A legacy of sacrifice and bravery

Keeping watch: An Australian soldier and a Malaysian Naval personnel standing guard during the Anzac Day dawn service at Sandakan Memorial Park.

KOTA KINABALU: Alban Joseph Lagan (pic) was a seven-year-old child when he watched more than 2,000 POWs being marched by Japanese soldiers past his home near St Mary’s Church in Sandakan.

“They were beaten, starved and made to suffer. I remember the noise, the marching, the singing at three o’clock in the morning,” he said of what was later dubbed the Sandakan Death March.