| By Anthony Radford
Senesless vandalism
By ANTHONY RADFORD
SENSELESS vandalism has angered Bendigo’s returned soldiers on the eve of the commemoration of one of the most horrific war atrocities in Australia’s history.
Vandals have damaged the Sandakan memorial in Kennington’s Crook Street park.
The memorial listed the local victims of the Sandakan death marches in World War 2.
In 1945, a group of 2345 Australian and British prisoners of the Japanese in Borneo were taken from Sandakan to Ranau.
Of the men, only six survived. Of those who died, most were never found.
Each Labour Day long weekend in March, the Bendigo
Returned Services League commemorates the march with a service at the memorial.
This year it will be tainted after vandals ripped off one of the plaques listing some of the names.
RSL president Cliff Richards did not mince his words when talking about the perpetrators.
“To disrespect this monument is the lowest of the low,” he said.
“We are really disappointed there are people who can
desecrate something that meant so much to so many people.
‘This represents a lot of Bendigo people and some clown from Bendigo goes in and rips it off. What do they want the plaque for?”
Mr Richards said the RSL would have to go back into
its research to repair the memorial.
“This was one of the darkest and dimmest times in our military history,” he said.
“It is pretty obvious what we would like to do if we caught up with them.
“We would like to sit down with them and tell them the Sandakan story and the horrors our World War 2 soldiers faced.”
Sandakan to Ranau death marches
IT is May 1945. Clad only in ragged loin-cloths, more than 500 skeletal creatures, barely recognisable as human, struggle to their feet at the Sandakan POW compound, on Sabah’s north-east coast.
Three long years in captivity, half of them on starvation rations and with little or no medical attention, have taken their toll.
The bodies of these once fit and strapping Australian and British servicemen are covered in sores and scabies, their filthy hair and beards matted and lice-infested.
Many are suffering from tropical ulcers, some so large that shin bones are clearly visible. Others, bloated from beriberi, lumber along on sausage-like legs.
They are bound for Ranau 250 kilometres away to the west, in the rugged Borneo jungle interior.
Why were they marching to Ranau?
In late January 1945, the Japanese decided to move 455 of the fittest prisoners to Jesselton to act as coolie labourers – only to halt them at Ranau, owing to allied air activity on the west coast. At the end of May, there was a second march from Sandakan and in mid-June a third, comprising only 75 men.
A track had been cut through the mountains, linking existing bridle-trails. Unaware that it was to be used by POWs, the local headmen given the task of creating this track had deliberately routed it away from any habitation, across the most inhospitable and difficult terrain possible.
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There was no medical assistance and little food. Anyone who could not keep up was killed. Despite this, about half the prisoners completed the march, only to die at Ranau from illness, malnutrition and ill-treatment by their captors.
What happened to the rest of Sandakan’s prisoners?
Back at Sandakan, 200 prisoners unable undertake the second and third marches also died, bringing the death toll there to about 1400. Of the 1000-odd prisoners who left on the death marches, about half died in the attempt. The rest died at their destination.
The story of Sandakan and the death marches is one of the most tragic of World War Two. It is also one of the most heroic.
Despite appalling conditions, the prisoners never gave up. Their heroism, their determination and their indomitable spirit are testimony to the strength of the human spirit and an inspiration to all.
Of the 2434 prisoners incarcerated at Sandakan, 1787 were Australian. The remaining 641 were British. The six Australians who escaped were the sole survivors.
- www.sandakan-deathmarch.com
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