The Sandakan death marches are pedestrian crossings of POW countries of the anti-Hitler coalition in North Borneo , organized by the Japanese command in 1945. During the marches killed about 2,400 British and Australian soldiers and officers. The organizers of the marches were tried as war criminals .
British and Australian prisoners of war, captured mainly in Singapore , were sent to North Borneo to build an airfield there. At first, they were treated no worse than other prisoners of war, but in 1945, when the Allies attacked Borneo, the Japanese command ordered the prisoners to be transferred from Sandakan through the jungle to Ranau .
From January to May 1945, a series of " death marches " took place, during which about 1,050 people died. Being weak and exhausted, prisoners of war fell from exhaustion and disease, after which the guards shot them or killed them with bayonets. By August 15, 1945, almost all the prisoners who worked in the Japanese camps in Ranau and Sandakan were dead. Only six Australians survived, helped by the locals.
The Japanese military responsible for conducting the marches were tried in Labuan as war criminals. Nine people were sentenced to death, 64 people received prison sentences, 11 people were acquitted.
Literature
- Sandakan death march // Southeast Asia: a historical encyclopedia from Angkor Wat to East Timor / Ooi Keat Gin. - Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, Inc. - T. III. - ISBN 1-57607-770-5 .