JOHN HOOK “ Death Marches – Trials and Tribulations”

Every and Remembrance Day, we pause to remember those who gave their lives in overseas conflicts, but sometimes we overlook those that are still with us, particularly from WWII. Some of those conflicts were much closer to home than many of our younger generation realise. The popular pilgrimage to Gallipoli is seen as a ‘right of passage’ for many younger Australians and nothing is wrong with that. However, pause for a moment to remember those brave souls who lost their lives under unspeakable cruelty, malnutrition and illness just a mere 3000 kilometres from our shores.

The construction of the Thai- and its POW camps is a well-known story of Japanese inhumanity heaped on POWs. Two lesser-known POW camps, however, were at Sandakan and in British North . The history of both these camps illustrated the very worst POW death rate in Australian POW history – over 99%.

Japanese forces invaded Rabaul in large numbers during January 1942, completely overwhelming the opposing Australian Lark Force. A particular brutal operation in February 1942 was the killing of 160 Australian soldiers attempting to flee Rabaul along the coast. Cut off by a Japanese Special Landing Force, they surrendered, but were nevertheless murdered, largely bayoneted. Later the Rabaul Crimes Commission attempted to find any of the Japanese officers involved but failed. It was believed many had been killed in subsequent operations along the New Guinea coast.

Rabaul played a major role in the Japanese attack on PNG. After the planned direct naval attack on Port Moresby was thwarted by allied Naval and Air Forces in the Battle of the Coral Sea, the Japanese turned to the strategy of attacking Port Moresby by land over the Owen Stanley Ranges. Rabaul became a crucial military and naval base for the Japanese and Admiral Yamamoto (Pearl Harbour) and ultimately made Rabaul his home base. (His plane was later shot down mid-flight from Bougainville when a crack morse code interception group recorded his flight details.)

By 1945, the Japanese realised the war was being lost. The first march of 455 prisoners was sent out in ten groups from Sandakan on January 28, 1945. Their escorts were members of a nearby Japanese infantry force, Yamamoto Battalion, ordered to move westwards to Jesselton to oppose an anticipated Australian Forces landing. These troops previously had no contact whatsoever with the POWs, an important fact which played a vital role later in their ultimate fate. The troops were ordered to move as quickly as possible, taking the POWs with them, but only 242 POWs arrived at Ranau. Forced to move prisoners from Ranau 1 camp, firstly to Ranau 1 Jungle camp, then further into the jungle to Ranau 2 Jungle camp which became known as ‘The Last Camp,’ the first march survivors already there had been reduced to six.

Only the same number – six – POWs survived the overall Borneo POW tragedy, all Australians and all only because they escaped to the jungle.

The death marches of Sandakan are well known to veterens, and notorious for their death toll – at the end of the war, only six men remained alive out of almost 2500 prisoners and Indonesian civilians who had entered the Japanese camp at Sandakan.

Our WWII survivors are now well into their late 80s and 90s. One such man is John Hook, and whilst the then 18 year old was lucky his service did not put him on the front line, what he experienced was still horrific. To tell John’s story in one page is almost impossible. John was a member of the Allied Translator and Interpreter Service (ATIS) having learned Japanese at Melbourne University. In January 1946, Australian justice sought retribution for the thousands of Australians executed in the camps and on three Sandakan death marches. His task was to act as an interpreter at the retrial of Japanese officers who took POWs on the first forced march.

His first experience of the trials dealt with a Japanese Navy Lt-Cdr and the death of all the natives of Ocean Island. After being transferred to the then Borneo, John was involved with the trials of the Japanese responsible for the Sandakan death marches (a tough assignment for a then 18 year old.) He sat in on the trials, working with the ‘Nesis’, a Japanese term for those American-born translators who served in the American units. His task was also to read out the proclamation of sentence. John stated everything was sent to Melbourne because it was the legal headquarters and when the reply came back, 99 times out of 100 it was for execution, or it was commuted to life imprisonment. There was always a big parade and one of the interpreters would accompany the Brigadier, who would read out the sentence of execution. Surprisingly, no emotion was ever shown by the Japanese at their sentence.

John revisited Sandakan in 2012 and whilst the trip was emotional, he said he was glad he made the effort to go. “It gave me a whole new understanding of the death marches, we actually walked for a mile along the route and it was very hard going. I was with the relatives of those who died at certain spots and we would hold a little service.” Even at 94 years of age, John sees it as his duty to tell people about the Sandakan death marches… this story needs to be told.