Sandakan with a population of 480,000 is Sabah's second city and is dotted with religious relics, colonial mansions and haunting memories of WWII. Sandakan was the former capital of British North Borneo until 1946. The town prospered in the early days due to its port with visiting traders from about the world.

Of great interest to Australians is the Sandakan Memorial Park. Located 11km from the city, the memorial park is situated on the original site of the Japanese Prisoner of War camp. The memorial park is dedicated to the survivors, POW's, local civilians who help to clandestinely feed the prisoners and soldiers who perished at Sandakan and in the Borneo Death Marches during the Second World War. A small museum in the centre of the park provides a sombre look at the atrocities which occurred. The "Sandakan Memorial" obelisk is a black stele, on a circular, cobbled square diameter of about ten metres. It bears the inscription:

Sandakan Memorial
In Remembrance Of All Those
Who Suffered and Died Here,
On The Death Marches
And At Ranau

AUSTRALIANS IN BORNEO DURING WW II

AUSTRALIANS played a significant role in Borneo during the Second World War. Sandakan was the place where the many Australians spent time in a prisoner of war camp, and was the starting point for the infamous death marches to Ranau.

After the fall of Singapore and Borneo to the Japanese, a prisoner of war camp was established just outside of Sandakan to house approximately 750 British and more than 1650 Australian prisoners who were sent to the camp during the period 1942-43. In 1945, when the Japanese started to realise that the war may have been lost, and the Allies were closing in, the emaciated prisoners were force marched, in three separate marches, to the village of Ranau in the jungle, 250 km away, under the shadows of Mount Kinabalu. On 28 January, 1945, 470 prisoners set off, with only 313 arriving in Ranau. On the second march, 570 started from Sandakan, but only 118 reached Ranau. The third march which comprised the last of the prisoners from the Sandakan camp contained 537 prisoners. Prisoners who were unable to walk were shot. The March route was through virgin jungle infested with crocodiles, snakes and wild pigs, and some of the prisoners had no boots. Rations were less than minimal. The march took nearly a year to complete.

Once the surviving prisoners arrived in Ranau, they were put to work carrying 20 kg sacks of rice flour over very hilly terrain to Paginatan, over 40 km away. By the end of July, 1945, there were no prisoners left in Ranau.

Only six Australians of the 2400 prisoners survived the "death march" - they survived because they were able to escape from the camp at Ranau, or escaped during the march from Sandakan. No British prisoners survived.

This part of the war is considered by many to be the worst atrocity ever suffered by Australian soldiers, and compares to the atrocities of the Burma Railway, where fewer Australian POW's lost their lives. Those that survived the ordeal of the march, did so only because they escaped into the jungle where they were cared for by local natives.

This was a rather sobering time for us but I am so pleased to have learned more about our history that was not taught at school. Whilst the history of the site is sad - So much violence of one kind or another—starvation rations, withholding of medical supplies, bashings and other forms of physical abuse—were visited upon the Sandakan POWs - they have made the park into a beautiful memorial that publically honours and remembers the brave soldiers.