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In Japanese eyes
the prisoner of war, was not only the looser, but also object of contempt.
This, because of the fact that he admitted to get captured. Therefore
he was no longer regarded as a human and therefore the terrible use with the POWs.
Nearly the same status was given also to civilians, including women and children.
From about 300.000 captives in the first months of war in the Far East,
only 200.000 saw the day of liberation. Exhausted from hunger and
disease they stumbled out of countless villages and prison camps,
scattered over the whole Asiatic continent, from the Japanese islands
to the Banda Sea and the jungles of Burma. They were hermetically isolated in a vicinity totally foreign to them, not only physically imprisonment, but also total isolation from the natives by language and art of living. Post from home needed almost a year to reach the camp only to have further delay, because the guard didn't distribute it. Marcel Junod, International Red Cross |
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VAE VICTIS | ||
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The Carnage at Laha, February 1942
The Bangka Island Massacre, February 1942
...
They just swept up and down the line and the girls fell one after the
other. I was towards the end of the line and a bullet got me in the
left loin and went straight through and came out towards the front ...
The Balikpapan Massacre, February 1942
...
If the Balikpapan garrison destroys the oilfields and installations,
then we will kill the commanding officer and his soldiers and all other
Dutchmen without exception ...
· Tarakan Island, January 1942
The Japanese executed the entire crew of the Karoengan coastal battery, after the sinking of two Japanese Minesweepers W13 and W14.
The battery at the south point of the island wasn't informed about the
capitulation due the fact that all communications were destroyed. The
Japanese naval commander promised amnesty for the gun crews and based on
this promise the Dutch Island Commander managed to persuade the
gun crews to surrender. The Japanese Army Commander on the other hand
was to brutal to have the prisoners turned over to him. So he ordered
to tie the men into small groups of three. Some time later they were
thrown into the water where all 219 Dutch soldiers drowned.
· Menado, Celebes Island, January 1942
Immediately following the Dutch surrender, the
surviving KNIL troops and their commanders were put on trial by the
Japanese who were enraged at the heavy losses they had suffered. As a
result of this trial the D' Company Commander, KNIL Reserve 1st
Lieutenant J. Wielinga and one of his platoon commander Sergeant-Major
H.J. Robbemond, Foerier B. Visscher and nine native soldiers were
bayoneted or beheaded.
· Makassar, Celebes Island, January 1942
On February 9, Japanese troops landed about 8000
men south of Makassar. A strong detachment immediately advanced towards
Makassar. The guards of a bridge (numbers not given) south of Makassar
were captured along with the bridge, but a KNIL company of native
soldiers inflicted casualties upon the Japanese. In retaliation, the
Japanese tied the men of the bridge detachment together three by three
with their puttees (leg bands), and threw them in the water. This probably happened
on February 9th.
· Kertosono, Java Island, March 1942
On March 5, 1942 a Dutch Marine unit received an
order to advance towards Kertosono, which has recently been captured by
the Japanese troops. The attack by itself eventually turned out to be
nothing (bridges blown up, incomplete intelligence, etc). However, one
small fighting group of Dutch marines under 1st Lieutenant H.S. den
Hartog advanced until near Kertosono. There it suddenly came across
with some Japanese troops. This was followed by a confused fight,
during which the fighting group of Dutch marines was scattered. A small
part (9 marines) was captured. They were bayoneted and beheaded on 6
March 1942 after their capture.
· Tjiater, Java Island, March 6th 1942
Pieter Benjamin de Lizer was a soldier in the 5th
KNIL Battalion. When the Japanese invaded Java on March 1st 1942, the
5th Battalion was transported to the Bandung area, in an effort to try
to stop the Japanese advance.
De Lizer: " We arrived at Tjiater after hours of marching on March 5th. We were supposed to stop the Japanese advance here, but there was no real defensive line. No bunkers nor strongholds, just some small foxholes. The next morning I was ordered to get some food and coffee for my comrades. Suddenly the Japs started shooting at us. I saw the first casualties. I ran to my foxhole and prepared myself for combat. I had about 100 rounds for my rifle and a hand grenade. We started shooting at the direction where the enemy fire came from. In the beginning we were brave enough to jell "Tojo, klojo!" (Tojo, asshole) but that stopped when Japanese aircraft began strafing our position. More dead and wounded comrades. After a few hours I saw the Japanese infantry heading directly towards our position. I managed to hit a couple of them and when they were near enough I threw my grenade. There were simply too many of them and they overwhelmed our position. Fierce man-to-man fighting was going on. When we saw one of our men, after he surrendered, being beaten by the Japs the fighting became even more brutal. But the end was near and at a certain moment, one of the Nips jumped right on top of me and knocked me out with his rifle.
Our hands were tied with our own leather belts. 72 of us were taken prisoner; the rest was dead or managed to escape. The Japs stole our watches and rings and those who protested were beaten. We were given a cigarette as some sort of compensation. Than the Japs took us about 500 meters up the hill. We were ordered to take off our puttees and with these they tied us up three-by-three. I was tied up with Koll and Frederiks. We wondered what was going to happen with us but when the Japs positioned two machineguns in front of us, it all became clear. Some of us started praying, others just jelled. Strangely enough, I was completely calm; no fear at all. It was just like someone was protecting me. When the machineguns started firing, I fell to the ground with Koll and Frederiks landing on top of me. I could feel that I was hit but still alive. When the shooting stopped I could hear the Japanese searching for survivors. When they found one, they killed him with their bayonets. The footsteps were now very close but they must have thought that I was dead. Only after a few hours, when I was completely sure that they had gone, I stood up. Frederiks was dead but Koll was also still alive. He managed to free himself with his teeth and than freed me. I was hit four times; two bullets hit my leg, one my shoulder and one got stuck in my lung. When we looked around us we were shocked by the terrible sight; these bloody human remains once were our comrades. We couldn't stand it much longer and fled ".
Pieter Benjamin de Lizer managed to avoid the Japanese for days, until he finally reached Bandung on March 12th 1942. 72 POW's were executed at Tjiater of whom only three survived. The main cause for this massacre could be the fierce resistance offered by the 5th Battalion, which delayed the Japanese advance for several hours. All victims were buried at Bandung cemetery.
· Tragedy at Maos, Java Island, the night of March 6-7 1942
Following the heavy bombing of shipping at
Tjiltjap there was now little hope of getting away by sea, so a
considerable body mostly of unarmed RAF and RAAF men (about 2.500), who
had amassed at Poerwerkerta, about 30 miles inland from the port, were
now to be moved westwards by rail. Their destination was Tasikmalaja
airfield, 50 miles south-east of Bandoeng.
By the evening of 6th two trains had arrived at Poerwerkerta, each made up of a few carriages and a number of freight vans, the first of which were carrying a load of high octane fuel and aircraft spares. This train, under the command of Wing Commander Ramsay Rae and packed with airmen, departed at about 19:00, heading south to the junction with the main east-west line at Maos, a short distance from the Serajoe river. The second train, with Wing Commander N. Cave in charge, followed about two hours later but soon caught up with the heavily laden, slow moving first train. At least 600 airmen were packed on the two trains. At 22:15 p.m. when seven miles north of the junction, near the trackside kampong at Sampang, the first train was ambushed by advanced units of the 56th Infantry Regiment, part of the Japanese force that had landed at Kragan and had infiltrated the area. Attacking with mortars, machine guns and hand grenades, they blew several of the metal freight vans off the track, in one of which two airmen were killed while a number of others were wounded. S.H. Adcock, formerly of 152 MU, recalled: " We had been travelling for quite a while and started to cross an embankment - the doors of the wagons were open to give some fresh air - then we ran into an ambush. A shell burst in the freight van in front of ours, causing many casualties, and the young airman talking to me in the doorway fell dead at my feet, shot between the eyes. The driver and fireman jumped from the engine and let the train go. The rear wagons were full of oil (sic) and were blazing furiously. In one of the leading wagons was an airman who, prior to the war, was a fireman on the LMS railway, and when he saw the engine crew dive over the side, climbed along the trunks to the engine and kept it going until it ran out of steam, as it had been damaged ".
Meanwhile the second train, forced to stop by the wrecked vans, also came under attack. The engine was hit, and there were further casualties amongst the airmen in the crowded carriages and wagons. Fl./Off. J. Fletcher-Cook was ordered to proceed towards Maos in an endeavour to acquire a rail car in which the wounded could be conveyed. One party of 74 under Flt./Lt. G. Carr, including a dozen wounded, set off towards Sampang but ran into a Japanese patrol just after midnight and were forced to surrender; five of the wounded died. The Japanese did not press home their attack and withdrew into the surrounding jungle indicating, perhaps, that only a small force was involved. Groups of survivors made their way southwards along the tracks towards Maos and after a march of two to three miles arrived at a deserted trackside farmhouse, where the men were assembled and were informed that not far away was a river that had to be crossed. Seven of the more seriously wounded were taken into some huts at the side of the track, were it was intended they should remain, with two medical orderlies, until help arrived. The five-span steel railway bridge which crossed the Serajoe river at Kesogihan had a walkway to one side. The Dutch colonial troops, whose duty it was to defend the bridge, had placed demolition charges and had orders to blow the bridge at midnight, which was by now rapidly approaching. Adcock continued: " When I and my close friends reached the second span from the far end of the bridge, the bridge blew-up, the centre spans going down into the river causing a large number of casualties ". The tragic sequel was that the wounded airmen, lying in the huts on the other side, could not be evacuated in time. Corporal Bob "Butch" Finning of 84th RAF Squadron was one of the wounded: " There was a lot of blood around and fellows were moaning and some were in a very bad way and dying. We lay there for quite a time, then, as it began to get dark, I heard screams and yells from the shed next door. The Nips burst into our shed and began to bayonet the men on the floor. I knew it was curtains for me. I wriggled close to the poor bastard nearest me and lay on my side to take the thrusts on my arse and thighs. The screams from our blokes were terrible, but the Japs were as bad every time they lunged with their rifles. When they reached me I pretended I'd snuffed it! ".
Finning was bayoneted several times but miraculously sustained no fatal injuries; he continued: " The light was fading inside the godown, thank Christ, and I managed to pull myself among a pile of corpses. I could still hear other Japs next door, so lay on my wounded side so they could have a go at the other. Three or four of them came in and began to thrust at the people on the floor. I took another few jabs. I thought my time was up ". By the time the Japanese patrol departed, Finning had suffered 14 wounds but somehow was still alive. When he thought it was safe, he dragged himself to a window and managed to tumble out and staggered off into the bush. He passed out and when he regained consciousness it was light. Although in great pain from his many wounds and numerous insect bites, he was able to force himself further away from the scene of carnage, until he came to a river. This he managed to swim, although by now very weak from loss of blood, and lay exhausted on the bank; suddenly he became aware of half a dozen natives watching him. They dragged him to their kampong: " They jabbered around me, then decided to finish off what the Nips had started. They tied me up like a trussed chicken and put a rope round my neck to hang me. By that time I didn't care. They slung the end of the rope over the fork in a tree and hoisted me off the ground; I kept falling back down because I was heavy and they hadn't quite got the technique of doing the job. This time I was quite convinced I'd had my chips. They got me off the ground for about the forth time, my tongue was out and I was turning black and everything was spinning. Then I heard a car engine and they dropped me again. There was a loud yell and I heard them scatter and I vaguely made out a strange-looking bloke waving a bloody great sword around him and I made up my mind that I was going to be beheaded instead of hung ". This Japanese officer was however his saviour. He had already picked up two other wounded airmen and now he cut Finning lose and put him in the car. All three were driven to a local POW camp full of Dutch prisoners. Finning eventually recovered. There was only one other survivor of this massacre, another RAF corporal, who had managed to escape unobserved from the hut before the killing reached him.
· Kalidjati Airfield, Java Island, March 1942
Large number of British RAF ground personnel was
slaughtered at the Kalidjati Airfield. British forces at Kalidjati used
a hospital at Soebang run by P & T. Landen Plantations and manned
by Dutch and British civilian staff. When Soebang was occupied the
staff and patients were put to death, in some cases, days later.
Australian war crime teams were responsible for investigating the
events at Kalidjati after the war. They amassed a file but had little
success in collecting direct evidence linking crimes to individuals
concerned. This file was later passed onto the Dutch and no further
action was taken. No any further details available.
· Samarinda, Borneo Island, March 1942
On March 9th, 1942, near Samarinda (exact place is
unknown) the commander of the secret airfield Samarinda II learned of
the capitulation of the KNIL Army, and decided to surrender his
detachment to the Japanese. For that purpose, he abandoned the airfield
and took his men to Samarinda, but about 15 soldiers refused and went
upstream the Mahakam River. The Japanese soon discovered them and 13 of
them were immediately shot, but 2 Dutch soldiers managed to stay with
the natives until April 1943, when they were betrayed and handed over
to the Japanese. They survived.
· Longiram, Borneo Island, 1942
The government representative of Longiram followed
a side river of the Mahakam with several KNIL soldiers. He was forced in
mid 1942 to seek refuge with the Dayak natives. These surrendered them
to the Japanese. All were executed (exact place is unknown).
· Long Nawang, Borneo Island, August 1942
In August 1942 the Japanese soldiers executed a
large number of refugees in this Kampong, including all crew-members
from a Glenn Martin bomber and three crew-members from Dornier X-34. In
early 1942 was a Dutch bomber Glenn Martin shot down by Japanese Zeros
near Miri, British North Borneo. The plane commander,
Luitenant-Vlieger-Waarnemer Groeneveld (Lieutenant) was able to find
the rest of his crew after they bailed out of the plane. They were now
in the neighbourhood of Miri (British-Borneo) and decided to try to
avoid the Japanese, who had just landed there. Together with a number
of British civilians they reached Long Nawang on February 3rd. At about
the same date Luitenant-ter-Zee 3e klasse A. Baarschers from the
Dornier flying-boat X-34, together with two of his crewmembers, reached
Long Nawang. The X-34 had made an emergency landing on December 16th,
while it was heading for the Japanese invasion fleet near Miri. In the
next months Long Nawang became some sort of "safe-haven" for all sorts
of refugees, military and civilian, trying to escape the Japanese
invaders. On February 17 or 18 landed the Japanese troops at Boelongan.
Several KNIL soldiers died, but others managed to reach the outpost
Long Nawang after a journey of weeks. They found American and British
refugees there, and with the soldiers, there were probably about 90
white people and about 35 natives. In April 1942 the Japanese heard
from native Dayaks that there still where KNIL soldiers at Long Berang
and Long Nawang. The Japanese commander demanded their capitulation.
The refugees at Long Berang did so, and they surrendered to the
Japanese at Malinau at the end of April, but the ones at Long Nawang
stayed there. On August 20th, 1942, was Long Nawang taken by surprise
by a Japanese company. On August 27th of that month almost all white
military refugees and one Ambonese soldier were executed, and one month
later also all women and children. Among executed POWs were also:
- Luitenant-vlieger-waarnemer Groeneveld (pilot)
- Brigadier-leerling-monteur Haacke (gunner)
- Sergeant-bommenrichter Gobus (bombardier)
- Brigadier-luchtvaart-telegrafist Prinssen (wireless-operator)
- Luitenant ter Zee 3e klasse A. Baarschers.
· Koetaradja, Sumatra Island, March 1942
In early March 1942 occurred in Koetaradja a
massacre of European inhabitants by natives from Atjeh province. About
20 KNIL and former KNIL soldiers were murdered, along with a number of
Europeans. The natives entered Koetaradja on March 12, the date when
the Japanese forces landed on the western part of the island. They
started looting and destroying ("rampok" in Indonesian). Other KNIL
forces had by that time already left the city. Other Europeans survived
because suddenly the leader of the Atjeh rebellion, Nja Arif -
"Teukoe", appeared and with the help of the Japanese, managed to
prevent further atrocities.
· Koetaradja II, Sumatra Island, March 1942
When the KNIL military detachment left Koetaradja
on March 12, there were still some Ambonese and Menadonese KNIL
soldiers present in the town. They were mainly cooks, hospital units,
some patients and the guards of the station (probably a train station).
Altogether they numbered about 50 men. They were waiting at the station
for a train, when they were surrounded by Atjeh natives who forced them
to give up their weapons. The Japanese arrested them and locked them up
in the prison. Other soldiers also joined them, among them was some
hospital personnel and a KNIL Lieutenant from Sabang. The prisoners,
about 60 of them, were given nothing to eat or drink, and all were
interrogated separately. The former KNIL soldiers were released, but
the others (56 men) were the victim of the Japanese revenge, which
originated in the fact that the airfield of Koetaradja had been damaged
before KNIL troops left the city. The men (8 Europeans and 48 Ambonese
and Menadonese) were shackled on March 15 and loaded onto a Chinese
fishing vessel. They were shot at sea and their bodies thrown in the
water.
· Middle Sumatra Island, March 1942
KNIL Lieutenant Van Zanten assembled a group near
Takingeun. He had with him a European Sergeant and about 70 native
soldiers. In late 1942, the Japanese got wind of the group. They
arrested and mistreated 14 ex-KNIL soldiers while they were working in
late November on a tea field, and the Japanese tried to capture Van
Zanten's camp two days later. His group became smaller. In February
1943, the only European Sergeant with two native MP's were captured, and
on March 10, almost a year after he started his journey, Van Zanten
himself was captured with five native MP's. They walked into an ambush
by native policemen. They were mistreated by the Japanese soldiers. Van
Zanten was offered that in order to spare his life, he had to
infiltrate the internment camp for POW's in Medan. He refused to do
that, and was subsequently sentenced to death by a Japanese
court-martial in Fort De Kock. He was executed on October 25, 1943. His
Sergeant had been killed some two months earlier.
· Pematang Siantar, Sumatra Island, 1942
Not far from the town of Pematang Siantar (where
five women were raped) a group of about 25 Stadswacht soldiers (city
guardsmen) were shot by the Japanese, probably because several bridges
had been destroyed in the vicinity. Two KNIL officers who were also
arrested lost their heads.
· Toba Lake, Sumatra Island, March 1942
On March 14, 1942, not far from the Toba Lake, 25
KNIL soldiers (a MG platoon and members of the Stadswacht and
Landwacht) were executed by the Japanese soldiers.
· Bireuen, Sumatra Island, March 1942
On March 24, 1942, 27 native KNIL soldiers were
allowed by Major Palmer van den Broek, after his capitulation, to
disperse and seek refuge. In Bireuen, they were captured by natives who
turned them over to a Japanese officer, who whipped all prisoners in
the face with a belt. He released five. The other 22 prisoners were
told to be shot because a bridge en route to Takingeun had been
destroyed. They were brought to the bridge, where four of them managed
to escape by jumping in the water. The other 18 prisoners were shot.
· Simaloer Island, Sumatra Island, 1942
On the island of Simaloer, off the coast of
Sumatra, an unknown number of British and Dutch prisoners were executed
and the same happened not far from Sibolga with two Dutchmen and six
British prisoners. Their bodies were later found on the island Nias off
the Sumatra coast.
· The freighter "Langkoeas" massacre, west of Bawean Island, 1942
The freighter Langkoeas (7395 gross weight), a former German merchant ship "Stassfurt",
captured in May 1940, had departed Soerabaja on January 1 for the
Middle East, when in the evening of January 2nd, a torpedo struck the
ship in the engine room, immediately killing the 12 on watch. The crew
(24 Dutch, 55 Chinese, 12 Java-natives) immediately began abandoning
ship, as the Langkoeas started to founder. Some whaleboats had
made it safely to sea, but the 4th Engineer J. De Mul (one of the
survivors) saw with horror how suddenly the motor boat under Captain J.
Kreumer was machine-gunned by an approaching ship. The motor boat was
already towing one of the non-engined boats, and De Mul watched as one
sailor after the other perished by machine-gun fire. Then the ship
started to fire on the boat with De Mul, one of the men near him was
hit in the chest and died. De Mul immediately jumped overboard, and
grabbed the depth plane of the submarine (the ship was a submarine as
it turned out), after which he was grabbed by Japanese sailors and
brought on deck. There, he saw a Chinese and a Javanese standing near
the conning tower. He was brought to the captain, which interrogated
him, but De Mul told him nothing of value. Then the captain said
something like "you go home" and he was thrown overboard, followed by
the Javanese and Chinese. The Langkoeas had sunk, and the three
survivors tried to stay together. However, the sea was rough, and De
Mul lost sight of the other two after a few hours. In the evening, he
had the luck to find a heavily damaged raft, which he clung to. He
managed to climb onto it after catching his breath. Later, he saw the
unconscious Chinese drifting by and managed to bring him aboard. An
hour later, he also found the Javanese. The men spent some four or five
days under the intense sun, without drinking water and food. Finally,
the raft washed ashore on Bawean, an island in the Java Sea. There,
they were found by a fisherman. They were later picked up by a Dutch
Catalina flying boat and brought to Soerabaja, where they told their
story. A crew of 88 men had perished, and post war analysis showed the
Japanese submarine I-58 under the command of Commander Kitamura.
· The tanker "Augustina" massacre, Western Java Sea, 1942
The tanker Augustina (3110 tons) of the
Nederlandsch Indische Tankstoomboot Mij. left Batavia (Tandjong Priok)
on February 27, trying to break out through Sunda Strait en route to
Australia. The ship was under command of Captain A.J. Moerman, who had
received orders to scuttle the ship when it was in danger of being
captured. In the afternoon of March 1, the tanker was forced to stop
after a Japanese destroyer fired a few rounds, after which the captain
immediately ordered to prepare for scuttling. The sea cocks were opened
and large amounts of water began to enter the engine room and tanks.
The crew then abandoned ship and went into the 2 lifeboats, which were
then ordered to come alongside the destroyer. The captain and first
engineer were ordered aboard and before they were questioned, they were
sprayed with a disinfectant vapour! They returned soon after, telling the
others they were to be brought back to the tanker to prevent its loss.
The whaleboats were taken under tow by the destroyer. The captain and
first engineer soon returned from the stricken tanker, but they had
been unable to close all the vents. The destroyer then signalled that the
lifeboats could row away, but soon after, fire was opened on them by a
machine-gun and Tommy guns. The boat with the captain and first engineer
was driven back to the destroyer, where a Japanese sailor jumped aboard
and started killing its passengers. Many of the crew had jumped
over-board, and one of them, the 3rd Engineer L. Meyer dove under and
swam away. When he returned to the surface, he was immediately fired
upon. Meyer later saw the destroyer sail away, but no whaleboats or
other survivors. As the tanker was still afloat, he decided to returned
to the ship and find some clothes (he was completely naked). He found
an undamaged boat and entered it, drifting away from the tanker. Then,
in the night of March 3 and 4, he was picked up by another destroyer.
He told the captain that he had remained aboard after the tanker was
abandoned, and that he had been ill in bed. He heard water pouring in,
and then also abandoned ship. His story was believed, and he was
brought to Makassar on March 7, where he remained until October 15. He
was then brought to Japan, to POW Camp Fukuoka No. 2. He was liberated
on September 12, 1945, and he could prepare a statement about the loss
of Augustina some three weeks later, in Manila, Philippines. A
crew of 9 officers and 30 Chinese had been killed in this disaster, but
two other Chinese apparently made it to shore. The name of the
destroyer is unknown, and the same goes for the captain's name. See also Dutch tanker Augustina in 1942 at the forum.
Note Please take notice
that his overview is probably by far not complete. This is about all
that we could find at this moment about the massacres in the Dutch East
Indies 1941-1942. Please let me know at the
message board if you know of any massacres, which happened during this campaign and are not named on this list.
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Copyright © Klemen. L. 1999-2000 Forgotten Campaign: The Dutch East Indies Campaign 1941-1942  |
