The Pacific War, like every other war, caused irreparable damage and trauma. During the Japanese occupation from 1941 to 1945, the civilians and Prisoners of War were among those who experienced the brutality of war through the ruthless and cruel methods of the Japanese armies.
Tales of hidden brutality
This is the second of a four-part article on the history of the Institute of Teacher Education Batu Lintang.
Fear gripped civilians during the Japanese occupation in the early 1940s as the Nipponese were notorious for their brutality. There is no way of knowing whether an action was right or wrong, or whether you are bowing at the correct 90-degree angle.
The worst dread instilled in the people during the Pacific War was being dragged to meet the kempeitai (Japanese military officer). This is when you realise your life is over and you will never see the light at the end of the tunnel. Many people survived the officers’ cruelty, but many more died as a result of the pain and torture.
Reading through many historical books, one of the many ways of torture was mentioned several times. Raw rice was often forced-fed to inmates at the military prison. The soldiers would then force water into the stomachs, causing the rice to swell inside. This may result in hours of internal pain.
Some would force a bucket of water down a prisoner’s throat. The Japanese soldiers would then step on the prisoner’s stomach, anticipating gushes of water from the mouth.
Nonetheless, if one is not dragged to the kempeitai, one is safe from the brutality. However, one may suffer in different ways during the war. For example, when food became scarce or when their rations were stolen by Japanese guards or other civilians. The war was atrocious back then, and days to years passed slowly as each new day brought new trials and tribulations.
The hidden brutality
Though atrocities occurred beyond the barbed wires of the Batu Lintang camp, Jeli Abdullah, the last child prisoner from the camp, revealed that he was not subjected to any brutal treatment by the Japanese.
Sharing further, history professor Dr Peggy Day explained that this was due to the women and children’s compound being treated relatively well in comparison to the other eight compounds.
“Not to say they didn’t go hungry, but none of the children lost their lives and only a handful of women died. Those who passed away were among the older, weaker Catholic nuns, as well as a diabetic woman in her late sixties,” she added.
Nonetheless, the thought of brutality instilled fear in the internees and prisoners of war (POWs).
“When someone was taken beyond the camp grounds to be interrogated or punished by the kempeitai, the real violence began.”
Day, however, said that this is not to indicate that mistreatment does not exist in the camp. According to her, Japanese soldiers and guards continue to commit horrific acts.
“For example, when prisoners are punished for something they committed, they can be placed in wire cages with no space to stand or lie down. They can be held for a few days to a month, with no beds or mosquito nets and a diet consisting primarily of rice and salt,” she revealed.
And the guards could pull the prisoners out of their cages and beat them whenever they wanted.
“It was a terrifying time because you could be punished or beaten for almost anything. For example, if you didn’t bow properly, or if they thought you were doing something too slowly, or if they discovered anything in your possession that they didn’t like. Almost without exception, every single one of the civilian men had received a severe beating while in the camp,” added the professor.
Bearing the brunt
The British Other Ranks compound fared the worst of the nine compounds at the Lintang camp. Agnes Newton Keith, the author of “Three Came Home”, described the physical condition of these British soldiers as “the camp of skeletons”.
“They moved laboriously, slowly, and weakly; the fact that they moved at all is a wonder.”
By the end of the war, the daily death toll was around six. According to former internee Reverend Peter Howes, the men’s civilian compound suffered the least amount of casualties. Over the course of the war, only 25 of the 282 male internees died. Meanwhile, the death toll at the British Other Ranks compound was estimated to be around 550 (or more, as records were incomplete) before the war ended.
With the increasing death rate in the British Other Ranks compound, the funeral process was hastened. Initially, the Japanese permitted funeral procession with full honour. However, due to a lack of coffins near the end of the war, one with a detachable bottom was used. The dead were buried in shallow graves in an area known as Boot Hill by the prisoners, between the camp and what is now Jalan Ong Tiang Swee.
Food scarcity
Death, however, was not the only thing that was increasing as the years passed. By 1945, at the end of the war, food was scarce and rations were insufficient. Trading for food on the black market was difficult since there were not enough valuables possessed by internees and POWs to trade with.
Keith stated that “rules increased, food decreased, work increased, and strength decreased.”
With little food to eat, the internees who had the opportunity to work at the gardens outside the camp stole food to survive.
“By now, soldiers were trading for and buying skinned cats and rats, people were eating snails and worms, we were all eating weeds and grass, and many of us wanted to devour one other. I had banana skins stolen from Japanese refuse barrels and boiled into soup.”
Post-traumatic war experiences
Meanwhile, these are just a few of the horrible experiences that have come to light. Beyond that, and to what extent, Jeli, who spent over three years of his childhood at the camp, said he doesn’t know or remember.
“My parents never talked about it after the war, either. It’s as though when it was over, the experiences associated with the place were also gone and done.”
Having identical feelings Judy Pearson and Colin Hygate, the children of two of the prisoners, also revealed that their fathers had never spoken about their time in the camp. Pearson, whose father was John Lyle Noakes, the Secretary of Defence before the war, was interned at the camp.
Meanwhile, Hygate’s father Len, who was assigned to a road-building task in the jungles of Kuching, was taken to the POW hospital in Lintang camp in 1944 after contracting malaria and poisoned hands and feet.
In a diary, Len wrote, “As luck would have it, the medical records clerk fell sick just then and they asked me if I felt strong enough to try the job. I had a go and kept it — and here I am.”
However, that was one of the few details Hygate had about his father’s time in Lintang camp.
When asked if his father had told him anything about the war, particularly regarding what happened in the camp, Hygate said that he had never been told anything about the Japanese occupation.
“All of the prisoners were given military orders not to speak about their experiences in the camp. Furthermore, there was a psychological explanation for why the prisoners never spoke about the war.”
