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This Australia Day, let us remember

Jason Clare

by Jason Clare

26 Jan 05:50am

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Filed under: Australia Day, Bill Clinton, History, Rum Rebellion, Society

34 comments

What do you think happened on Australia Day?

If you said it’s the day the First Fleet sailed into Sydney Harbour you would be right.  But a few other things happened on this day as well.

In 1808 the Rum Rebellion occurred.  In 1950 India became a republic.  In 1998 President Clinton denied having “sexual relations with that woman”.

In 1945 it marked the beginning of the single worst atrocity in Australian military history – the Sandakan Death March.

It’s a chapter of our history that is not well known and is not often told, but most poignantly captures the spirit of today.

On Australia Day 66 years ago, as war was about to come to an end, Australian and British soldiers at the Sandakan POW camp in Borneo were told to get ready to leave.

Over the next few months the Japanese marched more than 1,000 sick and starving men to Ranau, 260 km away.  Those who couldn’t keep up were shot or bayoneted. Historian Lynette Silver tells the story of men who couldn’t keep going shaking hands with their mates, saying goodbye and sitting on the track waiting for the killing squad to arrive.

Just over 500 made it to Ranau.  By the time war had ended only 15 were left.  The rest had died from disease, starvation or at the end of a bayonet.

When the war ended the killing didn’t.  Two weeks after the end of the war the Japanese shot the remaining soldiers.  We only know what happened because six managed to escape to safety. 

This isn’t just a story of horrific brutality.  It’s a story about us, who we are and what we are capable of.

When it became clear that if they didn’t escape they would die Richie Murray and Keith Botterill stole enough rice for their escape.  When the Japanese discovered the theft they paraded everyone in the camp out and lined them up.  No one said a word.  Richie Murray quietly stepped forward.  He knew what he was doing.  Stealing rice was a capital offence.  He was taken away, tied up, bayoneted and his body thrown into a bomb crater.

Ted Skinner and Owen Campbell and three others escaped on the march to Ranau.  After a couple of days Ted got dysentery.  Owen stayed behind to look after him while the others pressed on.  One day Owen went out looking for food.  When he came back he found Ted had cut his own throat.  He had taken his own life so as not to hold his mate back.

Only six men made it back to Australia.  One was Keith Botterill.  Another was Owen Campbell.  Keith died the day before Australia Day in 1997.  He was 75.  Owen only died a few years ago.  He was aged 87.  Years given to them by men they didn’t even know before the war.

The worst of times seem to bring out the best in us. 

The events of the past few weeks are proof of that.  Our newspapers have been jam packed with stories of courage and selflessness.  Think of Jordan Rice, only 13, who told his rescuers to take his younger brother instead.  When they returned for him and his mum they were gone.  Even now, as you read this, there is an army of volunteers armed with brooms and shovels helping total strangers in Queensland.

We are good people.  Good people in an unforgiving land.  And when bad things happen we are capable of amazing things.  We become our better selves.  The story of Sandakan tells us that.

So as you enjoy today, think about what it meant for the young men of Sandakan 66 years ago. Richie, Keith, Ted, Owen and others like them.  They are the story of us. Who we were, who we are and what we are capable of.

We have a lot to be proud of, and a lot to remember.

Most commented

34 comments

Show oldest | newest first

    • Blazes says:

      08:17am | 26/01/11

      Greta article Jason - good to finally hear some patriotism from the left!

      Reply

    • TChong says:

      10:28am | 26/01/11

      “finally”, Blazes?
      Why finally ? Conservatives dont have a monopoly on patriotism, depite their angry, elitist, parochial claims.
      Not you personally Blazes , but too much of the conservative patriotism comes across as that empolyed by scoundrels- be shrill, so as to divert attention, and seek to smear opponents.

    • Adam Diver says:

      11:25am | 26/01/11

      @ chongie, I understand your point and I agree with it, but you must concede that a mojority of the press leading up to Australia day has been abot the racist, xenephobic, bogans. These people are generally painted as the right, whilst we know the media is dominated by the left.

      When we start to see much more media coverage about the positives (which we can’t because good news doesn’t sell papers) then the stereotype won’t continually be re-inforced. Sometimes you have to concede an argument because perception is reality no matter how much you don’t want it to be.

    • mick says:

      11:28am | 26/01/11

      i would of thought that “giving people a fair go” would of been more left than right Blazes…. i mean, just because there is left and right politics doesnt mean one side of the fence loves the country more. The right want to take it right, the left to the left and the people in between just keep on with the “she’ll be right mate” attitude. Im proud to say that im left, and i LOVE this country.

    • Greg says:

      12:32pm | 26/01/11

      No Mick, the left is all for getting a “free go”, not a “fair go”.

      Read the comments in response to Ged Kearney’s recent diatribe on The Punch..

    • Reg says:

      07:17pm | 26/01/11

      As reluctant as I am to get my hands dirty by coming in here, I must registrar a vote of disgust for putting this slant on a joyful day Blazes.

    • Gabrielle says:

      08:18am | 26/01/11

      Thank you - a timely reminder of the need for compassion and care, mixed with some detail of an important Australian and British war event I was not so familiar with.

      Reply

    • xavier says:

      08:27am | 26/01/11

      While the Sandakan March is certainly something to be remembered and acknowledged as part of our history, the nationalism and “a reflection of what we’re capable of” is an unnecessary and misleading claim. What these people went though and the courage they showed isn’t and Australian thing, it’s a human thing. It’s the same as the ANZAC myth. What does being Australian mean in this situation? Nothing aside from the fact that these soldiers were Australian. To suggest that the way they responded to it was uniquely Australian is baffling at best. Is the author suggesting that people of any other culture would act differently? Seems quite racist to me.

      It’s the same as with the nationalist bollocks that came from the response to the recent Queensland floods. There was nothing uniquely Australian about the way people got out and helped each other in a crisis - that happens everywhere in the world. Would you say that those who helped their fellow humans (and non humans) in the floods in Pakistan or after devastating cyclones in Cuba is them being Australian? No, they are being human. The sooner Australia gets past this infantile obsession with nationalism the better.

      Reply

    • Proud Nationalist says:

      09:09am | 26/01/11

      @ xavier. Astonishingly I find myself agreeing with parts of your post. Yes, the events retold do have similar events occurring with people of other nationalities as the victems/heroes throughout even recent history. I have read of similar sacrifice among the inmates of the concentration camps in WW2. However, to dismiss it as a human response raises the average person to a level most would never attain.

      But you miss the point. What the author is suggesting is that on this day, instead of JUST watching the cricket and having a few beers, pause to think of the sacrifices these people did make. Think of all that IS good about this country.

      Rather than dismissing nationalism, here’s a thought - Wars are fought over the idea of protecting something, be it an idealogy, territory, tribalism or nation. No matter the cause, the human race is still governed by the instinct for personal survival followed by survival of the tribe/group. Dismiss that if you wish - but you know it is true.

    • Greg says:

      09:28am | 26/01/11

      You couldn’t be more wrong Xavier.

      Compare the reaction of Australians in the Qld floods or the Victorian bushfires with the reactions of people in the Haiti earthquakes or the New Orleans hurricane.

      Australians immediately started helping eachother and rebuilding. Haitians and New Orleanians just sat there demanding that others help them. Or they looted on a large scale.

      Australia as a nation also helps others. We gave $1 billion in aid after the Asian tsunami, over and above regular payments in foreign aid totalling hundreds of millions of dollars every year.

      How much assistance did we get from foreigners when we had our natural disasters? Bugger all ! But nobody makes a fuss about it.

      The Sandakan March is another example of the differences between Australians and other races. We didn’t treat POWs like that. Not ever.

      The sooner Australia gets past this infantile obsession with self-hatred the better.

    • Phil says:

      12:37pm | 26/01/11

      Greg,

      It’s not Australians with the infantile obsession with self-hatred.  It’s the Australian media.  They figure somewhere, somehow, it will sell papers.  Mainstream Australia doesn’t believe it for a second.  Peddling hate and conflict in order to profit, is very un-Australian

    • J.K says:

      04:00pm | 26/01/11

      without nationalism your just roaming, looking for a place to call home.
      you must have had a bad begining to life, and i feel sorry for you.
      If your not happy with our aussie spirit it’s your own problem.
      Aussie Aussie Aussie hoi hoi hoi.

    • Shackster says:

      04:35am | 27/01/11

      Well said. Reminds me of a Spike Milligan quote,” Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel”.

    • James1 says:

      10:05am | 27/01/11

      Indeed Greg.  Breaker Morant just used to shoot prisoners.  Robert Graves, in his autobiography, recounts how Australian soldiers on the Western Front during WWI never returned with prisoners, and if they did, the prisoners tended to be badly beaten.  We had our own methods of abusing prisoners.

      Just know this is not self hatred either - this is just honesty about the nature of the historical record.

      Finally, as per your post below, you must be kidding if you think that no one from Haiti or New Orleans helped in the rebuilding of their cities after their disasters.  You don’t really believe that every single person helping was a white foreigner, do you?

    • TheRealDave says:

      10:34am | 27/01/11

      @Shackster, that quote always reminds me of a far better quote:

      “A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. “

      John Stuart Mills

      Great article by the author but Sandakan was only one of many atrocities committed against Australian soldiers, and civilians in WW2. Sandakan was brutal make no mistake, but what those bastards did on Ambon was even worse. In a drunken orgy of murder drunken Japanese troops dragged young Australian soldiers to be beheaded one at a time whilst being jeered and cheered at by drunken soldiers. At one stage Sailors who heard what was happening raced to the execution pits in order ‘to have a go’ at beheading our Diggers. Some of the executioners were so drunk that they missed the neck or had to hack away until cutting the head from the body. In all some 300 mostly Australian soldiers were massacred. Of the 500 odd prisoners who were also captured in that battle over 400 of them did not survive captivity.

      This barbarity was repeated wherever the Japanese invaded. Its just sad that we have a two generations of people who have never read what Japanese troops actually did and why some will never forget or forgive. Not when they got away with it on the whole. ‘Expressions of Regret’ don’t count as apologies. I have far more respect and admiration for the German nation for what they have done and the education they have provided their children.

    • Greg says:

      12:21pm | 27/01/11

      James1, there will always be individuals who are exceptions, but killing unarmed prisoners has never been a regular occurence or considered acceptable within Western culture.  That is why Breaker Morant was shot for his alleged crimes.

      In contrast, Japanese culture considers it a major dishonour for a soldier to be captured alive, and believe that torture is only to be expected. No Japanese murderers were shot by their own side for abusing prisoners.

      Australian troops have never committed anything like the Nanking massacre either.

      As for Haiti and New Orleans, I’m sure that there were some individual locals who helped out, but they were exceptional. As above, I am talking about the common culture, not individual exceptions.

    • James1 says:

      02:01pm | 27/01/11

      Fair call on prisoners Greg, but I take issue with your last assertion there. 

      What evidence do you have that Haitians are not working to rebuild their lives, and that mostly white foreigners are?

    • TheRealDave says:

      04:37pm | 27/01/11

      @James1 Breaker Morant was executed for shooting Boers after they surrendered. Plenty of other British and Canadian units shot them out of hand instead of taking them prisoner….and were never charged and infact many were rewarded.

      Also, the Two British Commanders of Morants unit where quickly whisked away by the Poms so they could not be charged alongside them or admit under oath that orders were given to shoot the prisoners and would have thereby led to Morant and Handcock getting off scot free.

      Lesson to be learnt, other than never trusting the Poms, make sure you get your orders in writing first.

      Such was the anti-British feeling amongst Australian troops with the treatment of Morant and Handcock that the execution was not announced till the afternoon after it was over and before hand all Australian troops in Pretoria were locked in their barracks and their weapons taken from them.

      People say the Australian ANZAC tradition was born at Gallipoli, I say it was actually born 14 years earlier on the veldt during the Boer War and the despicable way Australian troops were treated and the way the British fought the war. Many Australian soldiers had far more sympathy for the Boers than they did their British counterparts. A feeling also reflected in the Canadians, New Zealanders and other Commonwealth troops.

    • Greg says:

      12:02am | 28/01/11

      James1, just read any of the status reports, and look at the photos.

      Haiti is still a disaster area, one year later, as all the locals wait for the foreigners to fix their problems, and blame them for being too slow.

      And most of the foreign aid is coming from Western countries:

      http://menmedia.co.uk/rochdaleobserver/news/s/1189294_heroes_on_haiti_earthquake_mission

      Of course no journalist will openly write about it, but it’s pretty obvious nevertheless.

    • xavier says:

      10:24am | 26/01/11

      Greg your overt racism astounds. Why not mention those stealing sand bags in Qld or people trying to take advantage of Centerlink’s flood assistance? To accuse every Haitian and people in New Orleans as “just sitting there demanding others help them” is a disgusting sentiment. The US government’s response to the New Orleans disaster was the most reprehensible thing - there were many people on the ground helping out their fellow humans, same as in Haiti.

      And as for not getting assistance: do your research. Help was offered but refused as we have enough resources to assist without help from overseas.

      @“Proud Nationalist”: Interesting points but wars are largely fought for the interests of the ruling class. Ordinary people get caught up in these wars (for varying reasons) and some of those ordinary people were those in the Sandakan March. You suggest the “average person” is not capable of being in that situation is odd as those soldiers were just ordinary people who were soldiers. I think you would find that most people step up to the plate when it is required

      Reply

    • Adam Diver says:

      11:33am | 26/01/11

      I agree with your points xavier, but I think the “australian spirit” has been misrepresented as a competition between various national spirits. Whilst the human spirit is not unique to us, we should take these days to remember the great sacrifices made by many for this country (even if not neccessary). 

      These people were not great because they were Australian but ather what they did made them great Australians.

      Back onto the “competition” that we have made out of being Australian, instead of celebrating the human spirit, we should focus on the things that make Australia great. I am getting all patriotic but living herereally makes you a lucky person.

    • Greg says:

      05:24pm | 26/01/11

      Overt racism? Disgusting sentiment? No, it’s just the truth.

      Any looting or welfare fraud in Australia is an order of magnitude less than in Haiti or New Orleans. And we didn’t have any rapes or murders either. Most Australians have a different character.

      The people on the ground helping out in Haiti and New Orleans were not locals. Most of them were the allegedly racist white people that you seem to despise so much.

      As for getting assistance: do your own research. We have only refused token assisatnce that would have been a waste of time and effort even bothering with. But we don’t have enough resources, which is why we are all going to be hit with a flood tax tomorrow.

      If our government had not gven away all of our money in overseas aid (which is never reciprocated) then extra taxes wouldn’t be needed.

    • Reg says:

      02:26pm | 27/01/11

      @Greg, ”  If our government had not gven away all of our money in overseas aid (which is never reciprocated) then extra taxes wouldn’t be needed.”

      Greg we are in an infinitely better position to resuscitate our damaged industries than are most of the countries we choose to assist. The aid cannot be reciprocated from these third world countries. For that we must turn to other first world countries. I don’t see any aid being offered by Japan which, in light of its wartime record, should be to come to the aid of the people it violated.

    • Allyeska says:

      11:02am | 26/01/11

      I think we are missing a very important part of what we should reflect on on Australia Day - and that is the impact of our invasion on those who already called Australia home. So many slaughtered, devastated by our diseases, or ripped apart from family and suffering spiritual abuse and other atrocities.

      Spare a thought for those who didnt survive and for those who still suffer today as a result of british occupation.

      Reply

    • Greg says:

      05:58pm | 26/01/11

      Do you really think that Aboriginees would have been better off if the country had been taken over and occupied by the Japanese in 1941?

      Maybe you need to read the article again, and pay attention this time.

    • hugo says:

      08:48pm | 26/01/11

      if you feel they are so hard-done-by why dont you donate all of your possesions to them and then go back to where ever it is you came from.

    • john tracey says:

      12:31pm | 26/01/11

      On Australia Day 1998 When the USA President 1998 respectfullysaid
      “I did not have sex with that woman”

      The USA President 1998 was not referring to Julia Gillard,Anna Bligh,Kristina Kenneally, Julia Bishop, Pauline Hansen,Clare Martin,Kate Carnell, Carmen Lawrence, Joan Kirner, Oprah Winfrey,  Hillary Clinton ,nor Lara Tasmania.

      What was that chick’s name again?

      Reply

    • Richard says:

      02:41pm | 26/01/11

      BJ Lewinski I believe.

    • mary says:

      03:32pm | 26/01/11

      Wow Jason, you made me cry, that was awesome. On Australia Day honour and remember the spirit of special ordinary Australians. Yes!
      Article of the week as far as I’m concerned.

      Reply

    • MJ says:

      04:17pm | 26/01/11

      Great article, Jason. Don’t let confusing commenters tell you otherwise.

      Reply

    • Reg says:

      07:33pm | 26/01/11

      I think of our history as a tale of sorrow and sadness punctuated with feats of magnificent resourcefulness and failure to grasp the nettle of leadership. Just as well we have the ability to dismiss things easily because to dwell on some of them would be most depressing. Perhaps this is the origin of our reputation as survivors.

      Reply

    • Ray says:

      06:13am | 27/01/11

      I think you have nailed what it is to be Australian Reg, we don’t winge or have a tantrum if something doesn’t ‘go ritght’.  We don’t hold grudges that in some cultures can go on for generations.  We just ‘make do’, and get on with life.  Very thoughtful article Jason, moving without sensationalism.

    • harveybirdman says:

      01:37pm | 28/01/11

      Relying on your instanct is tough for most of us. It takes years to build confidence. It doesn’t really just happen if you know what I mean.

      Reply
 
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