by David
Japanese rail trucks used by the War Graves Commission survey party. The cars had attap roofs. Attap is the woven leaves of the Nypa palm that grows in coastal areas all over South-East Asia and the Pacific. This was the standard building material used in most POW camps for walls and roofs. (AWM P00761.049) (Chapter 13)
Left to right, Eddie Wheeler, Digger and Les Cody at Rinteng in the first week of October 1945. (AWM P00761.031) (Chapter 14)
Result of the fishing trip at Brankassi. Sos Simpson holding the largest fish with Mac McGregor and the Japanese train crew. (AWM P01910.016) (Chapter 14)
Group portrait of Japanese war crime suspects who may have had information about an Australian POW who was killed by a hammer blow to the head in July 1945. Photograph taken September 1945. (AWM P01910.004) (Chapter 14)
The two girls who made Digger and his friend Vern Hansen welcome to Australia when their ship put in to Albany, Western Australia on their return journey in November 1945. If anyone recognises them, please get in touch with the authors. (Chapter 15)
David took part in many car rallies funded by Campbells, his employer. From the Maryborough Chronicle, 4 March 1957.(Chapter 16)
The inside front cover photograph of David that appeared in a small booklet published by the Industrial Public Relations of Australia (Queensland) after the 1966 Ideal Home Show. It was designed to encourage businesses to take part in the 1967 show. (Chapter 16)
A cutting from the Vancouver Sun that got David and George Stevenson so interested, 20 June 1987. (Chapter 17)
An example of the publicity organised by the Reparations Committee, Gold Coast Bulletin, 26 March 1987. (Chapter 18)
An advertisement that appeared in the Courier Mail and other papers on 15 October 1988. (Chapter 18)
Vivian Bullwinkel’s form claiming the right to reparations from the Japanese, December 1989. (Chapter 19)
Japanese investors were confused about the message being sent to them by Australia and in the long run this probably influenced the Australian Government’s decision to pay out the POWs. From the Courier Mail, 15 March 1989. (Chapter 19)
David received this document in early 1993 from a friend who still had contact with the Reparations Committee. (Chapter 20)
The Australians mentioned in this law suit against the Japanese were civilian internees not the Reparations Committee. 27 November 1998. (Chapter 20)
David always saw it as his duty to keep all the claimants informed about how their money was being spent regardless of the wishes of the Reparations Committee, Gold Coast Bulletin, 16 August 1993. (Chapter 20)
Letter to David from Kitada Minami, a
student of Mariko Matsuo’s, in reply to a letter
from David, December 2011. (Chapter21)
Letter to David from 12-year-old Makino Natrumi, a student of Mariko Matsuo’s, December 2011. (Chapter 21)
Drawings such as this one were done by second or third year primary school children, students of Mariko Matsuo, on their visit to Thailand and upon meeting with David in 1995. (Chapter 21)
Endnotes
Chapter 1
1 Robert Likeman, Men of the Ninth: A history of the Ninth Australian Field Ambulance 1916–1994, Slouch Hat Publications, Rosebud, 2003, p. 119.
Chapter 2
1 Likeman, Men of the Ninth, p. 120.
2 Likeman, Men of the Ninth, p. 120.
3 Bill Flowers, A Recollection, from a personal copy given to David Barrett, p. 3.
4 Peter Thompson, The Battle for Singapore: The true story of the greatest catastrophe of World War II, Portrait Books, 2006, p. 43.
5 The Vyner Brooke was sunk by Japanese bombs in Banka Strait. Twenty-two of the nurses made it to Banka Island, where they were ordered back into the sea by a Japanese patrol, and machine-gunned from behind. The only survivor was Sister Vivian Bulwinkell, who, after hiding for two weeks in the jungle, caring for an injured British soldier, gave herself up and joined a different group of thirty-one nurses from the ship. Only twenty-four of the sixty-five nurses survived the war. (See the Australian War Memorial’s Encyclopedia entry ‘Nurse survivors of the Vyner Brooke’, available at www.awm.gov.au/people-1906.asp.)
6 Flowers, A Recollection, p. 3.
7 Thompson, The Battle for Singapore, p. 47.
8 In the copy of a paper supplied by David Barrett via A. D. Clark, Werribee RSL, and titled ‘Lecture on Malayan Campaign 1941–1942’ by Lieutenant-General Sir Lewis Macclesfield Heath (no date).
9 Likeman, Men of the Ninth, p. 127.
Chapter 3
1 Elliott McMaster, ‘Malaya peninsula’, A Prisoner of War on the Burma Railway, available at http://greatlakeshistorical.museum.com/burmarailway/index.html.
2 Elliott McMaster, ‘Contact with Japanese’, A Prisoner of War on the Burma Railway, available at http://greatlakeshistorical.museum.com/burmarailway/index.html.
3 ‘2/18th Battalion’, Australian War Memorial, available at www.awm.gov.au/units/unit_11269.asp.
4 ‘Battle of Gemas’, Wikipedia, available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Gemas
5 ‘Australia’s War 1939–1945’, available at www.ww2australia.gov.au/japadvance/malaya.html
6 ‘The Parit Sulong Massacre – World War 2 Talk’, available at www.ww2talk.com/forum/war-against-japan/9688-parit-sulong-massacre.html.
Chapter 4
1 Elliott McMaster, ‘Singapore Island’, A Prisoner of War on the Burma Railway, available at http://greatlakeshistorical.museum.com/burmarailway/index.html.
2 Thompson, The Battle for Singapore, p. 265.
3 Corporal William Parker, 2/20th Battalion, ‘Prisoners of War of the Japanese 1942–1945’, available at Lieutenant Colonel Peter Winstanley’s website, at www.pows-of-japan.net/articles/67.htm.
4 An account from Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Hamilton, ‘A Japanese tribute to 2/4 Machine Gun Battalion men – Prisoners of War of the Japanese 1942–1945’, available at Lieutenant Colonel Peter Winstanley’s website, at www.pows-of-japan.net/articles/50.html.
5 Jeffrey English, One for Every Sleeper: The Japanese death railway through Thailand, Robert Hale, London, 1989, p. 12.
6 Thompson, The Battle for Singapore, p. 424.
7 Report by General Sir Archibald Wavell, September 1942, first released in 1993.
Chapter 5
1 Elliott McMaster, ‘Tanglin’, A Prisoner of War on the Burma Railway, available at http://greatlakeshistorical.museum.com/burmarailway/index.html.
2 David Barrett holds what looks to be the original of this poem, written on a very old envelope and bearing the name ‘Alec Bourne (8th Division Signals)’. Bourne may be the author or may have copied it from somewhere.
3 From the website of the Australian War Memorial Encyclopaedia, Changi page, available at www.awm.gov.au/encyclopedia/pow/changi.asp.
4 Author unknown. This poem is from the 2/26th Battalion’s website, www.2-26bn.org/poems_page_4.htm.
Chapter 6
1 Flowers, A Recollection, p. 12.
2 Flowers, A Recollection, p. 12.
3 James Le Fanu, ‘Fighting off evil with grass soup’, The Sunday Telegraph, 5 February 1995. Available at www.jameslefanu.com/articles/history-of-medicine-fighting-off-evil-with-grass-soup.
4 Clifford Kinvig, River Kwai Railway: The story of the Burma/Siam railroad, Conway Maritime Press, 2005, pp. 121–123.
5 Peter Winstanley, ‘Prisoners of War of the Japanese 1942–1945’, available at www.pows-of-japan.net/articles/58.htm.
6 H. C. Benson, Report on the History of “L” Force POW Thailand, Imperial War Museum, London, 28 October 1945, p. 1.
Chapter 7
1 Benson, Report on the History of “L” Force POW Thailand, p. 3.
2 Kinvig, River Kwai Railway, p. 162.
3 Benson, Report on the History of “L” Force POW Thailand, p. 2.
Chapter 8
1 Paul H. Kratoska (ed.), The Thailand–Burma Railway, 1942–1946, Vol. 4, Routledge, Abingdon, 2006, p. 109.
3 Benson, Report on the History of “L” Force POW Thailand, p. 8.
4 Benson, Report on the History of “L” Force POW Thailand, p. 9.
5 Benson, Report on the History of “L” Force POW Thailand, p. 3.
Chapter 9
1 Benson, Report on the History of “L” Force POW Thailand, p. 6.
2 Major C. H. Wild, ‘A Report of “F” Force on Thailand, April–December 1943’, available at www.cofepow.org.uk/pages/asia_thailand6.htm.
3 Russel Braddon, The Naked Island, Penguin, Melbourne, 1993, p. 103.
4 Peter Winstanley, ‘Prisoners of War of the Japanese 1942–1945’, available at www.pows-of-japan.net/articles/6.htm.
5 Ronald Searle, To the Kwai and Back: War Drawings, Souvenir Press, 1986, p. 128.
6 Searle, To the Kwai and Back, p. 110.
7 Benson, Report on the History of “L” Force POW Thailand, p. 7.
8 Benson, Report on the History of “L” Force POW Thailand, p. 11.
Chapter 10
1 Information found after the Japanese surrender proved that the suspicions of the prisoners were correct. IJA orders for disposing of the POWs were as follows:
The time and method of the disposition are as follows:
(1) Time.
Although the basic aim is to act under superior orders, Individual disposition may be made in the following circumstances:
(a) When an uprising of large numbers cannot be suppressed without the use of firearms.
(b) When escapees from the camp may turn into a hostile Fighting force.
(2) The Methods.
(a) Whether they are destroyed individually or in groups, or however it is done, with mass bombing, poisonous smoke, poisons, drowning, decapitation, or what, dispose of them as the situation dictates.
(b) In any case it is the aim not to allow the escape of a single one, to amilhilate [sic] them all, and not to leave any traces.
[Source: Supreme Commander Allied Powers Legal files, RG 331, Preliminary list developed for war crime trails proceedings, available at www.mansell.com/pow_resources/Formosa/taiwandocs.html.]
Chapter 11
1 Frederick Noel Taylor, ‘Railway of Death’, available at www.far-eastern-heroes.org.uk/private_5776807/html/railway_of_death.htm.
Chapter 12
1 Jack Leemon, Betsey Leemon and Catherine Morgan, War Graves Digger: Service with an Australian Graves Registration Unit, Australian Military History Publications, 2010, p. 86.
2 Leemon, War Graves Digger, p. 86.
Chapter 13
1 Henry C. Babb, ‘Searching for Graves Near the River Kwai: Diary of a unique journey in 1945 on the Burma–Siam Railway’. This diary is unpublished but David Barrett has a copy and permission from Padre Babb to quote from it. Much of the detail about times and places in this chapter and the next is taken from Padre Babb’s diary, to give context to Digger’s own memories of this trip. The diary was very useful in this regard, and I am very grateful for its author’s cooperation.
2 Carol Cooper, ‘The “F” Force: The Endurance of 7,000 POWs in Thailand’, available at www.cofepow.org.uk/pages/asia_thailand_f_force.htm.
3 Babb, ‘Searching for Graves Near the River Kwai’, introductory note.
Chapter 14
1 Babb, ‘Searching for Graves Near the River Kwai’, p. 50.
2 Babb, ‘Searching for Graves Near the River Kwai’, p. 4
3 Babb, ‘Searching for Graves Near the River Kwai’, p. 13.
4 Leemon and Morgan, War Graves Digger, p. 87.
5 Babb, ‘Searching for Graves Near the River Kwai’, p. 35.
6 Babb, ‘Searching for Graves Near the River Kwai’, p. 46.
7 Leemon and Morgan, War Graves Digger, p. 106.
8 Babb, ‘Searching for Graves Near the River Kwai’, p. 49. This includes quotes from the poem ‘For The Fallen’ by Laurence Binyon, written in September 1914.
Chapter 16
1 K. J. Fagan, ‘MJA Surgical Experiences as a POW’, available at www.pows-of-japan.net/articles/6.htm
Chapter 17
1 ‘Treaty of Peace with Japan’, signed at San Francisco by forty-eight Allied governments and the Japanese, 8 September 1951.
2 Letter to David Barrett from the Honourable Robert Ray, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister, 19 January 1989.
3 Motion by the Reparations Committee at the Gold Coast branch meeting of the Ex-POW Association, 7 December 1986.
Chapter 18
1 Letter to the Reparations Committee from J. L. Fitzgerald, secretary of the Victorian Ex-POW Association, 11 May 1987; letter to the Reparations Committee from George Morgan, president of the Wollongong branch of the NSW Ex-POW Association, 20 May 1987.
2 Letter to Ralph Coutts, secretary of the Queensland Council, from Jim Boyle, secretary of the Federal Council, 28 May 1987.
3 Letter from Sir Edward Dunlop to Peter Collas, 2 June 1987; letter from Sir Edward Dunlop to David Barrett, 10 June 1987.
4 Letter from David Barrett to Sir Edward Dunlop, 20 July 1987.
5 Letter from Sir Edward Dunlop to Mr Simmonds, president of the Queensland State Council of the Ex-POW Association, 26 August 1987.
6 Letter to Cliff Chadderton of the War Amputations of Canada from Bill Holtham, chairman of the Japanese Labour Camp Survivors Association (UK), 6 June 1988; copy held by David Barrett.
7 Resolution passed by the Queensland State Council of the Ex-POW Association, 19 June 1988.
8 Letter to David Barrett from Clarrie Wilson, Queensland Council delegate to the Federal Council, 26 October 1988.
Chapter 19
1 Letter to Prime Minister Bob Hawke from Sir Edward Dunlop, 14 December 1987.
2 Letter to Minister for Veterans Affairs Ben Humphreys from David Barrett, 1 May 1989.
3 David Barrett, ‘War and Post War: The Ex-POW (Japan)’, 1 February 1990.
4 Reparations claim form of Sister Lieutenant Vivian Bullwinkell, 20 December 1989.
5 Letter from David Barrett to the Japanese Ambassador, 17 December 1988.
6 Letter from Hideaki Kobayashi, Counsellor at the Japanese Embassy, Canberra, to David Barrett, 26 April 1989.
Chapter 20
1 Letter from Peter Collas, vice-chairman of the Reparations Committee, to Sir Edward Dunlop, 7 December 1989.
2 Draft of a letter from David Barrett to Cliff Chadderton, War Amputees Association Canada, draft copy, no date (c. July 1991).
3 Documentation referring to the proposed Asia-Pacific Foundation sent to the National Secretary of the Ex-POW Association by the Queensland State Secretary, Clarrie Wilson, 26 March 1993.
4 Reparations Committee report to the Queensland Ex-POW State Council, 9 February 1994.
5 Reparations Committee report to the Queensland Ex-POW State Council President, 20 March 1996.
Brian Robertson started life in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and now lives in Queensland. In between, he’s had many adventures, including two years in the 1st Battalion Gordon Highlanders in Cyprus. He has also been a teacher, a botanist and an author of children’s textbooks.
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Text copyright © David Barrett and Brian Robertson, 2012
Foreword copyright © Yuki Tanaka, 2012
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