The Sandakan Death Marches were a series of forced marches in Borneo from Sandakan to Ranau which resulted in the deaths of 2,434 Allied prisoners of war held captive by the Empire of Japan during the Pacific campaign of World War II at the Sandakan POW Camp, North Borneo. By the end of the war, of all the prisoners who had been incarcerated at Sandakan and Ranau, only six Australians survived, all of whom had escaped. It is widely considered to be the single worst atrocity suffered by Australian servicemen during the Second World War.
Sandakan POW camp on 24 October 1945, a few months after the camp was destroyed by the retreating Japanese troops. In No. 1 compound (pictured), graves containing the bodies of 300 Australian and British prisoners were later discovered. It is believed they were the men left at the camp after the second series of marches. Each grave contained several bodies, in some cases as many as 10.
Sergeant Hosotani Naoji (left, seated) of the Kenpeitai (Japanese military police) at Sandakan is interrogated by Squadron Leader F. G. Birchall (second right) of the Missing Servicemen Section and Sergeant Mamo (right) of the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section on 26 October 1945. Naoji confessed to shooting two Australian POWs and five Chinese civilians. (Photographer: Frank Burke.)
Nelson Short, William H. Sticpewich and Keith Botterill; three of the six Australians believed to be the sole remaining survivors of 2,700 POW of the death marches.
The memorial park in Sandakan stands today on the former site of the POW Camp.
A death march is a forced march of prisoners of war or other captives or deportees in which individuals are left to die along the way. It is distinguished from simple prisoner transport via foot march. Article 19 of the Geneva Convention requires that prisoners must be moved away from a danger zone such as an advancing front line, to a place that may be considered more secure. It is not required to evacuate prisoners who are too unwell or injured to move. In times of war, such evacuations can be difficult to carry out.
Armenians being led away by armed guards from Harpoot, where the educated and the influential of the city were selected to be massacred at the nearest suitable site, May 1915.
Arab-Swahili slave traders and their captives on the Ruvuma River
American and Filipino POWs during the Bataan Death March.
A group of Croatians during the Bleiburg repatriations.
