandakan and forced to work on the construction of an airfield (which Wikipedia suggests is at the site of the current Sandakan airport). Most of these prisoners were captured after the fall of Singapore. Towards the end of the war as the Allies were getting closer, some (many had already died due to brutality and starvation) were forced to walk from Sandakan inland to Ranau in a series of 3 marches. A distance of more than 260km through swamps, hills and jungle. In the end, only 6 Australians survived, and only because they were able to escape during the marches with the aid of locals.
I won't go into all of the details, it is covered much better elsewhere, (Wikipedia does a great job, as does the site "Australia's War" and "POW's of Japan", another special mention to Lynette Silver who was involved in bringing everything together from an historical perspective) a visit to the site of the actual camp at the Sandakan Memorial Park is certainly something I think worth doing, whatever your nationality. The State of Sabah, the City Council of Sandakan and the Office of Australian War Graves have done an incredible job of making the Memorial Park a peaceful sanctuary, where people can learn from our shared past, and they ensure that the suffering of the local people at the hands of the Japanese occupiers is not lost either.
Something new I learned, was that regularly the guards responsible for the direct oversight of Australian prisoners were themselves Taiwanese conscripts of the Japanese Army, unleashing what little power they had over weaker and "lower" men than themselves. Kat was most impressed with the level of research that was done to capture what was life in the POW camp and on the death marches.
Just putting Sandakan to Ranau into Google Maps now tells you that even with modern roads it would be a tortuous 222km that would take 47h to cover without stopping.
This visit really put our jungle "adventure" in perspective, it is sobering to think what those men and local people must have suffered through.
During the Japanese occupation of North Borneo from 1942-1945, almost 2500 Australian and British prisoners of war were incarcerated at Sandakan and forced to work on the construction of an airfield (which Wikipedia suggests is at the site of the current Sandakan airport). Most of these prisoners were captured after the fall of Singapore. Towards the end of the war as the Allies were getting closer, some (many had already died due to brutality and starvation) were forced to walk from Sandakan inland to Ranau in a series of 3 marches. A distance of more than 260km through swamps, hills and jungle. In the end, only 6 Australians survived, and only because they were able to escape during the marches with the aid of locals.
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| Map from Sandakan to Ranau - thanks to borneotourstravel.com |
I won't go into all of the details, it is covered much better elsewhere, (Wikipedia does a great job, as does the site "Australia's War" and "POW's of Japan", another special mention to Lynette Silver who was involved in bringing everything together from an historical perspective) a visit to the site of the actual camp at the Sandakan Memorial Park is certainly something I think worth doing, whatever your nationality. The State of Sabah, the City Council of Sandakan and the Office of Australian War Graves have done an incredible job of making the Memorial Park a peaceful sanctuary, where people can learn from our shared past, and they ensure that the suffering of the local people at the hands of the Japanese occupiers is not lost either.
Something new I learned, was that regularly the guards responsible for the direct oversight of Australian prisoners were themselves Taiwanese conscripts of the Japanese Army, unleashing what little power they had over weaker and "lower" men than themselves. Kat was most impressed with the level of research that was done to capture what was life in the POW camp and on the death marches.
Just putting Sandakan to Ranau into Google Maps now tells you that even with modern roads it would be a tortuous 222km that would take 47h to cover without stopping.
This visit really put our jungle "adventure" in perspective, it is sobering to think what those men and local people must have suffered through.
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| Remains of a boiler used for electricity generation |
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| The now serene gardens |
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| 3 flowers for 3 nations suffering |
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| The remains of an excavator used on the airstrip |
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