Premier S Westfield Modern History Scholarship

Premier’s Westfield Modern History Scholarship

Oswald ‘Jack’ Boardman and Robert ‘Bob’ Davis— Two case studies

Tracy Sullivan Quakers Hill High School

Sponsored by Overview This report is a concise version of two individual case studies of former prisoners of the Japanese during WWII. (Due to length constraints the third case study ‘James Stanley Connor’ is available upon request.) Each case study focuses on a different facet of the prisoner of war experience while telling the stories of these two brave and honourable individuals. The first and most extensive case study is of Oswald Jack Boardman who spent his years as a POW in Changi, Singapore. This case study is used as a vehicle to investigate the Selarang Barracks Incident of 1942 and the work of the Changi Concert Party (he was the pianist) during their years of captivity. The second case study focuses on the experiences of Robert Davis, who spent a significant part of his captivity working on the Burma–Thailand Railway. This case study will be used to explore the daily experiences of POWs working along the Burma–Thailand Railway throughout 1943. The information held in these two case studies has been drawn form personal interviews with the men themselves (logs of these interviews are in the appendix of my full report), first-hand exploration of the areas being investigated, primary research at the National Archives of Australia and Singapore, and the reading of a large number of related texts. The case studies in this report are intended to act as a springboard for students and teachers to undertake their own investigations of the stories of former POWs through accessing oral history collections and locating primary source documents. Oswald ‘Jack’ Boardman (Private, HQ 22 Infantry Brigade)— Selarang Barracks incident and Changi Concert Party Oswald ‘Jack’ Boardman was born in Bogangate, NSW, on the 23 April 1919. At the age of 21, in July of 1940, Jack travelled with two of his mates to Martin Place, where they enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF). They acted partly out of concern over the recent losses in the war effort overseas—‘… things were going very badly, the British had been knocked out of France, Dunkirk, North Africa and so on. There was quite a lot going wrong.’ 1— partly for and adventure, and primarily to do what he saw as his duty as an Australian—‘Young folk like adventure, and everything wasn’t doing too well so there was a fair bit of pressure for us to go down and enlist’.2 On 22 July 1940, Jack was marshalled to Hurstville, where he spent a month before being taken on strength to Walgrove army base, where he was to begin the first phase of his training. Jack was to spend 2 ½ months at Walgrove before being granted one week embarkation leave, after which he was shipped to Singapore.3 On 2 February 1941 Private Oswald ‘Jack’ Boardman embarked on the HMT Queen Mary, on board which he would spend the next 16 days before disembarking at Singapore on 18 February 1941. ‘We came down to Sydney and caught the ‘Queen Mary’ over to Singapore in a convoy. The convoy was going to the Middle East, it had a lot of great big ships and the ‘Queen Mary’ deviated in the middle of the Indian Ocean and we went to Singapore.’ 4 Shortly after arriving in Singapore Jack was stationed at Port Dickson, where it was discovered that he was an able pianist and musician. He was quickly seconded to join the original Concert Party which would travel around allied bases in Malaya to entertain the troops before the invasion of the Japanese. On one of these trips Jack, two other members of the Concert Party (Private BJ McGann and Private R Picken) and their driver (Private R Picken) had been ordered to travel to Malacca to perform for the troops there on 6 August 1941. On their return they were involved in a collision with a lorry which left Jack with a laceration to his head. Following this accident Jack was appointed as a Grade III Clerk, where he was to remain until ordered to surrender in February 1942.5 Jack vividly recalls the march to Serelang Barracks. As a seemingly never-ending line of allied troops snaked their way through the streets of Singapore to Serelang Barracks, ‘… we felt we marched as failures, we had let our country down.’ 6 Before leaving their post, the Australian troops through acts of sabotage had ensured that there would be nothing left in working order for the Japanese. ‘We sabotaged as much as we could, you know, took the bolt out of the rifles and threw them away.’ 7 Even though ordered to surrender, the Australian forces had agonsied over this decision, overcome with feelings of disappointment and failure. However, on the long march to Serelang the Allied forces were far more overcome by their feelings of failure and inability to succeed in what they believed to be their ‘duty’ than any concern for the fate they themselves were facing at the hands of the Japanese. At the end of August 1942 Jack and approximately 15,400 POWs, including 1900 Australians, were called to muster by the Japanese in the Serelang Barracks Square, an area of 8 acres with two water taps and rations cut to one-third.8 Jack would spend four days packed into the square with 15,400 men.

A photograph taken by a POW using a hidden camera during the Serelang Barracks Incident, concealed for the duration of the war, September 1942. (Alexander Turnball Library, NZ, DA 10284).

From surrender until August of 1942 the POWs were considered by the Japanese to be ‘captives’ and not ‘prisoners of war’. That changed in August of 1942, when Major General Fukuye and a POW administration staff arrived in the Changi precinct.9 This arrival and increased security prompted Japanese officers to order all POWs to sign a document promising not to escape: ‘I, the undersigned, hereby solemnly swear on my honour that I will not, under any circumstances, attempt to escape.10 Jack and all the other POWs refused to sign and were held in the worsening conditions of Serelang Barracks by the Japanese until they capitulated. Jack recalled that after a two-day stalemate an officer approached the men and informed them they had witnessed the Japanese execute four men who had attempted escape and the executions would continue until the paper was signed. ‘they decided everybody’s got’ta sign a document to say that they would not attempt to escape…They kept us standing there for about 4 days then the officers decided we would sign under duress.’ 11 At the end of the war Jack learned that these four men were Corporal Breavington and Private Gale, AIF; Private Waters, the East Surrey Regiment; and Private Fletcher, Royal Army. Lieutenant Colonel Stanley Warren who was a witness to the incident recalls the events as follows: An offer was made to blindfold them which was refused. We then saluted the four men who returned our salute. The order to fire was given … at the discharge of all four fell backwards. After about 20 seconds Breavington raised himself up on one elbow and said ‘for God’s sake shoot me through the heart. You’ve shot me through the arm.’ Whereupon the Indians lost their heads and started firing indiscriminately … after repeated shots they lay still. The Indians then advanced to within a yard of each body and put several bullets in each.12 At this point, when the POWs still refused to sign, the statement was amended to read: I the undersigned, hereby solemnly swear on my honour that I will not under any circumstances attempt to escape without incurring the penalty under ILA Order No. 63 dated 25/3/42.13 The officers still refused to order their men to sign. Jack remembers the Japanese lining the walls of the Barracks with machine gunners and cutting off all water to the barracks, which meant that dysentery was a very real fear. It was not until the Japanese threatened to move the hospital to Serelang Barracks that the men were ordered and ultimately agreed to sign on 5 September 1942. This was helped by the fact that the Japanese had conceded to officially acknowledge that the POWs were signing under stress and that it was not voluntary. However, as Jack recalls, there were very few authentic names recorded: … we all had to go along and put our signatures one under the other you see … some fella’s wrote signatures like ‘Mickey Mouse’ and ‘Judy Garland. 14 Serelang Barracks are today used as a training base for the Singapore army and therefore access is totally restricted to military personnel. However, out of respect for the POWs who were held there during WWII, a group of Australian POWs, including Jack Boardman, were given permission to return to the Barracks in the mid 1990s. During his wartime captivity Jack was spared the horrors of Borneo and the Burma– Thailand Railway. ‘I had a pretty quiet war in that sense’, 15 due to his work with the Changi Concert Party, an experience of which Jack is still extremely proud today. The Changi Concert Party played a vital role in the life of the prisoners in Changi, as morale was a key to survival and the Concert Party was a fundamental tool in its maintenance: ‘It was a blessing’.16 All aspects of the productions were undertaken by the Concert Party, from the writing of the original scripts and compositions to the creation of advertising posters that were placed around the camp. The Concert Party spent 12 months performing in an attap hut within Serelang Barracks until the Japanese allowed them to move to a purpose- built theatre within Changi Gaol in which they performed until near the end of the war. The attap hut where the Concert Party resided was formerly occupied by a battalion of Gordon Highlanders. According to Jack Boardman, Fred Brightfield was a professional musician and named the attap hut ‘poverty point’ in respect of actors and musicians of the 1920s and 1930s who would meet outside the Criterion Hotel in Pitt Street near Park Street, Sydney, especially when they were unemployed, to seek work and for comradeship. The Japanese officers would sometimes frequent the productions of the Changi Concert Party, as Jack recalls: One of our fella’s was a very good ballroom dancer and had been taught ballet as well, he was quite masculine type so we used to use him on stage every now and again and he teamed up with an Indonesian prisoner who had come from Java, he was a good little dancer and he was small and Asian looking … they had the big fella tied up to a wheel and an Indonesian dancer dressed as a female danced around him, teasing him, when he broke his chains and attacked ‘her’ … the ‘Jap’ General who was in charge of the prisoners was in the theatre and he started to yell and go on because he reckoned we were insulting them as they were losing the war at that point. No more shows after that, we had to go to work.17 The Concert Party was a lifeline for the POWs of Changi and Oswald Jack Boardman’s contribution to this phenomenon was officially acknowledged when, on 22 March 1946, he was awarded the British Empire Medal.

Copy of official approval of British Empire Medal awarded to Oswald Jack Boardman, 22 March 1946, for his contribution to the Changi Concert Party. National Archives of Australia NX 59309.

Jack Boardman was officially recovered from the Japanese on 5 September 1945. He embarked on the Duntroon from Singapore on 19 September 1945, and reached his home of Sydney on 17 October 1945. Jack Boardman was discharged from the Australian Military Forces by his own request on compassionate grounds on 1 October 1946.18 Jack spent much of the rest of his working life within the Education Department and as private secretary to the State Minister of Mines. He is happily retired with three children and five grandchildren, living on the NSW central coast. Oswald ‘Jack’ Boardman is many things to many people, but to those with whom he spent those tragic years in Changi Gaol, he will always be that bloke who played the piano. Robert ‘Bob’ Davis (Sapper, 2/12th Field Company) Burma–Thailand Railway living and working conditions Robert ‘Bob’ Davis was born in Moorongoor, NSW, on 1 January 1923. Early in 1941 Bob Davis lived with his two brothers Lawrence and Roy, in Carlingford, NSW. It was there all three brothers decided to travel to Paddington on the 14 March to enlist in the AIF. Roy had always been, and still is, a self-confessed ‘knock-around’ bloke, and as such he and his brothers enlisted primarily out of a sense of duty and also seeking ‘a change of scenery’, and an adventure.19 At the time, the minimum age for enlistment was 20 years, and as he was only 18 years of age, Bob Davis falsified his birth date to read 1923 so that he could enlist with his brothers. It is the falsified birth date of 1/1/23 that appears on his official Attestation Form.20 Bob remained beside his brothers until they left Changi on 15 May 1942. One month after signing up at Park Street, Paddington, Bob and his two brothers were marshalled to general detail at Canterbury from where they were transferred into the 2/12th Field Company in Bathurst. After four months training, on 29 July 1941, Bob Davis and his brothers embarked on the voyage to Singapore.21 On arriving in Singapore on 8 August 1941 until his capture on 15 February 1942 Bob worked on the Singapore shipping docks. On his capture at ‘Tanglin Hill’ he was marched to Changi, where he spent three days before being marched to Selarang Barracks. It was from here that Bob was selected as part of ‘A’ Force to be transferred to work on the Burma–Thailand Railway (Burma) on 15 May 1942—the last time he would ever see his brothers. Bob was transported up the Malaysian coast aboard the Tohoshasi Maru, landing at Mergui where he would work on the construction of an aerodrome for approximately three months. On completion of the aerodrome he was transported aboard the Tatu Maru to Tavoy. Bob would spend another three months there working on an aerodrome that had been started by a former working party. On completing the Tavoy aerodrome Bob was transferred, by cattle truck, train POWs carrying sleepers 40kms out of Thanbyuzayat. AWM POO406.026. and canoe, and for 40 miles on foot to Thanbyuzayat, Burma. It was there that Bob Davis would begin work on the Burma–Thailand Railway, and where he would experience the worst conditions of his entire captivity. Bob recalls his arrival at the Thanbyuzayat POW camp; the POWs arrived at daybreak to witness the shooting of five Dutch POWs. They were forced to watch this shooting; however, they were given no reason for the executions—possibly an escape attempt, but Bob recalls it as more of a warning to him and the arriving POWs than a punishment of the Dutchmen.22 Two days after arrival Bob and his comrades were transferred by truck to the 26 kilo camp (Kun Knit Kway Camp). After the completion of this section of the railway they marched to 75 kilo camp (Meiloe Camp), and finally on its completion marched to 105 & 108 kilo camps (Three Pagodas Pass/ Burma–Thailand border).23 Bob recalls the process of laying the lines and driving piles along the railway, and the human cost associated with it: The worst job was driving piles, we had a big rope and a big heavy weight we would dig a hole and stand the pile up and pull the weight up and let it go, that’s when they’d say ‘one more for Tojo’ and you let it go, and if you didn’t let it go you went with it … it was pretty hard work … I remember seeing men just sit down under a tree and give up and die.24 While working at 105 kilo camp (Three Pagoda Pass) Bob was stricken with dysentery. His grave had been dug, and today he believes that it is only by the grace of god that he survived: The doctor was there, nice fella’ he was, I looked like dying, I had to crawl to the door to drop a little blood or something like that … well he said we’ll see what we can do with him’, he mixed up some mix of something the Dutch blokes had there, and he gave it to me and said ‘if this doesn’t do him any good you can stick him in a hole’ … the next morning I had a dish there full of green slime and blood, and he said to me ‘you’ll be ok there’. I was very lucky we buried a few blokes up there.25 George Aspinall photograph illustrating the effects of harsh environment, dysentery, malnutrition and overwork (these men were considered fit to work by the Japanese).

After recovering from his bout of dysentery Bob Davis was transferred to Kanchananburi for the completion of the Burma–Thailand Railway. It was there that he learnt of the death of his brother. Sapper Lawrence Davis had died of beri-beri one week before Bob’s arrival in Kanchananburi. Sapper Roy Davis, Bob’s other brother, would die nine months later after being transported from the Burma–Thailand Railway back to Outram Road Gaol, Singapore, succumbing to ailments he contracted while working on the railway.26 In December of 1944 Robert Davis was placed aboard the Arwar Maru, the ship which would transport him to Japan (Fukuoka), where he spent the duration of the war working in the coal mines of Sendyu, Japan.27 Bob was recovered from the Japanese on 14 September 1945; he was transported to Manila the following month and arrived back in Sydney Australia on 24 September 1945. Sapper Robert ‘Bob’ Davis of 2/12th Field Company was granted compassionate discharge on his own request on 4 January 1946, just under five years after he and his two brothers had made the trip to Park Road Paddington.28 References 1. Appendix: Log of interview with Oswald ‘Jack’ Boardman, Narara, 29 December 2004. 2. ibid. 3. Service and Casualty Form, National Archives of Australia, NX 59309. 4. Appendix: Log of interview with Oswald ‘ Jack’ Boardman’, Narara, 29 December 2004. 5. Injury Accidental—Court of Inquiry, Service and Casualty Form, National Archives of Australia, NX 59309. 6. Appendix: Log of interview with Oswald ‘ Jack’ Boardman, Narara, 29 December 2004. 7. ibid. 8. Wigmore, L, The Japanese thrust, Halstead Press, Sydney, 1957, p. 223. 9. ibid., p. 522. 10. ibid. 11. Appendix: Log of interview with Oswald ‘Jack’ Boardman, Narara, 29 December 2004. 12. Havers, RPW, Reassessing the Japanese prisoner of war experience: The Changi POW Camp, Singapore 1942–45, RoutledgeCurzon, London, 2003, p. 71. 13. ibid. 14. Appendix: Log of interview with Oswald ‘Jack’ Boardman, Narara, 29 December 2004. 15. Appendix: Log of interview with Oswald ‘Jack’ Boardman, Narara, 29 December 2004. 16. ibid. 17. ibid. 18. Service and Casualty Form, National Archives of Australia, NX 59309. 19. Appendix: Log of interview with Robert ‘Bob’ Davis, Killarney Vale, 3 January 2005. 20. Attestation Form, National Archives of Australia, NX 72294, B883 2002/04608381. 21. Service & Casualty Form, National Archives of Australia, NX 72294, B883 2002/04608381. 22. Personal memoirs of Robert ‘Bob’ Davis. 23. ibid. 24. Appendix: Log of Interview with Robert ‘Bob’ Davis, Killarney Vale, 3 January 2005. 25. Appendix: Log of Interview: Robert ‘Bob’ Davis, Killarney Vale, 3 January 2005. 26. Commonwealth War Graves Commission. 27. Personal memoirs of Robert ‘Bob’ Davis. 28. Service & Casualty Form, National Archives of Australia, NX72294, B883 2002/04608381.