During World War II, Japanese forces advanced rapidly through South-East Asia and the Pacific. First, they landed on the north-east coast of Malaya on 8 December 1941. They captured territories held by Allied countries, such as Australia, Britain and the Netherlands.
By the end of March 1942, the Japanese had conquered Malaya, the Netherlands East Indies, and most of the islands to the north and east of Papua and New Guinea. They also occupied the main coastal centres of Lae and Madang on the New Guinea mainland.
Of the service personnel and civilians they captured, some 23,500 were Australians. The prisoners of war (POWs) and internees suffered horrendous conditions in Japanese internment camps. By the end of the war, one-third of the Australians in captivity had died.
Captured by the Japanese
Australian prisoners of the Japanese were captured at many locations across South-East Asia and the South-West Pacific.
Nearly 15,000 were captured in Singapore; over 2,700 on Java and the remainder in smaller groups on Ambon, Timor and New Britain. In addition, some 300 men who survived the sinking of the HMAS Perth in the Battle of Java Sea in late February 1942 were taken prisoner. So too were women of the Australian Army Nursing Service who were sunk near Sumatra while trying to escape from Singapore in February 1942.
By March 1942, Japanese forces controlled much of the Pacific and South-East Asia. The Japanese began their advance with attacks on Pearl Harbor and Malaya on 7 and 8 December 1941. Within 3 months, they had captured:
- British Hong Kong
- Burma (now Myanmar)
- Netherlands East Indies (now Indonesia)
- New Guinea (now Papua New Guinea)
- Singapore
- the Philippines.
The Japanese imprisoned more than 22,000 Australian servicemen, as well as around 1,500 Australian nurses and civilians.
Almost 15,000 men from the Australian 8th Division were captured after the Fall of Singapore on 15 February 1942. Others were taken prisoner in the Netherlands East Indies, including more than 2,700 on Java and smaller groups on Ambon and Timor. Some were also captured on New Britain.
About 300 men who survived the sinking of HMAS Perth in the Battle of the Java Sea in late February 1942 were also taken prisoner.
Women of the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) were captured while trying to escape from Singapore in February 1942. Their ship, the SS Vyner Brooke, was bombed and sunk near Sumatra. Many of the survivors were later killed in the Bangka Island massacre.
Australian POWs on Ambon, Singapore, Java and Sumatra remained more or less where they had been captured. Most Allied POWs were moved to other locations between 1942 and 1945 to meet the wartime labour needs of the Japanese. These locations included Burma (now Myanmar), Thailand, Borneo, Hainan Island, Formosa (now Taiwan), Japan, Korea and Manchuria (China).
Conditions in Japanese camps
In 1942–45 the Japanese regularly moved Allied POWs around the Asia–Pacific region to meet their wartime needs.
While some Australians—on Ambon, Singapore, Java and Sumatra—remained more or less where they had been captured, most were moved to other locations. These included Burma (now Myanmar), Thailand, Borneo, Hainan Island, Formosa (now Taiwan), Japan, Korea and Manchuria. Australian experiences of captivity were therefore very diverse.
Australians were prisoners of the Japanese in camps across Asia:
- Ambon and Hainan
- Borneo
- Burma (now Myanmar)
- Singapore
- Formosa (now Taiwan), Korea and Manchuria
- Japan
- Java and Sumatra
- New Britain and Timor
- Thailand
As in Europe, each of the camps differed. A prisoner's chance of survival was affected by:
- access to food and medication
- disease
- luck
- morale
- the brutality of who was in charge
- the work they were expected to do.
Many prisoners were treated with great cruelty by the Japanese guards. The constant threat of physical and psychological abuse was part of a prisoner's daily experience. Punishment was often handed out with little provocation. Beatings, torture and executions were common. At the end of the war, more than 900 Japanese guards were tried for war crimes.
Read about the treatment of prisoners on the Burma-Thailand Railway.
Starvation and disease
Of the 8,000 or so Australians to have died in Japanese camps, most did so as a result of disease and lack of food. At Ambon and Hainan, almost 80% of Australians held captive there died from starvation when the Japanese refused to share Red Cross food and medicine parcels. Other camps were almost as bad.
Lack of food was a constant problem for Australian POWs. Most of the time, prisoners were given inadequate rations – usually only a small amount of poor-quality rice. Any 'fresh' produce was often rotten. Protein, such as meat or eggs, was rarely provided. There was not enough food for basic survival, never mind what was needed for the hard physical labour POWs were expected to do.
Without adequate nutrition or medical supplies, prisoners lacked the strength to fight off the diseases that swept through the camps. Despite their best efforts, the 106 Australian medical officers who were also imprisoned could do little to treat the sick prisoners.
Common illnesses in POW camps included:
- beri-beri (severe vitamin B1 deficiency)
- cholera (waterborne bacterial infection)
- dengue (virus transmitted by mosquitoes)
- dysentery (bloody diarrhoeal infection caused by amoeba or bacteria)
- malaria (parasitic disease transmitted by mosquitoes)
- tropical ulcers (skin infection).
Both the POWs and the Japanese feared outbreaks of cholera. It was highly contagious. Victims suffered extreme vomiting and diarrhoea before falling into a coma. In their weakened state, prisoners could die from the disease within hours.
Camp doctors became experts at using whatever they could find to treat their patients. Anything that could be reused or remade was salvaged:
- Tins and scrap metal were used to make medical equipment.
- Bamboo was used to make needles, splints and artificial limbs.
- Cutlery was used to make surgical equipment.
- Disinfectant was made using alcohol stills.
Changi Prison and Selerang Barracks
Following the fall of Singapore, Allied servicemen and civilians were taken to Changi. This was a group of 7 camps spread over 25 km on Singapore's Changi Peninsula.
Around 3,500 civilians, mostly British citizens and Eurasians, were moved into the overcrowded Changi Prison. Australian and British servicemen were taken to nearby Selerang Barracks.
As Japanese camps went, Changi was relatively comfortable. It was overcrowded, dysentery was common and there was not enough food. But the POWs could supplement their rations by growing fresh vegetables. They could also maintain their morale by organising entertainment and education.
They were also fewer beatings at Changi. Allied officers were responsible for the camp's day-to-day management, at least for the first 6 months. Japanese control tightened by late 1942, but POWs still viewed Changi as somewhere comparatively safe and secure.
The Japanese operated Changi as a transit camp. Thousands of Allied soldiers travelled through Changi on their way to forced labour camps throughout Asia. POWs experienced some of the worst cases of abuse at these work camps.
Selerang Barracks Incident
In August 1942, 4 POWs – Australians Corporal Rodney Breavington and Private Victor Gale, and British soldiers Private Harold Walters and Private Eric Fletcher – escaped from Changi, but were later recaptured. On 30 August, the Japanese ordered the remaining POWs at Changi to sign a document promising not to escape. This violated the Geneva Convention, which stated that POWs had the right to attempt escape and to not be punished upon recapture. The prisoners saw this as unacceptable and refused to sign.
In response, the Japanese forced around 15,900 POWs to live within the parade ground at Selerang Barracks, originally designed to house 800. It was an attempt to force them to sign the document. Private George Aspinall from the 2/30th Battalion, who took many photographs of the camp, recalled the appalling conditions on the parade ground, where the men were crammed into roughly one square kilometre:
The first and most urgent problem we had to face up to was the lack of toilet facilities. Each barracks building had about four to six toilets, which were flushed from small cisterns on the roofs. But the Japanese cut the water off, and these toilets couldn't be used. The Japanese only allowed one water tap to be used, and people used to line up in the early hours of the morning and that queue would go on all day. You were allowed one water bottle of water per man per day, just one quart for your drinking, washing, and everything else. Not that there was much washing done under the circumstances.
[George Aspinall quoted by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 'Changi: The Selerang Barracks Incident']
The prisoners held out for 4 days. Even the execution of the escaped POWs on the third day didn't force them to relent. However, dysentery began to sweep through due to the unsanitary conditions, and the Australian and British commanders realised more men were going to die needlessly. They instructed their men to sign the document "under duress". Many soldiers signed with false names, with Ned Kelly being a popular choice among the Australians.
Working for the Japanese
Unlike the Germans and Italians, the Japanese were not bound by the obligations of the Geneva Conventions as they hadn't ratified them. Consequently, Australian POWs were forced to work at Japanese:
- aerodromes
- construction sites
- factories
- mines
- railways
- shipyards and docks.
More than 60,000 Allied prisoners and 200,000 Asian indentured labourers, or rōmusha, worked in unbearable conditions on the Burma-Thailand Railway.