http://www.awm.gov.au/database/cas.asp?accnum=P00761.012 View attachment 609 AWM P00406.031Ronsi, Burma, c.1943: Burial service for a POW on the Burma–Thaliand railway. The construction of the railway over some 14 months cost the lives of approximately 12,400 POWs out of 61,000 who worked on the railway – 6,318 British, 2,490 Dutch and 2,815 Australian. Most of these men died from malnutrition, illness and disease and general ill-treatment at the hands of Japanese and Korean guards. An estimated 68 Australian POWs were beaten to death during the construction of one series of cuttings at Hellfire Pass, Thailand.
The Amputation ward in Japanese POW camp View attachment 610 Burma–Thailand, c.1943: The amputation ward of a bamboo hut hospital at a POW camp along the Burma–Thailand railway. Amputations among the POWs resulted mainly from the development of uncontrollable tropical ulcers which spread from infected skin lesions contracted during work on the railway.
Corporal OKADA - Doctor Death View attachment 611 Thailand, 1945: Corporal OKADA, Japanese Imperial Army, who worked as a POW guard during the building of the Burma–Thailand railway in 1942 and 1943. OKADA was known as “Doctor Death” and one of his practices was to use a wooden sword to beat POWs who reported sick. He was tried as a war criminal for brutality and executed.
Emaciated Patients View attachment 613 Nakom Paton, Thailand, 1945: Emaciated native patients in a hospital hut. Approximately 270,000 Asian labourers from Burma, Indonesia, Malaya and other places were virtually forced by the Japanese to work on the construction of the Burma–Thailand railway in 1942 and 1943. Their camps were squalid and the medical facilities provided for them by the Japanese non-existent. Consequently some 72,000 of them died but some authorities suggest this figure was as high as 92,000.
Flight Lieutenant William Ellis Newton, VC (Victoria Cross) Beheaded! View attachment 614 Portrait of Flight Lieutenant William Ellis Newton, VC (Victoria Cross), No. 22 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force beside his aircraft. Flight Lieutenant Newton was made a prisoner of war after being shot down by the Japanese over Salamaua, New Guinea, on 17 March 1943. Despite his POW status Newton was beheaded by his captors on 29 March 1943.
Sergeant L. G. Siffleet - Beheaded Sadly one of the most seen photographs of WW2. View attachment 615 Aitape, New Guinea, 24 October 1943: Sergeant L. G. Siffleet, M Special Unit, tied and blindfolded, about to be beheaded. Sergeant Siffleet, a radio operator, was part of a long-range reconnaissance unit led by Dutchman, Sergeant Staverman, operating behind Japanese lines in New Guinea. The party was betrayed and Staverman killed. Siffleet and two Ambonese companions – Reharin and Pate Wail – were taken to the Japanese base at Aitape where all three were executed by beheading on the order of Vice-Admiral KAMADA, commander of Japanese naval forces at Aitape. According to the original caption to this photograph the name of the Japanese executioner was YASUNO, who died before the end of the war. Siffleet was buried on the beach at Aitape below the tideline and his body was never recovered. The photograph of his execution was taken by a Japanese soldier and found by American forces when they invaded Hollandia in 1944. The photograph of Siffleet’s execution appeared shortly afterwards in American, and subsequently Australian, publications as an illustration of the brutality with which prisoners of the Japanese were treated. For many years in Australia the photo was captioned as if it depicted the execution of Flight Lieutenant Newton VC, Royal Australian Air Force, by the Japanese at Salamaua, New Guinea, on 29 March 1943.
Liberated Australian & Allied POW's View attachment 616 Liberated Allied And Australian Prisoners Of War From Palembang, Sumatra, Relate Their Experience To A British War Correspondent In Singapore.
The Laha Airfield Executions Massacres and Attrocities of WW2 The Laha Airfield Executions (February 9, 1942)Two graves, about five metres apart, were dug in a wooded area near the Laha airstrip on Ambon Island. They were circular in shape, six metres in diameter and three metres deep. Soon after 6pm, a group of Australian and Dutch prisoners of war, their arms tied securely behind them, were brought to the site. The first prisoner was made to kneel at the edge of the grave and the execution, by samurai beheading, was carried out by a Warrant Officer Kakutaro Sasaki. The next four beheadings were the privilage of eager crew-members of a Japanese mine-sweeper sunk a few days previously by an enemy mine in Ambon Bay. This could only be considered as an act of reprisal for the loss of their ship. As dusk decended, and the beheadings continued, battery torches were used to light up the back of the necks of each successive victim. The same macabre drama was being enacted at the other round grave where men of a Dutch mortar unit were being systematically decapitated. On this unforgettable evening, 55 Australian and 30 Dutch soldiers were murdered. Details of this atrocity came to light during the interrogation of civilian interpreter, Suburo Yoshizaki, who was attached to the Kure No.1 Special Navy Landing Party, at that time stationed on Ambon. A few days later, on February 24, in the same wooded area, another bizare execution ceremony took place. Around the graves stood about 30 naval personnel who had volunteered for this grisly task, many of them carrying swords which they had borrowed. When some of the young prisoners were dragged to the edge of the grave, shouting desperately and begging for their lives, shouts of jubilation came from those marines witnessing the executions. In this mass murder, which ended at 1.30am the following morning, the headless bodies of 227 Allied prisoners filled the two large graves. Witness to this second massacre was Warrant Officier Keigo Kanamoto, Commanding Officier of the Kure No.1 Repair and Construction Unit.
Philippines Massacre Philippines Massacre A full account of all massacres of Philippinos by Japanese troops would fill several books. In Manila, 800 men women and children were machine-gunned in the grounds of St.Paul's College. In the town of Calamba, 2,500 were shot or bayoneted. One hundred were bayoneted and shot inside a church at Ponson and 169 villagers of Matina Pangi were rounded up and shot in cold blood. On Palawan Island, 150 American prisoners of war were murdered. At the War Crimes Trial in Tokyo, document No 2726 consisted of 14,618 pages of sworn affidavits, each describing separate atrocities committed by the invading Japanese troops. The Tribunal listed 72 large scale massacres and 131,028 murders as a bare minimum.
12 Australian Soldiers beheaded......... Can you, or anyone please tell me the name of a True story movie made about 12 Australian Soldiers that were beheaded in WW2. They were landed (I think) by sea on a Japanese occupied island, then captured after a great battle by the Japs. In prison one Aussie mad a friend of a Jap interpreter who eventually behaeded him after they were found guilty of spying. I is a great film and I last saw it about 1980. Thanks, Magnum
I don't think many of the serving troops who were captured by the Japanese during World War 2 are forgiving of their brutal treatment. I spoke with many in my younger days and a resounding hatred of the Japs was always prevalent. Mental and physical torture was handed out on a daily basis. Younger generations have rightly moved on from the atrocities of the war but we must never forget what evil man can subject its fellow man to. This should be applied to our modern day nations and groups of evil when the liberals tell us to keep turning the other cheek!
