Qualla: Sandakan Camp

Sandakan Camp: Introduction

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rruunnaa, CC0. Before the war, the site was an experimental farm run by the North Borneo Chartered Company, a place where fruit trees grew and cattle grazed. By July 1942, it held 1,500 Australian prisoners of war, most of them captured after the fall of Singapore. The Japanese needed an airfield in Sandakan, and they needed labor to build it. What happened on this patch of ground over the next three years -- the forced construction, the starvation, the cages, the clandestine radio, and finally the death marches -- constitutes one of the worst atrocities committed against Allied prisoners in the Pacific War. Of the roughly 2,500 men imprisoned here, only six Australians survived.

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Image: Rruunnaa | CC0

Sandakan Camp: Building an Airfield on Empty Stomachs

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CEphoto, Uwe Aranas, CC BY-SA 3.0. The camp grew quickly. After the initial 1,500 Australians arrived in 1942, another 770 British and 500 Australian soldiers were added in 1943, bringing the prisoner population to approximately 2,500. The men were forced to construct a military airfield under brutal conditions, w...

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Image: CEphoto, Uwe Aranas | CC BY-SA 3.0

Sandakan Camp: The Cage and the Commander

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CEphoto, Uwe Aranas, CC BY-SA 3.0. Camp commandant Susumi Hoshijima, a military engineer promoted from lieutenant to captain during the war, presided over a regime of deliberate cruelty. When new prisoners arrived in April 1943, he made his authority clear in terms that left no room for misunderstanding. The camp ...

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Image: CEphoto, Uwe Aranas | CC BY-SA 3.0

Sandakan Camp: The Marches Begin

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CEphoto, Uwe Aranas, CC BY-SA 3.0. By October 1944, the airfield had become a liability. Allied bombing raids hammered it relentlessly, and by January 1945 the runway was beyond repair. Work stopped on 10 January. The prisoners' labor was no longer needed, but the Japanese had no intention of freeing them. That sa...

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Image: CEphoto, Uwe Aranas | CC BY-SA 3.0

Sandakan Camp: The Great Tree and What Remains

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Meqqal, CC BY-SA 4.0. The dominant structure of the camp was not a building but a tree. A towering specimen of Koompassia excelsa -- known locally as the Mengaris tree -- rose above the compound, visible to every prisoner and guard alike. It became an involuntary witness to three years of suffering. T...

Read more: Sandakan Camp on Qualla

Image: Meqqal | CC BY-SA 4.0