Sandakan Death March | Perjalanan MAUT dari Sandakan

ke Ranau (Perang Dunia ke2)

Posted on September 30, 2012 by admin
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1. Pendudukan Jepun semasa perang dunia kedua penuh dengan nostalgia

tersendiri. Generasi baharu macam saya mungkin tidak sempat merasai
penderitaan dan susah-payah nenek moyang kita masa perang dahulu.

2. Selepas Jepun berjaya menduduki Singapura dan Borneo, satu kem tahanan
telah diwujudkan di Sandakan untuk menempatkan 750 orang tentera British

dan lebih 1650 orang tentera Australia yang menyerah diri kepada tentera
Jepun sekitar tahun 1942-1943.
3. Mereka dipindahkan menggunakan kapal yang bernama Yubi Maru ke Sandakan
dan dijadikan buruh paksa untuk membina pangkalan udara untuk Tentera Jepun.
Selepas khidmat mereka sudah tidak digunakan, mereka dibiarkan di dalam kem
tahanan tanpa keperluan asas yang cukup. Ramai antara mereka yang menghidapi
pelbagai penyakit semasa berada dalam tahanan.

4. Pada 1945, apabila pihak Jepun merasakan kempen perang mereka akan menemui
kegagalan dan Pihak Berikat semakin menghampiri Pasifik, tahanan-tahanan ini
segera dipindahkan ke ke salah satu kampung di Ranau yang terletak 250km
jauhnya. Proses pemindahan ini berlaku dalam tiga fasa.

5. Proses pemindahan ini melibatkan semua tawanan. Seramai 291 tawanan

termasuklah yang diusung dan yang tidak larat untuk berjalan akan ditinggalkan di
Sandakan dan dibunuh beramai-ramai!

6. Pada 28 Januari 1945, 455 tahanan perang ini telah berjaya dipindahkan ke Ranau
dengan hanya berjalan kaki! Ironinya, yang sampai ke Ranau hanya
seramai 140 orang sahaja. Proses pemindahan kedua berlaku pada 2 Mac 1945.
Seramai 536 tawanan perang yang bergerak ke Ranau meninggalkan Sandakan
tetapi hanya 189 orang sahaja yang masih hidup,termasuklah tahanan Australia
berjumlah 142 orang.

7. Dan pada 10 Julai 1945, proses pemindahan yang terakhir berlaku melibatkan
seramai 75 orang tahanan perang dan 100 orang askar Jepun. Kumpulan mereka
mengambil laluan yang berlainan tetapi tiada seorang pun yang berjaya sampai ke
Ranau. Misteri ini masih kekal sehingga sekarang, kerana ke mana perginya semua
tahanan dan askar Jepun ini.

8. Sebaik sahaja mereka sampai di Ranau, tahanan-tahanan ini dipaksa lagi untuk
berjalan sejauh 40 km ke Paginatan dengan membawa sekampit tepung seorang
yang seberat 20kg melalui jalan yang berbukit ke sana. Pada akhir Julai 1945, tiada
lagi tahanan perang yang tinggal di Ranau.

9. Hanya enam orang sahaja yang terselamat daripada 2400 tahanan perang sewaktu
death march ini. Mereka terselamat kerana ada antara mereka yang berjaya
melarikan diri sewaktu berada di kem Ranau dan semasa perjalanan ke Ranau.
Enam orang ini berasal dari Australia dan dalam rekod, tiada tahanan dari pihak
British yang terselamat.

10. Tiga orang yang terselamat ini kemudiannya menjadi saksi dalam siasatan
jenayah perang yang menyaksikan 14 pegawai tentera Jepun dihukum mati kerana
kesalahan dan jenayah perang mereka di Borneo. Kapten Hoshijima Susumu,
komandan penjara Sandakan didapati bersalah dan dihukum mati di Rabaul pada 6
April 1946.

Catatan oleh tawanan yang terselamat, Owen Campbell.

Owen Campbell

7 JUNE 1945
Allied planes came over. While the Japanese guards hid Ted Emmet, Sig Webber,
Jack Austin (? Gunner Leslie Hotston), Ted Skinner and I escaped into the jungle.
We took along 12 tins of rice, six tins of salmon and some dried fish all stolen
from the Japanese. We also had some fish lines and a compass which Emmet had
kept since our capture at Singapore in 1942.
8 JUNE
Managed a couple of miles heading for the coast.
9 JUNE
I had malaria so we rested.
10 JUNE
Pushed on but Ted Skinner got dysentery so we decided to camp for a couple of
days to let him recover.
11 JUNE
I was pretty sick with beri beri and stayed with Ted. Emmet, Webber and Austin
pressed on to the coast.
12 15 JUNE (approx)
I stayed with Ted.
16 JUNE
I went to get some water and fish. When I came back I found Ted with his throat
cut. I buried him there.
18 JUNE
I came to a river and found Austin (Hotston ?), crook with dysentery and malaria,
sheltering under a blanket. Webber and Emmet were fishing nearby. We decided to

ask any Malays we saw for help. We heard some Malayans on a boat in the river
and Emmet and Webber went off to hail them.
As the boat approached a Jap stood up from the bottom of the boat and fired four
shots killing both Emmet and Webber. It was so quick they had no chance and fell
in the river. I was so far behind them I was not seen, so I escaped and went back to
Jack Austin.
19 21 JUNE
I stayed with Jack and we lived on fish, which I caught from the river, and fungus
which grows on the trees there. Jack was getting very weak at this stage and he
died on the evening of 21 June. I buried him as best I could.
22 JUNE 3 JULY
For eleven days I pushed on alone.
On the first day I swam across a wide river on a log. A Jap saw me and fired at me,
hitting me on the wrist. I managed to make the shore as the Jap continued to fire at
me.
After about the fourth day I became delirious and began to think my mates were
back with me. I talked to them.
3 JULY 24 July
I was picked up by two natives near a spot where about 100 Japanese were
camped. They took me to their house and hid me. They gave me a bath and then I
was taken inland to another native camp, where I was looked after for about 6
days. Eventually the natives had to pull out as the Japanese were active in the area.
After going for about 3 miles through the jungle we came to a river and travelled
down it for about 3 days in a canoe until we reached the coast and headed up
another river. After about 7 hours paddling we reached the SRD camp of
Lieutenant Hollingsworth where I stayed for 3 or 4 days with malaria.
Eventually I was taken out to sea, picked up by a flying boat, and taken to the
American aircraft carrier USS Pocomoke.
(Adapted from Statement by Gunner Campbell, 2/10th Field Regiment, 21 August
1945, 1010/4/27, AWM 54)
On 3 July 1945 Gunner Owen Campbell, after having wandered delirious for days in
the jungle, approached a river where he saw a small canoe. Probably close to death,
he had little option but to take the chance of calling out to the men in the canoe: two
natives, Gulunting and Lap, from Kampong Muanad. Gulunting describes what
happened.

In July 1945 Lap and I went out to look after our fish traps. We were using a small
gobang (canoe). Whilst we were so occupied Jap boats were passing so we hid in a
small stream whilst they went past. After we knew they had gone we ventured into
the main stream and searched for more of our traps. We had not gone far when I
heard someone calling abang (elder brother). I looked at the man and saw that he
was practically naked. We approached
him and he commenced to faint. I got hold of him and carried him into the boat. We
then went up river to our camp and took him there. I carried him to my hut where
the was provided with trousers and shirt and food. He was at Muanad for ten days
when Salium and Ambiau came to fetch him He gave me this compass MK VI
5226 as a memento. I know now that his name was Gunner Campbell of the
Australian Army.
(Statement made to Major H W S Jackson by Gulunting of Kampong Sapi, at
Beluran, North Borneo, 12 January 1947, papers of Lieutenant Colonel W S Jackson,
item 9, part 1, PR 84/231, AWM)

Lest We Forget

via SandakanDeathMarch, NorthBorneoHistory, iiNet, Borneo.com.au, BorneoTravel