sign in sign up
<<
Home , Kunming

Symposium: POW Camps in During the East Indies & Australian POWs in Island

June 3rd 2016 at NIOD, Amsterdam

Tom Pledger’s Prisoner of War Diary 1940-45 Fuyuko Nishisato トム・プレッジャー戦争捕虜日記（1940-45） (Journalist, POW Research Network, Japan)

1939 Feb, 10 Imperial Japanese Navy captured Hainan Island. Many Japanese industries advanced into Hainan. Japanese mobilized more than 25,000 slave labour who were mainly Chinese from , Hong Kont, and mainland and some Selecting facilities for Ore of Monument at Mass grave for workers Indians and Allied POW Shinrushan Mine and Koreans. slaved for Shinhlushan Iron Mine(Nippon Chisso)

1941 Dec. Hainan became the base for Imperial Army’s Malay campaign coinciding with Pearl Harbour attack in Hawaii at the beginning of Pacific War. Photographic Magazine, featured Japan’s occupation of Hainan Island. Opencut mining site of Tinduk(Ishihara Hachou in distance, another mass Sangyo Co., Ltd grave in here

1 1941 Dec. 17th Gull Force of 1,170 landed on Ambon Island to be Locations of POW camps in Japanese-occupied Territories exposed to the air raid of Japanese Navy Air Corps by American Defense Agency Intelligent Service Looking for the Location immediately of the POW Camp 1942 Jan. 31th Japanese Navy convoy of 37 battleships and transport vessels landed troops of 23,000. Dutch troop of 400, local soldiers of 5,000 plus Australian Gull Force of 1,170 quickly surrendered to be POWs in Feb. 1st. 1942 Feb Laha Airfield massacre (about 300 POWs) 1942 May 24th Garden Party Incident at Tan Tui Camp (about 30 Dutch prisoners were caught by the Japanese trying to communicate with their wives detained in a camp nearby. The Japanese used weapons like pick handles, iron bars, and wire cables to beat them up for 2 hours. Three men died and the injuries of others Changgang were horrific) Hachow, 1942 Nov. 5th Shinhlushan Dongfan 263 Gull Force and 245 Dutch East Indies POWs were Iron Mine transported to Hainan Island by Taikyo-maru and ↑ landed at Hashow on the west coast of Hainan Island. Camp site 1945 Aug 26 Tinduk Iron Mine Camp inmates learnt the war was over. American OSS parachutists (Pigeon Mission) liberated Sama Naval Base the camp and next day planes came from Kunming, to drop food and cigarettes. (English) Hainan historically significant site, commemorated by the DongFang (from Tom Pledger’s Prisoners of War Diary 1940-45) office, July 2008. Tom Pledger, Australian Gull Force, http://www.eckert.id.au/docs/tompledger.pdf (Dutch) Hainan, belangrijke historische gedenkplaats, herdacht door het DongFang 2/21th Infantry Battalion Field Ambulance communicatiebureau, juli 2008. （第21歩兵大隊第２分隊野戦救急隊） (Japanese) 海南省愛国主義教育基地 東方市情報局建立 2008年7月

POW Camp at Hachow, Cause of Death：mainly ←Dong Fang, Hainan Island dysentery, beriberi and starvation Affidavit for war crime court by Australian Medical Officer Dr. W. Aitken

●Huts were infested with vermin. Sanitary arrangements were primitive and since the camp was situated near a drainage swamp, mosquitoes were ubiquitous.

●Food was generally inadequate and sometimes grossly insufficient. Patient of serious Beri-Beri case ●Sick men were forced to go on recovering in the hospital, Morotai working parties, where the work Island(Gull Force member at Ambon) was heavy. Men were frequently Private Kissick, Gull Force beaten. Suffering from Beri-Beri and 3 Dutch POWs helping each other with mal-nutrition(photo shot 28th Gull Force member in the right. Aug. 1945)

2 Affidavit by Australian Medical Officer Dr. W. Aitken OSS Rescue Team :Pigeon Mission （US Office of Strategic Services） 1．Lt. Peter Fong, Chinese Interpreter ２．2nd Lt. Arnold S. Breakey S-2 3. Capt. Ralph T. Yempuku, Interpreter 4. 1st Lt. John C. Bradley, Adjutant 5. Sgt. Home, Radio Operator ↑ Private Petrie had 6. Capt. James E. Healy, Medical just saved from death Technician by starvation. A complaint to the Camp Commandant th st (photo of 28 Aug.’45) resulted in the witness and another Officer 7. 1 Lt. Charles S. Walker being beaten. Requests to the Jap. M.O’s 8. Capt. John K. Singlaub, Commanding ←Corporal Davidson was supply drugs and for improved diet were emaciated due to ignored. Deaths were sometimes shown 9. Capt. Leonard Woods, Executive malnutrition and had his Officer arm broken by severe on certificates as due to starvation. The M.O’s reply was that if the witness ９ members of OSS team beating by Japanese, continued to show death as due to which happened often starvation, he show the prisoners what when they got too week death from starvation really meant. to work properly.

• Australian War Memorial Data Sheet

OSS Rescue Team Missions • ID Number: 030372/05 • Maker: Woods, Leonard Thomas • Place made: China: Hainan Island, • １．Liberation of POW camp Bakli Bay • Date made: c 28 August 1945 • ２．Rescuing operation for flyers of fighter- • Physical description: Black & white • Summary: Lieutenant Walker of the bombers US Office of Strategic Services, • reading the burial service over a Dutch • 3. Saving lives of 100 Chinese coolies nearly prisoner of war • (POW) at the POW cemetery. dying. • Copyright: Copyright expired - public domain • ４．Persuading and putting down Chinese • Copyright holder: Copyright Expired • Related subject: Funerals and guerrilla in combating formation without burials; Prisoners of war; War graves 収容所開放後も衰弱した捕虜は力尽きて死んで • Related unit: Bakli Bay Prisoner of knowing the end of the war. War Camp; Netherlands East Indies 行った。捕虜用墓地で蘭印軍捕虜の埋葬式が • Forces; Army 行われた。 • Related conflict: Second World War, 1939-1945 • back add to work area

3 Eye Witness Chinese slave labour of 20 thousands from , Taiwan, and local islanders.

“Dr. Aitken, Dal Griffin and myself stayed behind to try and do something for the around 40 Chinese labourers from Hong Kong who were critically ill from dysentery. We could only saved 20 or so, what I could do for the rest was just holding their hands to attend on their death beds. “ (Testimony Tom Pledger interviewed 2009 at his home in Sydney) 符 路福 Fu (86); eye witness of suffering POW Not obedient POWs were beaten to death, we villagers all cried A Chinese man found dying in one of the huts at the to witness the such cruel beatings. Some were starved to death. prisoner of war (POW) camp, lying on a mat on the floor. POWs were mainly engaged in the manual labour to build railway, roads and water channel. (interviewed 2008)

Maj. Gen. Singlaub Spoke to Special Operations Soldiers at Fort Bragg NC (The Airbone & Special Operations Museum) OSS Mission Pigeon Report 25 Aug~14 Sept. 1945 Patients NethAus Aust （263） Neth （245） 2816Stretcher cases 2816Stretcher Off. Off. 3656Able to sit up 3656Able 1393516614 166Escapes patient patient Singlaub spoke about the liberation of Australian 6-Recaptured (13) (67) (29) (62) soldiers from prison camps on Hainan Island in ’45 and said thousands of prisoners died in the cruel Guerrilla prisoners -10 experiments of determining how few calories they could consume and still have any output of work. They trapped snakes and lizards to eat and, in Killed by guerrillas essence, thwarted the experiment. 10 For helping to liberate them, the prisoners fashioned an American flag from parachute silk and tied it to the train that ushered them out of At 26th Aug., 1945 Japanese occupied territory. The flag, a donation from Singlaub, in part of the OSS exhibit at the Pigeon Mission Commander: Capt. Airbonrne&Special Operations Museum. John K. Singlaub. His recent book; Hazardous Day

4 Escape Cases Names of Missing 10 were engraved on the Joined Chinese Guerrilla and two Baoban Incident; got too sick to carry on to be left memorial wall to the Missing 1944 April 8th: at the Lao Ou village(communist) in Kranji War Cemetery in Chinese Guerrilla ambushed Singapore. IN MOMORY OF TWO the truck with Australian GULL FORCE For some reason, there was POWs on the way to SOLDIERS WHO WERE BURIED HERE not Youngberry’s construction site. 10 killed IN 1944 LEST and 10 escaped; FORGET→ name. Visited Kranji War Cemetery with Peace Cycle Team Ernest M. Paticiffe(27) The monument was built by Arthur H. Chenoweh(23) Darwin City Government Henry C. Youngberry(32), Albert N. Hines(24), Arthur A. Hawking(34), William S. Lynch(27), Leslie A. Shiells(30), Edward T. G. Stafford(33), Frederick A. Stokes(36), Howard A. Struhs(39) →

１９４５ May, ６ Australians and Myles Higgins--- dead by Malaria Research Trip to Holland(2009） 2 Dutch escaped being led by Ian MacRea Tommy Lockwood NIOD Research Major Ian MacRea. Alfred Perrin They survived by the help of Campbell Stuart Ryoko Nakazawa translated this Diary and Ron Leech I could learn how they(3 Dutch) escaped Chinese guerrilla group. th & two Dutch; Hanegraaf and Bruins from camp in 6 April ‘45 and survived in hiding by the help of Chinese guerrilla groups who were fighting each other as well as confronting with Japanese.

The first and last official Investigating by Reunion with Eveline Bucheim, Gull Force veterans in China and Japan who offered me great help. (1986) ↓ 71 Gull Force POW perished in Hainan Island The first direct records of Dutch POWs held in were buried in the Common Wealth War Cemetery in Hainan Camp. Hodogaya, Yokohama, which was not so popular BERICHT UIT HAINAN decision among the bereaved families. The remains of Dagboek van A.J. von Metzsch. two Gull Force POWs uncovered in Lao Ou village were (Message from Hainan added to Australian section as unknown in 1992. Diary of A.J. von Metzsch)

5 New facts learnt from the Diary New facts learnt from the Diary by A.J.von Metzsch, MO by A.J.von Metzsch, MO 1. Names of 62 Dutch POW deceased in Hainan and the date and cause of death. 1. Names of 62 Dutch POW deceased in Hainan and the date and cause of death. 2. Escapees were helped by Chinese guerrilla groups as well as Aid Group, who 2. Escapees were helped by Chinese guerrilla groups as well as Aid Group, who are British escapees from Camps in Hong Kong. are British escapees from Camps in Hong Kong. 3. Other escape attempts; 3. Other escape attempts; 1) 1943 Feb. 2 6 Dutch POW・・・recaptured 10 days later and all of them died 1) 1943 Feb. 2 6 Dutch POW・・・recaptured 10 days later and all of them died before war ended. before war ended. 2) 1945 Feb. 24 2 Dutch POW escaped 2) 1945 Feb. 24 2 Dutch POW escaped 3) 1945 April 6 3 Dutch POW including Von Metzsch escaped 3) 1945 April 6 3 Dutch POW including Von Metzsch escaped 4) 1945 April 16 2 Dutch POW escaped 4) 1945 April 16 2 Dutch POW escaped 5) 1945 June 6 6 Gull Force led by Major Ian MacRea escaped 5) 1945 June 6 6 Gull Force led by Major Ian MacRea escaped 2 Dutch escaped April 16 joined to move together. 2 Dutch escaped April 16 joined to move together.

7 Dutch and 5(one died of Maralia) Australian escapees were sheltered by 7 Dutch and 5(one died of Maralia) Australian escapees were sheltered by Nationalist Guerrilla group and joined up to the main troop and come home all Nationalist Guerrilla group and joined up to the main troop and come home all right. right.

Gull Force Association, Melbourne Lionel Penny was in Hainan. Shrine Pilgrimage&Annual General Meeting 2010

International Peace Museum

Wally Hicks was in Ambon. Goods on sail for fundraising of annual Ambon visit ↑My two Australian co-researchers Brendan Worrell & Gary Toone Ｋｅｙ Ｒｉｎｇ 10.00ドル Lapel Pin 8.00ドル ←With Gull Force Association 1 set(Ring&Pin) 15.00ドル Secretary Sue Head & Christine Web Site;www.gullforce.org.au Vaughan, both are daughters of IJN E-mail; [email protected] POWs in Ambon and Hainan. Secretary; Sue Head

6