Guestbook

Thank you Peter for a very interesting talk which you gave on the POWs of Japan. If only there were more of you to keep up the good work that is on your Website, then perhaps the youth of the world would not be in such a mess as they are now. Many thanks.

I have read the articles with great interest, having become more aware of the story of the PoW ,after nursing a wonderful doctor at our aged care facility.I had so much admiration for this elderly gentlman, that i accepted to address a conference, regarding issues being faced by veterans, and veterans living with disability.I would love to hear some comments from veterans ,about a such an important issue.

Peter, I am more than pleased with your webside and the Books I may read. Since I grew up in the former Dutch East Indies, today Indonesia, I have always felt close towards the Australians. I have also an eye witness of the Australians and Dutch guerilla transported in bamboo pig baskets. I was only 15 years years old when I saw this and what has touched me even deeper were the cries for water and help in English and Dutch. It was and is in my eyes unforgivable. I read an awful lot about World War Two, and what the Japanese military have done to so many innocent people. I have only started reading about this war since 1995, before that I couldnt even talk about it, nor about my Dad and uncle killed by the Kempeitai in Indonesia, Java. I am very grateful to you Peter that I may read how also many others have badly suffered under the Japanese occupation. We must never forget what has happened between Pearl Harbor(1941) and Tokyo in 1945. Thank you very much! And greetings from Holland to Australia. Elizabeth

Thank you Peter for informing me about your website. Thanking you for including my diary as well. I passed your website on to ex POW friends in the Netherlands as well as there is a lot of information in it that affects ex Dutch East Indies Dutchmen as well.Will keep in touch. John

Peter: You asked me to put something here that perhaps would jog a few memories. Most former prisoner on Java will remember the 72 British and American merchant seamen who were handed over to the Japanese at Tandjong Priok in early November 1942. We eventually went to the Cycle Camp. Later some of us went to Kampong Makassar. In June of 1944, some of the crew of the AMERICAN LEADER were sent to Japan. On their last night at sea the TAMAHAKU MARU was torpedoed by the U.S.S. TANG. Of the eighteen AMERICAN LEADER crew mebers only five survived. At the same time, a small number of us went to Sumatra via Singapore where we worked on the Pakan Baroe railway. In September 1944, 2200 prisoners and 4300 Javanese laborers left Batavia in the JUNYO MARU. She was torpedoed by H.M.S. TRADEWIND with an enormous loss of life. Four of the AMERICAN LEADER crew were drowned. When we left New York in April 1942 there were fifty-eight men aboard. Only twenty-eight survived the war. For related articles, go to http://www.usmm.org See my window on opening page.

Why is there no mention of Sandakan in an other wise excellent site. It appears no one wants to mention The horiffic treatment handed out to the diggers at Sandakan and Ranau.

Not only for my search for descendants of Dutch POWs who died in World War II in detention in Japan is your website helpfull but also for people who know less or nothing about what had happened in WW II. Kind regards to you all Teun Heijstek.

Found this website while browsing in Bangkok on business trip - will visit the River Kwai memorial next week where my uncle David Youdell was a prisoner from 1942 to the finish of the railway, following which he was moved to Japan to work in the mines. Thank you for keeping up the recollections. If anyone has come across a D. Youdell please let me know. Best regards, Eluned

Dear Peter You have a very special website &thank you for all your assistance especially in regard to my Fathers diary that is on your site. Ray Jacobs

My Mother was in a camp in Indonesia. She share very limited stories with us. Now as an adult and with my Mom gone, I have been reading everything I can to learn what she must have experienced. Does the name Irvine Nabilcy or Wiggers ring a bell to anyone?

My Brother Died in Nikkie Thailand 2nd September 1943,member of 2nd Gordons Captured in Singapor

Keep up the good work. Searching for a jap prisoner of Bangkong camp, Java by the name of Friedl Stadler

Thank you for printing this on the Web. I am always interested in the history of our POW. My uncle Bert Roberts lost his life on the way Japan afyter the fall of Singapore. After my father died in Scottsdale TAS, in 1955 Ray Denney looked after me until I finnished my schooling at the end of 55. Ray was a quite bloke never talking about his years as a POW. I have his book The Long Way Home. He autographed it Peace in Your Time. EX LAMAE Fleet Air Arm RAN

Excellent site. I am particularly interested in the Timor information as my dad was there with the 79th Battery of the 21st LAA (R.A.). Also being ex-RN I am interested in Naval/Militray history in general.

I was very moved by the accounts written of POWS experiences. My grandfather was a POW a signaller with the 8th Division. I never really got to know him, he died when I was seven. Thanks to all those that put their stories out there, makes me very proud of being your fellow Australian.

Well done Peter. I am pleased that you have my Reminiscences including Timor, Tsuji, my 2006 Bangka Island massacre Memorial Address, my POW experiences and lessons etc.. You may put whatever you like of it on your Website. I have also written about our ACTION with and then capture by the Japanese on 23 February 1942 but that is Embargoed at the present time. Keep up the good work. Best wishes and regards. Harry.

This is a very good informative site. As a boy I was imprisoned by the Japanese on Java island. At present I am trying to put that period on paper at the request of my children. Since many pows were in Kampong Makassar, just South of Batavia, I might get some information from them on the following gap in my memory. Where was the main gate of this internment camp located? Was it directly on the main road Batavia-Buitenzorg, or more inside and off that road? And, was the large house of the Japanese commander of the camp in- or outside the main gate? Thanks for your attention, Oebe.

Dear friends, I was pleasantly surprised by the quick answers I received on my question about the location of the main gate of the WW2 POW camp Kampomg Makassar just S of Batavia ( now Jakarta). Thank you. I did not receive a conclusive answer; but the reactions were helpful and interesting. Maybe one of the readers can help me still further? Since in Kampong Makassar (or in short KM), some 1200 Australian POWs were interned from April 1942 onwards (just one month after the capitulation of the NEI), it is clear that this camp plays an important role in the Australian WW2 history. Let me therefore tell you a bit about KMs past and present. To many of you this might be no news, but to others it could be informative. Before WW2. In the eighteenth century large areas of land S of Batavia were bought by wealthy Europeans from the local landowners. The lands were transformed into plantations for commercial crops. KM became under German and Dutch owners a flourishing coconut plantation. And later on a coconut selection farm where also pigs were raised. The owners built a large Dutch colonial mansion. Around 1925 the plantation and mansion was sold to the NEI govt and the house became in the thirties the barracks for the Veldpolitie, indigenous police. The plantation was located some six km S of Meester Cornelis (Jatinegara), a Southern suburb of Batavia (Jakarta), and placed E of the road to Buitenzorg (Bogor). Bogor was 40 km to the South. On the E fringe the farm was bordered by the vale of the small river Tjipinang, with paddy fields or sawahs. This fringe was an alluvial N-S ridge only between 1 to 2 m above its surrounds , 200 m wide and 400 m long. West of the ridge there was a drain and before the WW a narrow strip of paddy. The said ridge, on which the Japanese build the barracks compound of KM, was some 700 m E of the said road and the mansion 300 m. During WW2. The Japanese occupation, soon after the allied surrender on March 8 1942, started the construction of the POW camp on the alluvial ridge. Well suited, because of its isolation. Even towards mid 1945 the camp was not detected by the allies. The camps Japanese commandant, as well as the Japanese, Korean and Indonesian (heiho) guards were housed in the mansion (known as Kampong Makassar or Tjililitan Besar). Both Indonesian contractors and POWs build the long primitive bamboo huts with palm leaved roofs in only a few months under Japanese supervisory force. By April 1942 KM already housed a substantial number of Australians. During the next two months more were brought in from areas around Tasikmalaja, where most Aussies had themselves interned. KM was for the 1200 inmates relatively good bearable, mainly because of the , at that period still "humane" Japanese camp commander Tanaka and the tactfulness of Cnl Dunlop, the Australian commandant. From January 1943 KM became a transit camp for thousands of allied en Dutch POWs, awaiting further transport overseas via Tantjong Priok harbour. After October 1944 too many Japanese vessels were lost and the sending abroad was halted. Most remaining POWs were transported to Bandoeng ( 15th Bat.) and Batavia (10th Bat. Or Cycle camp) Conform the new "strategic insight", vulnerable women and children were interned in coastal regions, where allied landings were expected. KM became from early 1945 a camp for women and children, a so called work camp for production of vegetables ( for other camps) and of pigs (for Japanese stomachs). After Japan surrendered on 15 August 1945, KM remained a concentration and protection camp for its remaining population because of the threats of Indonesian independence groups towards none indigenous people. We ( my mother, smaller sister and myself )were transported to Bandoeng (to be reunited with my father) in a heavily guarded train ( by British-Indian troops) on 28 November 1945, as one of the lasts. After WW2 The Dutch greatly improved and refurbished KM in July 1946 and used it as a transit camp for Dutch military engaged in the actions against Indonesian independence forces. After the transfer of sovereignty to the Indonesians end 49, the camp was after 1955 "taken over" by squatters from elsewhere on Java. They were attracted by the big city Jakarta and its, often disillusioning , opportunities. Presently one can no more recognise the former barracks compound. Its a hotchpotch of huts, shacks and other constructions. The mansion, however, is still there, albeit very neglected in its maintenance. Fortunately there is hope fore a restoration since it has been declared a national architectural monument. It is now almost completely "packed in" by buildings. A large area W of the mansion, where vegetable fields were located during WW2, is now occupied by buildings of the main hospital of the Indonesian Police. The new Jakarta to Bogor tollway is as far as I can judge just cutting into the Western fringe of the former barracks compound. If you intend to visit the ex-KM it is off the Kramatjati Old Bogor road and walk down the Jalan RS POLRI until you hit the mansion.

I am very interested in contacting other Dutch Indonesian POWs. My husbands grandfather never speaks of the war and I have recently been reading what few books I can find to educate my children on their heritage. Any contacts or rec. reading would be greatly welcomed!

Just read in our local paper an article about pows who worked on the Burma Railway . The name of the prisoner has the same name as name(maiden) of ny late husbands mother and I was wondering if this soldier mentioned in the article could be related. His name was given as Private Harry Mann, Royal Corps of Signals, from Keighley, West Yorkshire, England. My late husbands family came from Yorkshire. Any information would be most interesting to receive

Seeking information about Pte Harry Marsden, Royal Signal Corps, originally from Keighley, West Yorkshire, England, who was taken prisoner of the Japanese in the fall of Singapore and worked on the Burma railway. seeking information of Pte Harry Marsden, of the Royal Signal Corps, originally from Keighley, West Yorkshire, England

Hello to all. I just wanted to say thank you to all the WWII veterans out there, and a special thank you for the POWs that endured the camps. I just wanted to pass along that I have been interviewing and collecting stories from WWII veterans since June 2004. Since then I have also made a video in tribute to them showcasing some WWII Museums and Memorials in the U.S., and would like to send a copy to any veteran that would like to share his or her story with me. There is NO charge for the video, as I do NOT accept money for the video. It was made to thank you for your service, determination, courage and sacrafice during WWII. Please contact me if you have any questions and I hope to hear from any WWII veteran overseas. Take care, and thank you again. A wonderful site for POWs. Scott

To add more information to my earlier entry - my father was a Lieutenant in the RIASC, which I am still trying to find more info on. he was captured in feb 42 and sent to NO 1 Malayan POW camp, Changi until May 43. His commander was Col Holmes. He was then in transit to Bampong, Kamburi and then Tonchan. I have all this info from the questionnaire he completed whichis held at Kew and which has been kindly obtained for me by Michael Greenwood who is researching his grandfather. My father then worked building the railway at Tonchan and in July 43 at Hintock River Camp. It appears that he was ill after this as in August he was at Kamburi hospital. Then in Dec 43 he was at Sime Road until May 44. May 44 until August 45 he was in Changi Goal. He returned to the UK on board the Ekma. Any info would be very useful as it is only now that I feel I should be researching my fathers experiences in the far east and I am 55 !! and my father died when I was 7 of a heart attack brought on by his maltreatment. he had to have a leg amputed in the early 50s and was obviously not well since returning. My mother would never talk about it. She has recently died so I feel able to research !

Congratulations on your excellent site. I am researching my fathers time in the far east and at last I am getting somewhere. He was in hospital in Kamburi, Thailand having suffered badly at Hintock River Camp.

Peter,
Id like to first of all thank you for placing a very respectful website on the web to present very informative stories of POWs of the Japanese. I stumbled across your site whilst looking for information on my uncle who unfortuneately died as a POW in Timor as part of 2nd/40th Bn. His name was TX8342 Edward Francis Saunders from Latrobe Tasmania. He was my grandmothers brother and the remainder of the saunders family is now gone so I have no information on him at all. As a serving soldier I like to look into my military heritage and would be very interested to hear from any old members of 2nd/40th Bn.
Regards
Craig Woodhall