‘Borneo Graveyard’ tells of POW torture and Sandakan Death March

KOTA KINABALU: Recollection of prisoners of war (POW) walking for miles in water-filled boots as a form of torture, gang rape of Dutch women helping POWs, captured soldiers being kept in tiny bamboo cages and outright massacres are all part of a new book on the Second World War.

Titled The Borneo Graveyard 1941-1945, this 492-page book depicted how POWs lived and were tortured by the Japanese occupiers back then and how locals risked their lives to help them.

Major John Tulloch was inspired to write and publish this book after his visit to Sandakan in 1999, where he learnt about the Sandakan Death March and stories of POWs.

“After going back to the United Kingdom from that visit, I did more research on the matter and found that half of those who perished were from my regiment,” he said during the book launch here.

He said many, including himself, were not aware of what actually happened back then, and he felt that something had to be done to get the story out.

Tulloch began extensive research on this topic – spending about 12 years travelling around the world, including repeated visits to Sabah – to get information from locals and survivors on the war, which culminated in this book.

Produced in collaboration with Opus Publications Sdn Bhd, its managing director Datuk CL Chan described The Borneo Graveyard as an important part of history that should be made known.

He said in short, the book narrated the raising of five Royal Artillery air defence regiments in 1939, their deployment in late 1941 to South-East Asia, their short campaign in the Netherlands East Indies and eventual captivity as POWs in Java and North Borneo.

“It then describes the subsequent four years of Japanese occupation. The sadistic treatment of Australian, British, Dutch and Indian POWs in the various POW camps in North Borneo, namely in Jesselton, San-dakan, Ranau, Labuan and Batu Lintang. And there were the three Death Marches from Sandakan to Ranau,” he said.

Sabah Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Christina Liew said this book was supposed to have been launched in 2020, during the 75th Anniversary of Sandakan Day.

Tulloch came from a British military family and first joined the Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment in January 1965 as a private soldier. He attended officer cadet school in Victoria, Australia in 1966 before transferring to the British Army and the Royal Artillery in March 1973, retiring in 2003.