Anzac Day, Sandakan, Borneo 2010
Written by Leslie on 03/06/2010
The Sandakan/Ranau Death Marches 1945
I would like to set the scene for the 2010 Memorial Service at Sandakan.
After the fall of Singapore in WW11, the Japanese shipped some 2,700 Australian and British prisoners of war from Singapore to Sandakan. Most of the officers were removed to Kuching, reducing the Sandakan Camp population to about 2,400 prisoners. Their role was to provide forced labour to build an airfield.
With an Allied victory in sight in early 1945, they were forced to march 260km west into the mountains to Ranau. These marches became known as the ‘Death Marches’ during which 1787 soldiers died. The terrain was steep, the jungle dense and unforgiving. The majority were sick and injured, rations were poor as was medical attention. Prisoners were forced to carry 40kg bags of rice for their guards. Those unable to continue were disposed of – shot, bayoneted or left to die by the side of the track. Those too weak to undertake the Marches died or were killed at Sandakan. Those who made it to Ranau were also killed.
Six of the 2,400 survived – all Australians. Two escaped into the jungle, four escaped from Ranau. Their story remained untold for many years.
ANZAC DAY SERVICE, Sandakan, Sabah 2010
4.30am. A lighted pathway threaded through the dark leading us to the Obelisk at Sandakan Memorial Park. Stars filtered through the branches of tall trees as the Islamic call to prayer echoed in the warm stillness. Australians, Sabahans, Malays, and others unknown quietly took their seats. Some were adorned in military uniform, some with slouch hats, yet others with medals. Stories of long ago were shared in whispered tones.
As day broke with pink, gold and white clouds, voices were hushed as the candlelit service began. Each Anthem, Reading, Prayer and Blessing added another layer to this already palpable scene swelling to a poignant and tearful moment as relatives came forward to call the name of their fallen soldier.
Flowers were placed as the sadly haunting voice of Gordon Robert Ellis-Flint, a prisoner of war in Sandakan, sang of ‘Going Home’.
With reverence and respect the Last Post and Reveille rang out and the flags were raised accompanied by the early morning chorus of birds. Throats were dry with unshed tears as we remembered what happened and thought of other ANZAC services around the world.
I was humbled and honoured to stand on this site as I quietly gave thanks to those who perished in this far away place. Listening to this deeply moving ceremony and watching the pain that has resonated through the decades, I am profoundly aware that the aftermath of war endures. It does not fade, it does not lessen – it remains forever ‘on hold’.
Updated April 26, 2010 11:34:31
Australians are today continuing to commemorate Anzac Day - the anniversary of the World War One Australian and New Zealand Army Corps landing at Gallipoli in Turkey on April 25, 1915. Yesterday, thousands of people across Australia attended Anzac Day memorials. In Borneo, Australians also remembered those Australian soldiers who died during the Sandakan death march in World War Two. Many describe the marches as the single worst atrocity suffered by Australian servicemen during the second world war.
Presenter: Luke Hunt
Speakers: Steffoni Brackenbury whose father died on Borneo; Ying Chieng whose father died on Borneo; Ron Hatch and George Smith, World War II veterans
Sandakan forged closer bonds
Ron Corben
August 15, 2010
AAP
Australia's Governor General, Quentin Bryce, speaking at a service marking the 65th anniversary of the death marches at Sandakan during World War II, says Australians and Malaysians have overcome appalling adversity to build closer bonds between the communities.
Mrs Bryce, addressing dignitaries, former POWs and families under blue skies and a canopy of green foliage, thanked the local people for their support of POWs during the three-and-half years to 1945 of the occupation in Sabah by the Japan Imperial Army.
"During this time of appalling adversity and shameful conduct, Sabahans (Sabahans) and Australians dug deep to rise above it. Together, they vanquished fear and loathing in all their manifestations and, in their place, chose generosity and love," she said.
The morning service brought together families and representatives from Malaysia, Australia and Britain marking the day, August 15, 1945, when the last POW at the Sandakan camp, an Australian, was killed by beheading.
The POW camp and peoples of Sandakan suffered during the Japanese army's occupation, viewed by historians as a gross example of deliberate and calculated brutality and atrocity.
Only six Australians survived out of the 2434 Australian and British POWs at Sandakan who had been sent to build a military runway that was later abandoned as allied forces bombed the airfield and nearby town.
From early 1945 the Japanese forced-marched 1000 soldiers 260km through the Borneo jungles to the small town of Ranau, many already weak from insufficient rations, dysentery, malnutrition, and skin ulcers.
The remaining 400 POWs perished at Sandakan. Almost all died either from malnourishment or were murdered, their skeletal remains later recovered along the trail.
Only six POWs, all Australians who had fled into the jungles, survived due to help from local villagers.
The former POWs' testimony later exposed the extent of the brutality of the occupation forces.
The service on Sunday included Australian survivors Leslie Bunny Glover, a Lieutenant in the Australian Infantry Force, and Russell Erwin, from the Eighth Australian Division (AIF). Both had lived after all officers were transferred in 1943 to Kuching, the capital of the neighbouring state of Sarawak.
Besides the Kokoda Track in Papua New Guinea and Anzac Cove at Gallipoli in Turkey, Mr Glover says more public attention needs to be given to Sandakan.
"This was a bigger disaster than any of them. It's only now that things are starting to come out. Not only this camp, but the town; you take the photos of the old town flattened (by allied bombing). And (the locals) suffered terribly and I never forget that," Mr Glover told AAP.
The brutality of the Japanese occupation forces was kept officially quiet immediately after the war.
Mr Erwin held in his emotions as he read a book passage of the "caring concern" soldiers felt to those who were more sick that was "ennobling as this place was degrading, in the tenderness and love that the slightly fitter showed for the weaker in the protection that the slightly stronger gave the starving victims... "
The Chief Minister of Sabah, Datuk Seri Panglima Musa Haji Aman, in a speech read on his behalf, said the ceremonies provided "a deeper renewed understanding of the precariousness of freedom and peace".
"As we remember the prisoners of war and all other fallen heroes who came to help us, we must also honour local communities who took the risk and lost their lives in helping those Allied soldiers," Datuk Seri Musa said.
After the service, Mrs Bryce oversaw the launch of the book, Blood Brothers, by Sydney author Lynette Silver, which focuses on the bonds developed between the POWs and the local community.
Massacres and atrocities had also been committed against the local population; on occasions entire families of the local people were brutally killed.
Mrs Bryce said the book helps draw attention "to the people of Sabah who, as pawns in coveted territory, endured horrific violence and destruction, and loss of life, livelihood and community, at the merciless hands of the occupying forces".
"They risked their lives, their livelihood; they cared for the escapees, for the survivors in every way they humanly could. It's a remarkable story of a friendship, indeed a love across nations," Mrs Bryce told journalists.
2010年8月15日“山打根纪念日”。澳洲第25任总督（现任）昆廷·艾丽斯·路易丝·布赖斯（Quentin Alice Louise Bryce）为澳洲最高代表，澳洲首次有最高政府代表出席此典礼。和每年4月25日的ANZAC DAY仪式是一样的，只不过8月15日的庆典不用那麽早爬起来，因为庆典都在早上7点或8点开始。ANZAC DAY就是在天亮之前5点举行。
65th Anniversary of the Sandakan-Ranau Death Marches
每年接近4月25日前，在澳洲和纽西兰政府指定机构或私人旅行社，都会在几个国家的澳新军牺牲地，举行追思纪念日，或办团再重游当年英勇军人牺牲地。当然也包括我国马来西亚沙巴州山打根，著名的“死亡行军”（Sandakan Death March）。我有朋友是这个特别旅程的专业导游，费用不便宜，要RM3000－4000多一人，都是最少一个星期以上的配套。大多数只有外国人或牺牲军人的亲属后辈才会参加。
Anzac Day commemorates victories and personal sacrifices
26th April, 2012
SANDAKAN: Anzac Day is not just a commemoration of the victories or defeats of the Australian and New Zealand armed forces at war but also to remember the individual, ordinary men and women, Australian, Malaysian, British, New Zealand and many more, who were prepared to make personal sacrifices, for the freedom and quality of life that we enjoy today.
“In particular, we must also acknowledge the bravery and selflessness, and the suffering, of the local Sandakan population during the Japanese’s occupation of Sabah in World War II,” Australian High Commissioner Miles Kuppa said in his address at the Sandakan ANZAC Day Dawn Service yesterday.
During the occupation of Sabah, 28 local community leaders were murdered, 16 per cent of the community were killed, and their land, homes and resources were decimated, Kuppa added.
“They suffered too during the Allied bombing that preceded liberation. The casualties, those killed and wounded, were considerable,” he said.
Sabahans provided the six Australians who survived the death marches with nourishment, shelter and safety. Without their assistance, those six men, who defied the odds in escaping, may not have ultimately survived, Kuppa continued.
“And so we come to celebrate the special friendships that have grown out of these tragic events. We come to commemorate the fellowship that has grown between the families of the fallen and the survivors, and the friendships between our countries,” he said.
Kuppa said Australia’s strong historical ties with Malaysia were cemented on the battlefields of World War Two, the Malayan Emergency and the Confrontation.
Beyond those soldiers who lived and died here in Sandakan, we are also reminded of the sacrifices of over 20,000 Australian defence personnel who served elsewhere in Sabah, and in Malaya, Sarawak, and Singapore, during World War II.
More than 1,800 Australians were killed in battle, 1,400 were wounded, and more than 15,000 became prisoners of war, with many taken to Sandakan.
“We are also reminded of the 86 Australian and New Zealand troops who lost their lives during the Emergency and the ‘Konfrontasi’ or Confrontation,” Kuppa added.
“We have also served together, more recently, in far-flung places such Lebanon and East Timor under the United Nations flag. This strong mutual history forms the bedrock of Australia’s and New Zealand’s defence relationships with Malaysia. Of course we now Australian, New Zealand and Malaysian armed forces serve together in Afghanistan,” said Kuppa.
“So as dawn approaches and we reflect quietly, we recall the valiant contribution of our fallen soldiers, their enduring legacy and the gift of freedom they gave us, the benefits of which, sadly, they were never able to share,” Kuppa said during the service at the Sandakan Memorial Park.
Also present was Minister of Industrial Development Datuk Raymond Tan Shu Kiah.
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