The Railway Diary of Sgt A.J.E. Burkitt. 2/2 Pioneer Battalion

Author - Ken Wright

October/November. Batavia Java

One hundred men left the camp on the 3rd October for an unknown destination. They were taken by truck to the wharf about 3 o’clock in the morning. Our turn came on the 8 th; reveille was at 1 am, parade at 2 and then just wait around until 5-30. We marched to the station and were taken to the wharf where we were lined up in front of a terrible rusty old tramp steamer of about 5000 tons. It was called; King Kong Maru [Kenkon Maru] Officers and Sergeants were put in the forward hold, 120 of us. We didn’t have enough room to stretch out. Half of us sat up while the other half slept. We left Batavia about 2 o’clock in that afternoon and after 4 or 5 days of terrible conditions, we arrived in Singapore.

The food on the trip was very crook, rice and a little soup made out of bad meat. All we got to drink was a quarter of a pint of tea each meal. There was no water for washing and we were only allowed on deck for a bit of fresh air for about an hour each evening. Much to our surprise, we were taken to a beautiful big barracks at Changi. Plenty of water and showers actually in the buildings. There were thousands of other prisoners there both British and Australian. The whole camp was being run by British officers. They didn’t seem to realise that they were even prisoners. Everyone was living wonderfully well. A Red Cross boat had been in and there was plenty of bully beef, milk even dried fruit etc.

They issued us with quite a lot of food and a small quantity of clothing. They still had stores full of clothing. The whole camp seemed to cover 5 miles. It was divided into 4 areas, Australian, British hospital and a mixed transit camp [the area we were in.] Each area was wired off and was guarded by renegade Indian troops who had signed up with the Japs. We were allowed to go from one area to another if we went in a party with an officer who had to carry a Jap flag with writing on it. A few of us went over to the Australian camp. They still had their complete records and were keeping them up to date. It seemed terrible to us not destroying any records or gear.

All the boys who I checked up on were still quite ok. I intended to look them up the following day but on arriving back at the barracks, we were notified that we would be off the next morning. They gave us letter cards to fill in hoping to get them home through the Red Cross [a very small chance we thought] A few of our chaps were taken to hospital with dysentery. Most of us were suffering either dysentery or diarrhoea but the Japs would only leave the very worse cases. We were piled into trucks the next morning, the 14, th and taken back to the wharves where we were again loaded onto an old tramp steamer, [a bit bigger this time] the Maebashi Maru of about 7000 tons.

We were jammed into the holds that tight that we could hardly move while sitting down. The Japs packing us in were armed with bamboo sticks which they used to belt us up tight. I was on the first deck which was about 8 foot high and had been divided in half by a wooden shelf. I was on the top and was therefore only 4 feet below the scorching hot steel deck. They gave us mats to lay on which were about 3 foot by 6 foot. Six of us had to lay on two of them. We moved out from the wharf about midday and much to our disgust, anchored in the harbour for two days. The heat was something terrible. We all lived in just a pair of shorts which were continually soaked in perspiration. The mats were soon soaked and stank like mad after a couple of days. The food was even worse than the other ship and for a few days, we only got one third of a pint of tea a day. We nearly went mad with thirst.

A Jap officer took pity on us and decided to give us an issue of soap. It worked out to at about half a square inch per man but as we only got on mug of water for the 8 days we were onboard, the amount of soap was quite sufficient. Luckily, we had a very calm trip and thanks to the hard work of our medical staff, we only had one death although a couple of others died soon after we landed. Practically everyone was sick. If the trip had lasted much longer, not many of us would have seen it out.

We arrived at Rangoon on the 22nd and spent one of the worst nights of the trip; it was much too hot to sleep and we just about got eaten alive with mosquitoes. Some evenings, we were allowed on deck for a while and when it was time to go below again, it was hard luck for the last 50 or 60 as they would be just belted down the ladders with rifle butts. The guards would stand at the top of the steps and thump us on the head and shoulders with the rifle butt trying to make us get down faster. On the morning of the 23 rd we all packed up and much to our disgust, were taken to another ship. The Yamagata Maru which was much smaller than the first one. We were packed right down the bottom of the hold which had been used for coal and were in a terrible filthy condition in no time.

There was no kitchen on this boat so they gave us a small bag of hard biscuits to last us the trip. We also got a little tea. We left Rangoon that evening for the short trip across the Gulf of Martaban then into the Selween River and arrived at Moulmein [ East Burma] the following afternoon. Nothing much happened during the trip, there was only enough room for about half of us to sleep at a time and we weren’t allowed on deck at all. We eventually got to Moulmein Jail about 2 am on the 25 th .There were no cooking arrangements or sanitary facilities and only one small well. The chap in charge of the place gave us a couple of drums which we cleaned and used for cooking. We got a feed of rice about lunch time and another one about 8pm. I also managed to get a much needed wash. We were there only two days and were split into 2 groups, ours under Lt-Colonel Williams left on the morning of the 27th. [Williams Force was made up of approximately 884 men, mostly from the 2/2 Pioneer Battalion]We had to march to the station almost 3 miles through town.

The Burmese were very good to us. They gave us heaps of cigars and fruit. The train left soon after we got there and arrived at Thanbyuzayat about 4 o’clock that afternoon. The camp we were taken to was the base hospital for all the POW’s working on the Burma side of the railway. On the 28 th, we had a parade at which the Jap Lt-Colonel Nagatomo gave his policy speech. He told us amongst other things that we were only rabble, the remnants of a broken army, and that we should weep tears of joy for being allowed by the great Emperor to work on this wonderful railway. We were then split up into groups of 50 with an officer in charge.These groups were known in Japanese army terminology as ‘Kumi’. One hundred men became a ‘Han’ and the officers in charge were ‘Kumicho’ and ‘Hancho’ respectively. All the administration staff, cooks and other camp works were given armbands, different colours for different jobs. On the 29 th we were packed into trucks and taken out to a jungle camp known as the ‘35 kilo’ camp at Tanyin. For the men working on the Burma side of the railway, the camps were known by the distance from the base hospital camp in Thanbyuzayat rather than use the name of a nearby village.

All the other camps were occupied either by prisoners [Australian, British or Dutch] or natives. We were lucky our camp was a new one and therefore quite clean. There was a good creek running through the camp and a good well. The huts were made from bamboo and were just a roof with a shelf about 3 feet off the ground covering about three quarters of the width. Fortunately for the men, the Tanyin Camp Commander Lieutenant Yamada was regarded as the most lenient of the camp commanders and respected the forthright Australian attitude and acceded to many of the POW’s requests where possible within his limited power. On the 30 th, we started work. The following month the men would be known as No 1 Mobile Force.Our kumi was on clearing but most of the others were digging 1-2 metres and building embankments. We didn’t keep our clearing job long. We used to hide in the jungle too much so they put us on digging and from that; we went on to bridge building. We used to drive piles by pulling up a 500 kilogram weight and letting it go.

December.

All the scaffolding was made of trees we cut down on the job and the piles were cut and carted by the natives out of the jungle. We kept that job right up until we had finished all the bridge up to the 41 kilo mark. We had to go on digging and by this time, we were walking back to the 28 kilo point. The digging had gone up to 1.7 metres but was dropped back to 1.5 because we had to walk 14 kilos [8 and ¾ miles] carrying our tools each day. We didn’t often do our1.5, we used to do about .8 and shift the marker pegs to make up the difference. Water got very scarce about the end of Dec. Our creek dried up and we had to dig another well. Christmas brought nothing new. We had the usual rice and stew with a bit of pork in the evening meal stew. We had three holidays a month. On the 5 th, 15th and 25 th so we had Christmas day off.

January / February1943

The Japs also gave us a holiday on the 1 st Jan as it is a big celebration day for them. New Years day is a time Japanese families go to shrines and pray for good health and prosperity for the coming year. We all had to sign another statement swearing obedience to the Japanese and also stating that we would not escape but as it was signed under threat, it meant nothing. Our rations were terribly short the whole time we were there. We never at anytime even got the full scale which they set out for us. Our canteen managed to get quite a lot of beans and peas which they put into the kitchen. A force of about 700 joined us about the end of January. Lieutenant Colonel Anderson was in charge of them. They had been building an aerodrome at a place on the coast called Tavoy. On the 28 th February, I had to go to Thanbyuzayat for a Jap court martial. One of our chaps had been caught at a village with a bag of clothes that he was trying to sell.

March.

The Japs made out he was trying to escape. The trial came off at 11am on the 1 st March. What an ordeal! It lasted until 5pm. I thought I was to be a witness but it turned out that I was being charged with neglect of duty. I should have had more control over the men that were in camp. I was orderly Sergeant but the orderly officer was also charged. We were told by Nagatomo that we were definitely to blame. Near the end of the trial, another Jap officer, Lieut Naito got up and gave what we thought was the verdict but which only turned out to be the prosecution. He sentenced one of the witnesses to death and fined the orderly officer 100 days pay and me 50 days pay. Brigadier Varley got up and wanted to know why the witness had been sentenced to death while the prisoner had not been awarded any punishment at all. They then found out that they had made a mistake and sentenced the wrong man to death. They corrected that and we were then given half hours break while Nagatomo came to his decision. The chap concerned was eventually sentenced to 2 months imprisonment and two months hard labour. The orderly officer was fined 20 days pay and I was fined 10 days pay. What a relief when it was all over. I certainly never want to go through it again.

Nagatomo spoke French while Naito spoke very broken English mixed with a bit of Japanese. The poor interpreter had a full job. That night, we had a bit of excitement. About 2am, a large plane arrived and began circling low over the camp. We all rushed out to have a look at it but it was too dark. They dropped a flare each side of the camp and after hanging around for just on an hour, they dropped 6 bombs about half a mile away. I heard later they fell just near a petrol dump. The Japs blew their air raid siren after the bombs had landed and came rushing around the camp chasing us back into the huts. These had been improved quite a lot. The hospital had been rebuilt and was very good compared with the old place. It was only bamboo huts but they were made much better with windows etc. The only dull point about the place is the rate at which the cemetery is growing. Quite a few chaps had been shot for trying to escape.

We returned to the jungle camp the following day and to work the day after. Each month we received quite a lot of orders from Nagatomo then, some were very amusing such as; ‘Prisoners are not to laugh at Japanese guards during air raids’ and, ‘Prisoners must work cheerfully.’ The 25 th March again. How different the day would be at home. On the 28 th our part of the track was just about ready for the line. We finished off our job and were then taken to another embankment which they said had to be completed that night. Our tea arrived at about 7oclock and as it was a pitch black night, the Japs had large fires lit all round the job but we still managed to keep in the shadow and not do much work. We all had made up our minds that we weren’t going to finish it and about 10 o’clock the officer in charge gave up in disgust. I think he realised he couldn’t do much about it.

Quite a lot of the boys pitched their picks and shovels into the fires or the jungle. The Japs kicked up a devil of a row when they found out how many tools were missing. They were going to shoot us and do all sorts of things but nothing came of it. We got to bed about midnight and had to be up and ready to do more to the 26 kilo camp by 3am. We had to walk carrying all our own gear. It was a very hard march and most of us didn’t stagger in until around 10 o’clock. This camp was filthy and lousy but as we didn’t have to start work until the 2nd of April, we were able to clean the place up. We waited until the Yanks and British got up to our camp with the rail laying before we took over from them. Gosh! What a surprise it was to see the rate the tracks were laid. We had to do one and a half to two kilos a day. We thought the 10 o’clock stunt was working late but when we work from 3-30 in the morning until 10 the following morning and were pushed out again at 2pm to work until 7 the next morning. Four hours off in 48. We decided that the track laying wasn’t so good after all. Our kumi got quite a good job when everything got settled.

April.

We had to pack up the sleepers at each side of the bridge. We couldn’t work after dark but we weren’t allowed to go back to camp so we used to light a decent sized fire and try and keep warm enough to sleep. But the wet season was just starting and it rained nearly every night. We were usually very wet, cold and tired. Easter brought nothing fresh. We just continued to work all night on Good Friday, a couple of hours off on Saturday then all night again. We packed up and moved by train to the 45 kilo camp on Sunday. Most of us were asleep on our feet. All the talk amongst the ‘boys’ was the nice holiday they would have been having if they were home. We all have given up living the present, we just live in memory of the past or in anticipation of the future. Our new camp was on a nice large river, plenty of swimming and fishing for anyone who had the time to do it. The huts were fairly filthy, bugs by the millions. I had to sleep outside on the wet ground for the first night. One of the boys counted 182 bugs in one mornings catch in his bedding. I made my myself a hammock out of a couple of rice bags and slung it up in the rafters. It was much better. There were also plenty of lycee but they didn’t get much of a look in with the boys. Our rations hadn’t improved at all. We expected them to when they started coming by train but no such luck. It was raining basically every day by this time and we were all getting used to wearing wet clothes and socks. We had no money while in camp to buy anything.

May.

On the 9 th May, we moved again this time to the 60 kilo camp. The place was very filthy but fortunately not so many bugs. It had been occupied natives and there evidently plenty of disease about. There were dozens of graves all round the camp and there was one hut still occupied by sick natives. The Japs had just left them to die. The railway line had got very rough. There was hardly any earthwork. The jungle had just been cleared and we were laying the track on rough ground. They seemed to be in a terrible hurry to get it through. We only did 2 days work on the track and we were all put on to ballasting. . This involved hitting the heavy metal rock under the base of the sleepers by using a heavy hammer headed pick. A missed stroke allowing the hammer to strike the sleeper could cause a very painful shoulder injury.It was pretty hard work particularly as we were very rarely out on the job for less than 12 hours a day. One week we worked out the average, it was 14 hours a day. Not bad working hours. May 13 th was just another working day. Everybody was getting very run down about the end of May. The Japs were pressing for more workers and were sending sick men out on the job. The gaunt faces, skin and bone bodies personifying film-covered skeletons. Vermin infested the bamboo slats the men had to lie on. Dysentery was rampant, little rest, little food and long hard work. The men struggled on.

Cholera broke out in the camp. It started with 2 deaths the first day and 3 the second. This woke the Japs up a bit. They were just killing us. The doctors wanted at least 2 weeks rest for the whole camp but that was too much to expect. They gave us one day. We got inoculations and the doctors seemed to get it under control.

June.

All the beginning of June, there was only about quarter of the camp working, the rest were all sick but what could they expect keeping the workers out in the dark, in the wet every day. We were all weighed on the 3 rd June. I was 9 stone 7. On the 7 th June, half our camp [Williams Force] moved back to the 40 kilo camp to fix up some washaways. I got fever [malaria] and was left behind in hospital. There were a few more deaths from cholera and some from fever [malaria] Thanbyuzayat again bombed by 6 large 4 engined bombers about 3 pm on the 12 th. They dropped quite a lot of bombs on the road and railway close to the camp. Twelve of our chaps were killed. Another bombing on the 16, th this time by 3 planes. The Japs had established AA posts all round the camp so the actual camp came in for a bit of strafing and bombing. Fifteen of the prisoners were killed. We were weighed again on the 18 th. I was down to 9.5. My fever had pretty well cleared up by the 16 th but the quinine had left me pretty weak. Another attack of malaria on the 25 th. Quinine was getting very scarce and I had a very rough spin for about 5 days.

July.

It started to clear up on the 1 st but I was very weak. Williams Force returned on the 2 nd, most of them were sick and worn out. They had about 6 deaths while they were away and a large number of my sick chaps were left behind. I was discharged from hospital on the 10 th but was still feeling pretty weak. Another move on the 13 th to the 70 kilo camp. We had to walk about 2 miles with all our gear. I only just made it. It took me about 2 hours. The camp was very filthy and we were all crowded into one hut 16 men to a bay which was 12feet by 12 feet. I slung my hammock up in the roof beams, some of the boys had to go on the ground underneath the platform. Most of the very sick were sent to base. One chap died while being carried to the railway line in the rain. Four others died at the 40 kilo camp; one of them was Pop Kinnear. All the workers were on rail laying again which meant at least 14 hours a day out in the rain and cold. I was on camp duties for a couple of days and then out to work on the 19 th. I couldn’t take it. I was all in by 11-30 but wasn’t allowed to knock off work. I was belted with an orger for not keeping up with the rest of the boys. I had the 20 th off so had plenty of time to think about home. Out to work again on the 21 st but I had to toss it in at lunch time. I didn’t have to work but had to stay out of the rain until everyone returned to camp about 10-30 pm. I got no duties the next day and cracked it for malaria again on the 23 rd. The Japs are pressing hard for more workers all the time. There were only 150 working out of about 900. Embankments and bridges are being washed away every few days and some of the cuttings were falling in as fast as they could be dug out. It was nothing for the workers to be kept out all night around about that time. We shifted to the 80 kilo camp on the 30 th and had a mile walk. I managed it pretty well that time. It was a filthy camp. Our hut had been used as a cow shed. I was out working again on the 31 st, a 15 hour working day is too long for me. We had to drive spikes after dark with bits of bamboo soaked in paraffin as torches. We got an evening meal at 11-30 pm. I was terribly tired but otherwise ok.

August.

The doctor gave me the 1st of August off and I felt pretty good but I didn’t last long. I cracked up very early the next day and was allowed to come in after lunch. Continuous rains meant we couldn’t wear boots either inside the hut or out as the mud is well over our ankles. The passage way down the centre of the hut is worse than outside because the mud stinks. There is a hospital in camp filled with about 200 chaps from the camp further up the line. They were in a terrible mess, getting hardly any food only rice and salt. The salt was being used to try and cure ulcers as they had no medical stores. They had just been abandoned by the Japs and left to die. We heard later that only 50 of them got out of it. One chap had his leg amputated at the knee by our doctor just because he couldn’t get treatment for an ulcer. He died later. Friday the 13th was a black day for the camp. We had 6 deaths. I was out working; we went out on the 12 th and didn’t get back until the evening of the 13 th. Thirty six hours straight. More than a weeks work at home. I was in charge of a party so didn’t do any work, that was the only reason I lasted out. Our food was terrible. Just rice and weevilly beans plus what some of the sick chaps can collect from the jungle in the way of bamboo shoots and peanut plant. The Japs took a blood test at 60 kilo camp for malaria. The results came through about the 15 th showing 80% positive. On the 16 th, I took on the job of boiling water before each meal for the boys to sterilize their mess gear. I didn’t feel much like it at the time but it was an inside job and I didn’t want to knock it back although it was unpaid. About 100 sick chaps were sent back to the base. Colin Eva was one of them as he had ‘berri-berri.’ The rations improved a little on the 20 th. We got a bit of fish, maize meal and oil. We were told that Lt-Colonel Nagatomo was all talk about the Geneva Convention so we expected things to improve quite a lot. A Jap doctor inspected us on the 21 st and we believe he reported that there were 600 out of the 800 very sick men. Weighed again. I had gone up a few pounds, 9.8. Lost my job on the 22 nd as the other chap came back on to it. As I was feeling pretty crook with fever and diarrhoea, I was not very pleased about having to go out to work. He didn’t last long. I got it back on the 25 th and looked like sticking to it for a while. The Japs put on a surprise search on the 29 th and took all table knives, razors etc. They gave them back the next day. The guard on the camp was doubled and there appeared something doing. We were all in high spirits. I was starting to feel quite fit again, no fever or diarrhoea and I was eating anything I could get my hands on. Workers were going out before daylight, toiled and not retuning until well after dark.

September.

We shifted onto the 95 kilo camp on the 4 th September. Another very filthy camp. Rations had dropped off again. We were getting no meat at all and fish stews a couple of times a day are pretty hard to force down particularly the sun dried fish that you can smell miles away. I had a pretty busy time for the first couple of days fixing up the steriliser. The rain had eased off a bit which made things quite a lot easier although it meant I had to cart the water from the river which was quite a distance away. More deaths. The total for our own force was then up to 78, nearly 10 %. . Another move on the 12 th to the 108 camp. A nightmare of a shift. We had to walk in the pitch dark along a road which was in places up to our knees in mud and slush and was strewn with large rocks. It was the worst torture they could inflict on us since the boat trip from Java. It was not a bad camp, quite clean for a change and already occupied by 1,400 Dutch. We were all in one hut, very crowded but my hammock was still doing good service. I got up in the air out of the way. We were off again on the 17 th to the 116 camp over the border into Thailand this time. What a shift. They carried all the camp equipment from 2 kilo and we were then going to transport it by road to the camp but there were no trucks. Three days later, we still had a guard on quite a lot of the kitchen gear and some of the workers hadn’t got any bedding. It poured with rain the whole time. The workers weren’t given any time off for shifts, their gear had to be packed and taken by the sick. It is a waste of time my trying to describe that camp too much. I just couldn’t do it. It was hell, absolutely hell. We had half a hut, a double decker place and had to stack 18 men to a bay which was about 10 foot by 16 foot. The rest of the place was occupied by boongs so the whole place was in a frightful condition. We thought we had been in the worst possible camp but this one beats the lot easy. We had just finished carrying all the gear up to the camp when we got another move on the 21 st. This time to the 122 kilo camp. We had to walk with all our personal gear; mine was still too heavy mainly because my blanket and hammock were still wet. Most of our bedding is continually wet these days. I had thrown away everything but absolute necessities so was unable to lighten it any more. The camp was filthy as usual but had been built on the banks of a river so it was pretty well drained and was therefore not as muddy as usual. I had a very hard couple of days with wet wood and trying to build a roof over the sterilizer. As soon as I was able to build a bit of a roof, the Japs would grab it for something. I gave up in the finish. We are getting all sorts of news and rumours about landing etc and we hoped they were right. On the 28 th, we moved to 132 kilo camp. They evidently couldn’t a filthier place to put us so they gave us an unfinished camp.

October.

There was no roofing on any of the huts [except the Japs one.] The atap for the roof only arrived in small quantities and it was not until the 3 rd of October that all the men had dry places to sleep. It rained practically continuously. We were very crowded but as we built 3 decker bunks in most of the sections, we were soon fairly comfortable. I got a couple of small ulcers on my foot and leg and decided to lay up for a couple of days as my foot was swelling up badly. I arranged for one of the boys to carry on my job and saw the doctor on the 12 th. I got no duties ok but on the 13 th, the Japs had a blitz on the sick and said I was able to go out and work so I had to go on the line. The next day, my foot gave me absolute hell but other than that, I felt very well. I had to drive spikes all day. We went out at 7 am and got back at midnight for our evening meal. I rested the next day and took my job back on the 16 th just in case they checked up again. Rations were terribly poor, no meat or fish. We were just living on dried peas, beans, seaweed and green turnip tops. The railway line was joined up on the 18th and we were all very thankful it was over. We were getting lists every few days of deaths at the base hospital. The total must be teriffic. Weighed again on the 22 nd. [9.6] and I was heavy compared with most of the boys. The average was well under 10 stone. I had to lay up on the 26 th as it getting impossible to carry on. The food was still terrible, rice, beans and sweet potato. It was good pig fodder and we ad to carry it from Niki which was about 2 miles from our camp.

November.

They just dumped us when the main work was finished. We had completed the line and been in Burma 12 months and there were still no signs of our release. We were all getting very tired of no news or signs of anything happening. We contented ourselves with the fact that it must end sometime if we could only keep alive. We held some sweeps on Cup Day. It caused quite a diversion and cheered the boys up a lot. Malaria was very bad at that camp and quite a few of the boys went mad. There were deaths every day. We got an issue of shorts and boots, the boots were all size 8. About one third of the camp could wear them, the rest weren’t allowed to cut or alter them so they just had to carry them around. They were Indian army boots and were very narrow across the instep. The shorts were Dutch. We got our first meat for quite a few months on the 13 th. Five calves were brought in and we were allowed to kill one every second day. It was a fact that the British officers in charge of mixed camps on the Death Railway have repeatedly said; the greatest asset in any camp on the railway was to have an Australian farmer in camp. What they could do with a piece of wire or any other simple item wasunbelievable. The Japs took half so actually we got quarter of a calf per day for 600 men. But still, it was better than nothing. My ulcers were still bad, a couple more arrived and there was no treatment. Medical stores were very low. On the 21 st, the whole of the prison camps had to hold church services at their respective cemeteries. A speech by Colonel Nagatomo to the dead by the Jap Sgt in charge of our camp. Another speech by Nagatomo on the 22 nd this time to celebrate the 1 st anniversary of the forming of the NO 3 Thai War Prisoners Branch. [Lieutenant-Colonel YoshitadaNagatomo was executed after the war as a war criminal.] Lt-Colonel Williams had to make a reply speech and did it very well without asking for serious trouble. The total P.O.W in No 3 Branch were 8000 odd of which 700 had died while working on the line up to that date. The Japs sent us extra food to celebrate. We got 4 pigs, a bag of flour, a bag of peas together with a small quantity of cigars and native sugar. But the catch was we had to pay for it all and pay very dearly too. The pork made me crook in the tummy. I don’t know how we are going to get on when we get back to civilized food.

December.

December arrived with nothing new. Work parties were going out each day but they were very small. One ulcer had healed up and the others were not too bad. No fever for sometime. I had to take my steriliser job back. It was unfortunate because the ulcers would never let you keep walking around with them. We were all classified for the moment out of the jungle. I was light sick; the movement seemed to be to a sort of a convalescent place near Bangkok. The work was to be growing vegetables. We all hoped this was correct because it probably meant better food. We used to go crook about rice but then we were going crook about the shortage of it. On the 10 th, we got news that there was mail at Base for us and we had to try and settle down to patiently wait for it. There were a couple of Yanks in our camp. No body knew why or for how long they were staying. They were just dumped there on the 16 th. The guards belted them up pretty badly for no apparent reason at all so the interpreter asked why and was told it was because the Americans had been bombing Singapore. We had been at the Japs for a long time to get us some milk, sugar, fish etc from Niki for the canteen as we hadn’t had anything for a couple of months so they brought us about 200 tins of milk and charged us 8 Rupees a tin [10 shillings] They then immediately started selling the same milk to the boys at 5 Rupee so they must have bought it for about 4 or less. This sort of thing was going on all the time. Cigars which we knew they were buying for 4 cents, they were selling to us at 15. Eggs they charged 75 cents [3 days pay for one egg]. We saw a copy of a letter which Brigadier Varley wrote to the Jap Commander of Prisons about the terrible treatment we were receiving in that camp. It was very straight to the point. The death rate was still about 1 a day but the food improved a bit. On the 20 th, we actually got a bit of meat. Out of just 500 men in the camp, the medical people have a job to rake up 40 fit men for work each

day. The 23 rd was a great day, we got our mail. I got 4 letters, 3 from Phyll [Phyllis] and the other from Miss Baker. They were over 18 months old but gosh it was wonderful to get news from home. We couldn’t have got a better Christmas present. Also we got a bit of canteen goods so it was a real gala day. Christmas Day was not much out of the ordinary. We had rice pap for breakfast, nasi goring for lunch and rice and salad for tea. All the sick moved on the 26 th to a camp near the town of Niki to await transport to the concentration camp near Bangkok.

We were fairly cramped in our quarters but as we didn’t expect to stay long, we didn’t mind. There were a lot more Dutch with us and 100’s of Indian and Chinese in camps around us. We received an issue of soap and 3 pkts of cigarettes from the Red Cross and there was some tinned food which was sent to the hospital.

January/February, 1944.

I had to give up my job again on the 4 th Jan. The ulcers had got the better of me and I got another attack of malaria. There were no medical supplies. They were making ointment for ulcers out of carbolic soap they got from the Red Cross. Len Whitfield died on the 5 th of malaria; he was the second of my old friends to go. We had all got scabies pretty badly and with stinking ulcers, malaria, bugs and lice, I was not very happy. The only bright spot being the issue of a blanket so we are at least warm of a night. I rarely get to sleep before 3 o’clock; the scabies nearly drove me mad with the itching. We went to Khanchanaburi on the 12 th-13 th Jan. It was a hell of a trip for me. The ulcers were very bad and I could hardly sit down for the scabies. I had no dressing on my leg for 4 days and it just about made everyone in the truck sick with the smell. For the first time I was not able to carry my own gear. It had to be carried for me to and from the train. I could just walk with a stick and as the Australian camp was 3 kilos from the railway siding, I was left with quite a lot of others at the Dutch camp. Most of our heavy sick were already there. The train journey caused about 8 deaths. Two chaps died on the train and had to be taken on in the trucks with us. I was admitted to hospital on the 15 th and my ulcers started to improve immediately. I was able to discard the walking stick on the 21 st. We were also allowed to send our 3 rd letter card. The food was quite good, plenty of green vegetables and quite a lot of eggs and meat. We couldn’t believe it when we first got issued with a boiled egg. There was also a very good canteen. Eggs and bananas were very cheap. We had at last come to a place that it was all the Japs said it would be. There had been a terrible number of deaths amongst P.O.Ws on the Thailand side of the line. About 15,000 out of 40,000. I had a rather serious relapse with the ulcers about that time. More broke out around the old ones and I had a group of 8 just above the ankle. A Dutch doctor had just taken over our hospital and he set to work on me with a little spoon and scraped them out. It was a terrible ordeal but it saved my leg so was well worth it. The Swiss Consul came good with much needed medical supplies and a few Red Cross parcels arrived for Yanks who were in our camp. It was all a good sign. The ulcers had healed up and I managed to get rid of most of the scabies so I was discharged from hospital on the 23 rd Feb. A Jap doctor held a medical inspection to pick out fit men for a Japan party that day so I went back to hospital until it was all over. I didn’t want to see Japan but I thought then that it would probably come sooner or later.

March.

I thought I had put on quite a lot of weight but when we were weighed on the 1 st Mar, I was only up to 9.13. Still, it wasn’t bad compared with a lot of others. I only had a few days at work, carting bamboo etc for new huts when one of the ulcers broke out again so I had to lay up for a while. On the 22 nd, the party picked by the Japs left for Japan via Singapore. The 25 th March again, the third and I hoped the last of Phyll’s birthdays I had missed. The last of our boys arrived out of the jungle about this time, all in very poor condition.

April.

I got quite a good job in early April. It was only half pay but it was very easy. I had to buy from the canteen for the hospital and patients. As my ulcer was not better, I thought that job would be easy enough to give it a chance. I was also having a lot of trouble with nose bleeding [my old trouble] the doctor tried to fix it by burning inside the nostril with carbolic acid. It appeared to be quite successful. Easter came and went and we didn’t seem to be any nearer the end. Most of us were pretty optimistic. We worked on the idea that our release, if it hadn’t arrived by Christmas would come by Easter and if not then, by the middle of the year and then on to Christmas again. We have to be right eventually. Another Jap inspection to pick out a work party. Rumour had it that they were to go back to the jungle so I was flat out dodging it which I eventually succeeded in doing. My leg got pretty bad again and I had to toss in the job as complete rest seemed to be the only cure. We had a small Anzac service on the 25 th. The Lt-Colonel gave quite a good speech. A party were taken back to the jungle on the 27 th and all the very sick left for a hospital camp near Bangkok on the 28 th. Most of my old cobbers have gone to other camps. Kev Nolan was the last and he went to the hospital camp. Colin Eva, I believe, had gone to Japan. My leg was doing quite well but it was terribly boring laying around day after day with nothing to do. I was weighed again at the end of April Still 9.13.

May.

The food had gone off a lot again but as we were buying quite a lot of peas etc with the profits from the canteen, we were not doing too badly. Another surprise search on the 10 th. They even searched our person and as they were taking all paper with any writing on it, I expected this diary and all other papers to be taken but they didn’t even look at them. Quite a lot of letters arrived on the 12 th. It would have been nice to have received a letter for my birthday but unfortunately I missed out. We also got a bit of stuff from the Red Cross. Three pkts of cigarettes and some soap also a small quantity of food. The 13 th was very quiet. I had to content myself with reading my letters again. Weighed again on the 18 th. 10.5. I was very pleased. My leg was just about better and I parted company with a 15 inch tape worm which should improve my health quite a bit. One of the prisoners was working at Jap HQ on mail sorting and he smuggled in a letter for me on the 21 st. It was from Phyll written Dec 42 and was a longer letter with a lot of interesting news. Quite a lot of American Red Cross parcels came in on the 23 rd. We get a parcel to 5 men. All the food was put into the kitchen so we lived pretty well for a while. I started work again on the 24. th It was much better having something to do. Another letter on the 29 th from Aunty Marion dated June 43 but it had no news of Phyllis or mum or dad. I was a bit disappointed. I was feeling very fit, the ulcers had cleared up and I had hardly any fever since I came out of the jungle.

June

We had all gone chess crazy. It was a contract bridge for a while but it didn’t take much to change it those days. Another Jap inspection for workers on the 13 th. These inspections were just the Jap doctor sitting at a table which we walked up to table, stripped and if we looked a bit fat, and had nothing to show, we were picked. I used the excuse that I couldn’t wear boots as the ulcers had just healed and it worked much to everybody’s surprise. A dentist came into our camp on the 19 th so I had a tooth filled. He hadn’t a drill so he just scraped out the hole and filled it up. It was only a temporary filling but should last a while.

July

We received a good lot of medical supplies on the 2 nd July. All Red Cross stuff so we should not have any more deaths if they let the Red Cross supply us in the future. The 20 th again, 4 years. Gosh, how time flies. The food was still pretty crook but as the mail was starting to come in pretty regularly, it was not a bad compensation.

August.

August and still everything was going on in the same monstrous fashion. My hands had broken out in scabies or some such skin disease and I look like being off work for quite a while. The fence between our camp and the Tommies next door was pulled down and were made into a workers camp. The English Colonel being in charge of the combined camps. The dentist in the English camp had a drill so I had a permanent filling put in my tooth on the 24 th. I got picked for a Japan party on the 28 th. We all hoped they couldn’t get us there but we were afraid that they were going to try. I received 2 letters, both from Phyll dated Oct and Dec 43. Although they were only 16 word ones, they were wonderfully welcome.

September/October.

We left Kanchaniburi on the 12 th Sept for Japan? via Singapore or Syonan as the Japs had renamed it. Thirty three of us to a truck for a start but is later broken down to 24. We arrived at Singapore on the morning of the 17 th very tired, dirty and worn out and then had to march 2 miles to River Valley cantonment.

Note Ted Burkitt’s draft which left on the 1 st February only got as far as Saigon and never reached Japan, he survived the many dangers and horrors of POW life in Indo China, was repatriated in September 1945 to Singapore then on the Highland Chieftain to Darwin. Sergeant Burkitt was discharged from the army 7 January 1946.