Trying to track the movements of my Great Grandad FEPOW

Discussion in 'Prisoners of War' started by Chris Bailey, Mar 5, 2020.

  1. papiermache

    papiermache Well-Known Member

    In post 37 I am making an educated guess but in order of appearance:

    1. Post war created Japan by JPWIB who continued to work in Tokyo. During the war to avoid destruction by the US bombing campaign the JPWIB was moved out of Tokyo.

    2. BRE Changi

    3. BRE Changi

    4. Possibly as 1.

    5. BRE Changi

    6. Japanese created, possibly during the war in Singapore.

    7. Casualty Prisoner of War, a British War Office Department

    8. as 7.

    The trouble is that the documents have lost their former references, Kew references, or otherwise.

    As for the modern transcription which says "Thailand or 4D Camp" first look for the WO361 file. You need an image from that file to check the transcription is correct.

    This is, according to Discovery, the Kew search engine, just a list: see the file description at the end of this post.

    "4D" could mean they guessed Group 4, which is a railway group. The Japanese called them camps, the British "groups." But there are camps in Japan which end "4D" but we know from the LQ he didn't go there.

    At a guess Malia means Malaya. I know over 350 camp names in various original Thai, Burmese, Japanese, or pidgeon English and I think it is just Malaya and not worth pursuing until you see the original.

    "Extreme" uses the Thai names for true camps e.g. Bhatona, out of respect for the Thais. To returning POWs the commonly used name is Martona, or Matona. To the Judge Advocate General it was JC/110, where JC stands for Japanese Camp. That is the London JAG, not the Deputy JAG in Singapore, who had their own file system. And the individual War Crimes Investigation Teams had their own filing systems !

    Another point is that some records from the War Office bypassed Kew and went to Commonwealth War Graves, but these largely relate to those who died.

    The transcription says it is from here. I think the former reference is Casualty PW or Adjutant General, not BRE, but it was created in 1944 probably by Japanese in Changi. Note it says "Archives". To add even more confusion the BRE did liaise a bit with the Japanese in Singapore. Communications with Thailand from Singapore by radio are supposed to have been very good, in addition to telephone wires alongside the railway. Each main Thailand camp would have a radio, according to a history of the railway written by a Dutch colonel in 1946.

    Reference:
    WO 361/1954
    Description:
    Prisoners of war, Far East: Thailand POW Camp, name list, as of 1 November 1944; volume I
    Date:
    1944 Nov 01 - 1944 Nov 30
    Held by:
    The National Archives, Kew
    Former reference in its original department:
    Archives File No 3376-1
    Legal status:
    Public Record(s)
    Closure status:
    Open Document, Open Description
    Access conditions:
    Open on Transfer
    Record opening date:
    22 April 2011
     
    Last edited: Mar 8, 2020
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  2. timuk

    timuk Well-Known Member

    I have always understood Malai 4 to be the Sime Road Camp in Singapore though the numbers did at some stage change.
    upload_2020-3-9_0-32-19.png

    Tim
     
  3. papiermache

    papiermache Well-Known Member

    Tim, thanks for keeping me honest yet again.

    In Tim's post 33 "Home" refers to Ron Taylor's website although he calls himself Ronnie Taylor these days. Somebody ought to recommend him for an M.B.E.

    I got my first list of men from the Hofuku Maru from his site. It was slightly wrong but that just reflected what was available at the time. What amused me was the revolving silver cross that used to twirl above the list because there were a number of Jewish people who were casualties, although my uncle wasn't Jewish. A doctor from Leeds who performed a succesful appendectomy on a POW by torch light aboard the Hofuku Maru was Jewish, but the good Doctor died on board from cardiac beri-beri.

    In Fepow researcher's time April 2011 was the landmark date because that was when a huge amount of files was added to WO 361. When Find My Past took some of the files ( about 600 ) it made it difficult to relate the digital file back to the paper file. It is not necessary to subscribe to FMP because access is free at Kew but I shall always be pleased I had photographed the Hofuku Maru files before FMP digitised them. It is not the same photographing from a screen instead of the real file or IJA card. Funnily enough, some of the digitised files can be seen on the Mansell site.

    By the way, IJA cards were called " Mei Mei Hyo."
     
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  4. papiermache

    papiermache Well-Known Member

    Although we don't know whether the subject was at Bhatona, Martona, Matona, Montana, whatever it is called, there was a minor war crimes trial including conditions in or about the place which resulted in a life sentence. The reviewing officer remarked that the accused was lucky he wasn't hung. The accused was prosecuted as a Captain in the 9th railway regiment and post release in the 1950's continued to talk about the war, and an account is given in the Japanese book " Railwaymen In the War" by K. Tamayama. In the book he is described as 2nd Lt Tarumoto, Juji, 3rd Company, 2nd Bn, 9th Railway Regiment. The evidence given at the trial included an appearance for the defence by "The Little Colonel", Lt.Col. Yanagida, who got a life sentence in a different trial. The Little Colonel was quite liked by the men but he claimed never to have heard of Montana. The charge was not specific to the place.

    I have separated each sentence in the affidavit, which was not prepared by London Judge Advocate General, and benefits from giving more general information than JAG affidavits usually do. There are no photographs with the affidavit, which is at kew on file WO 235/857

    As a general rule those who gave sworn statements had no idea whether they were used at trials or not. Such statements are a prime source for family historians, and benefit from having been made within a couple of years of the events referred to.

    " MD/JAG/FS/JC/110

    IN THE MATTER OF JAPANESE WAR CRIMES AND
    IN THE MATTER OF THE ILL-TREATMENT OF
    PRISONERS OF WAR AT MARTONA CAMP SIAM
    BETWEEN 1942 AND 1945.


    AFFIDAVIT

    I PETER DAVID ALSTON CLARKE Captain 5th Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment with permanent home address at Benyon Lodge Culford West Suffolk make oath and say as follows -

    1. I was captured on the Fifteenth day of February One thousand nine hundred and forty two at Singapore whilst serving as a Captain in the 5th Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment.

    2. Following my capture I was sent with my battalion to Changi Prisoner of War Camp Singapore where I remained about two months.

    I was moved several times and in early May One thousand nine hundred and forty three I went with my battalion to Martona Camp, Siam.

    Lieutenant Colonel L.J. Baker, M.C., was the senior British Officer at the Camp which was under the administrative command of Lieutenant Suzuki.

    The Japanese engineers in charge of the work at Martona Camp were Lieutenant Tarumoto and Lieutenant Takizawa.

    After about a fortnight at Martona Camp I moved with a party of British soldiers about a mile and a half north to a small working camp in the jungle and Lieutenant Tarumoto was in charge.

    At the outset I was senior British officer at this working camp and had with me about two hundred and fifty British troops and a similar number of Dutch troops in another Camp about one hundred yards away.

    Lieutenant G.G. Moir, Captain R.R. Fewell and Lieutenant D.I.C. Hopkins were also with me at the working camp and we were joined about a fortnight later by Major G.N.H. Mayes.

    A medical officer Captain F.E. d'W. Cayley visited our party daily from the main Martona Camp.

    The living accommodation at the working camp was entirely tents most of which did not keep the water out.

    The camp area was very small and for this reason it was nearly always knee deep in mud.

    Water was drawn from a neighbouring stream and it had to be boiled for drinking purposes.

    The working camp was closed at the end of July One thousand nine hundred and forty three.

    3. Throughout the whole time the working camp was established sick men were forced to work as a result of direct orders from Lieutenant Tarumoto.

    His orders were that a fixed number of men should work daily regardless of the number of men sick.

    Lieutenant Tarumoto completely ignored the decision of Captain Cayley that men were unfit for work.

    On one particular day during June One thousand nine hundred and forty three Lieutenant Tarumoto ordered all sick men to parade and apart from a few men who collapsed on the parade they were marched two or three miles away from the camp.

    These men were suffering principally from malaria, dysentery, tropical ulcers and beri-beri.

    In addition to men doing "heavy" work, Tarmoto ordered that a certain number should do "light" which he stated would consist of building half a cubic metre per man of railway embankment.

    After a short thime this "light" work was changed to carrying heavy bridge timbers throughout the normal working day from 0800 hours to 2100 hours.

    In order to find the number of workers required it was frquently necessary to turn out the men who were so sick that they had to be assisted to the site of the work.

    Tarumoto did not permit sufficient labour to remain in camp for camp administration.

    For the British part of the camp of Two hundred and fifty prisoners the other rank staff allowed was five cooks and one medical orderly.

    This staff was expected to carry water, carry all rations a mile and a half from the main Martona camp cut fuel from the jungle cook and generally maintain the camp.

    Frequent appeals were made for a larger staff and the answer Tarumoto gave was invariably "Use the sick men."

    Tarumoto sited a Tamil Coolie camp within one hundred yards of our camp.

    This resulted in an immediate outbreak of Cholera in our camp and sixteen men died either actually at our camp or after evacuation.

    The total British deaths at this working camp was seven.

    In addition at least forty-eight died after evacuation.

    Tarumoto was not responsible for food, medical supplies or clothing.

    He was however entirely responsible for turning the sick out to work and the conditions under which they had to work.

    4. The jungle camp in which I was, was under the administration of Lieutenant or Captain Suzuki whose headquarters were at Kinsayok.

    He was nicknamed "Mussolini".

    Throughout the two months I was in the jungle camp Suzuki never visited it.

    He was immediately responsible for the lack of food medical supplies and appalling accommodation.

    By his failure to supervise the jungle camp under his command he contributed towards the death and ill-treatment of a great number of prisoners of war.

    I did not witness any individual acts of brutality at the jungle camp.

    I remained for the most part within the camp and did not go out with the working party.

    I have been shown nineteen photographs of Japanese and Koreans, Plates No. 16 and 22, and I recognise No. 96 on Plate 16 as the said Lieutenant Tarumoto referred to in paragraph 2 of this my affidavit.

    When these photographs were shown to me the names and personal details of all the persons portrayed therein were permanently obscured.

    SWORN at Bury Saint Edmunds in the
    County of Suffolk this 25th day of
    April 1946.

    {signed} P.D.A. Clarke

    Before me

    {signed} Thomas Wilson

    A Commissioner for Oaths
     
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  5. Chris Bailey

    Chris Bailey Member

    Thank Tim

    This is good to know, I thought it was Adam Road Camp as this is what I read on;

    Information about the Prisoners of War of the Japanese 1939-1945
    "Adam road camp (Malai 4)

    This could be the Sime road Internment camp (not POW) however Adam Road camp itself was the former British Army Barracks taken over by the Japanese for accommodation nearby."

    Must have missed the bit about Sime Road. Thank you again.
     
  6. Chris Bailey

    Chris Bailey Member

    Thank you, not easy to read but is the evidence I am looking for.
     
  7. papiermache

    papiermache Well-Known Member

    Pleased to be of assistance. I am amused to note that "Forces War Records" state on the link you give in post 45 about the Hofuku Maru as follows: "Ship sunk 21 September 1944 by an unidentified US submarine." If they read the thread on here they can read the truth- sunk by US aircraft- also available at numerous other websites. Never mind, it just makes me laugh.
     
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