The Courier-Mail (Brisbane, Qld. : 1933 - 1954)

DIARY OF BRIGADIER BLACKBOtlV. V.C-No. 1

Each PX)W. A Criminal In

Eyes Of Japanese

I WAS taken prisoner by the Japanese on March 12, 1942, though a general capitulation had taken place on March 8, 1942. For four days   my men and I waited in the mountains near the south coast of Java at a spot south of Tjikadjang, in the hope that I might establish com-

munication with Australia to see if it was possible to get my men away from a small port named Pameungpeuk, which at that time was un- touched by the Japanese. Tjikadjang is south of Bandoeng, the capital

of Java. I found, however, that all wireless transmitting sets capable of reaching Australia had been destroyed. The hopelessness of the position of not being able to communicate with Australia was intensified by the fact that the rainy season was on. As I had insufficient medical supplies, I decided that it would be too dangerous to keep my men without shelter, and wet to the skin, day and night, in the hope that something might turn up. My medical staff advised me that I must anticipate 50 p.c. casualties if I continued in the mountains, and I therefore surrendered on March 12, 1942. For the first fortnight the Japanese left us in the tea planta- tions and the plantation buildings just south of Garoet, and after that time they moved us nearer to central Java to a place called Leles. Then began the three and a half years during which I was treated as a criminal by all Japanese, from the highest ranking officer to the lowliest private. The Jap 'Code' The Japanese regard anyone who wages war against Japan as a criminal, and as such treats him according to the Japanese criminal code. It is not a nice code ; it has no decent civilised concept. On the day of my surrender, ac- companied by the senior American officer (Col. A. C. Searle), I re- ported to Japanese headquarters in Garoet. We were joined there by the senior British officers (Air Vice-Marshal Maltby and Major General Sitwell) and were taken to Japanese headquarters at Ban- doeng.

After waiting for some hours in an ante room the Japanese Com- mander-in-Chief (Gen. Maru- yama) came to us and ordered us each to sign an unconditional sur- render of his troops. For some time we discussed the position with him through an interpreter, en- deavouring to have the position of our men as Japanese prisoners of war clarified. Finally, with very great regret, we signed the document surrender- ing unconditionally to the Japanese. As a result of our efforts Gen. Maruyama conceded to add to the surrender document the following words : — 'Subject to our rights as prisoners of war vide Geneva Con- vention of 1929.' Would Not Admit It is an interesting indication of the Japanese character and un- trustworthiness that, although the Commander-in-Chief of Java added these words to our actual surrender document, never at any time subsequently would the Japanese admit that we had any rights as P.O. W. under the Geneva Convention or otherwise. When reminded of the amend- ment to the surrender document, as they constantly were through out our period of detention, they always replied : — 'The General had

no authority to add any such words, as Japan was not bound by the Geneva Convention.' The signing over, we were in- formed by General Maruyama's staff, that we must each return to our troops and continue to con- trol them. As we had sufficient rations for some time, we were informed that we must continue to feed our men, and keep them in order until Japanese came to take over con- trol.   Little Handed Over We must, however, immediately hand over all weapons and all vehicles, &c;, to the Japanese. For the next fortnight we stayed in the tea plantations south of Garoet. We destroyed the majority of our weapons and all vehicles, including tanks, except the bare minimum which would be required to shift the men without equip- ment when we were ordered to move. By this means, comparatively little was handed over to the Jap- anese. For example, only about 1000 rifles, and those mostly damaged, were turned in, and practically no light machine guns. Such ammuni- tion as was obtained by the Jap- anese from us had been deliber- ately left in the rain for so long as to render it useless. Early in April we received orders to move to a concentration area near Leles. We remained there, still rationing our troops and in

control of them, until the middle of April, when I was informed that my troops would be divided into two parties, the majority of them, including myself, going to Batavia and the remainder to Garoet. The first order for the move was that the troops going to Batavia would march the whole way — a distance of approximately 150 miles or more, the order being that they would march about 20 miles a day. At night they would bivouac by the side of the road without any shelter whatsoever. The movement order included the English as well as the Austra- lian troops. Many of the former were quite unaccustomed to marching, including, as they did, R.A.F. ground staff and artillery men. Many of my own men were not in a fit state to do such a march. Besides, it was the height of the wet season, and was raining day and night. March Cancelled Our protest against this pro- posed march was at first entirely disregarded, so finally we lodged with the Japanese authorities a   joint letter informing them that, in our opinion, there would be a very large number of deaths among the prisoners if the march was carried out. We stated further that we would see that not only our Govern- ments, but the world at large, was informed of the details, if and when we ourselves lived to be re- leased to make the details known. the letter had the desired result,

and the march was cancelled. We proceeded to Batavia by train. I reached Batavia on the even- ing of April 13 after the majority of my troops had arrived. Our camp was a barrack, known as Cycle camp, situated in the heart of the city and comprising a num- ber of very old but strongly built barracks. There I found about 2600 prison- ers, mostly Australians, but in- cluding English, American, and Dutch. In their sleeping quarters the officers had been segregated from the men, but as the huts were set fairly close together and the original scale of accommoda- tion could not have been for more than 1000 troops, we were all jumbled up together. No extra cooking arrangements were made for our huge comple- ment until many months later. There was no general exercise yard within the camp, and the only source of exercise was up and down the main road of the camp. Completely Cut Off Surrounded by a high fence, we were completely cut off from the rest of Batavia. There were two gates at either end of the camp road, both of which opened on to a main street of the city. Each gate was heavily guarded, and we were prohibited from approaching either. Washing and bathing facilities were quite inadequate, and every one slept on the floor of the build- ings, which, in many cases, were of concrete.

Survivors Of Cruisers Arrive SURVIVORS from the cruisers H.M.A.S. Perth and U.S.N. Houston arrived a few days later accompanied bv some of my own officers and men who had been  

previously taken to another camp.

All were in a pitiful state of weakness through lack of food and harsh treatment. They had practically no cloth- ing, and had been herded in a gaol in West Java. As senior officer in the camp I at once assumed command of all Allied troops. My first task was an interview with the Japanese camp commandant, whose atten- tion I drew to the urgent needs of the prisoners. We wanted medi- cines, mosquito nets, toilet requi- sites, clothes, and the assurance that notification would be made that we were p.o.w. I was peremptorily informed by the commandant that the Japan- ese did not recognise us as having any rights as prisoners of war: — in fact, we had no rights. But he would consider my requests. The food in the camp was very short— or seemed so to us at the time— but we were able to supple- ment our meagre handouts with the rations we had brought with us from the mountains. We had accumulated a quantity of food in the hope of continuing resist- ance. Pitiful Meals The Japanese diet consisted of rice with vegetable soup. Occa- sionally we received a small slice of bread, perhaps every four days. Sometimes a little piece of meat crept into the soup. Supplement- ary issues from our own stocks were two tinned sausages a man a week and a weekly issue of dried potatoes. Even with these additions our meals were pitifully small, but I was to learn in the next few years that this ration was plentiful com- pared to the food issued in Tai- wan and other places. Our requests for more meat were refused. The survivors from the Perth and the Houston had no razors, tooth brushes, soap or towels, and it was not for some weeks that I was able to obtain these things for them. Even then they did not come as an issue from the Japanese. They were purchased out of certain money that I held.

Working Parties For their working parties the Japanese treated the officers and N.C.O's exactly the same as they treated the other prisoners. I was still expected to maintain control and discipline, which was obviously impossible if all my officers and N.C.O's were working with the men. My emphatic protest to the camp commandant eventually re- sulted in a much better system, whereby the commandant in- formed me daily of the number of men required for the working parties, and I would detail the men in charge of officers and N.C.O's. On arrival at the job the Jap- anese would inform my officers what work was to be done, and leave them to apportion it. In this way we were able to slow up the work considerably and pre- vent the men from being over- worked. In many cases we were able to prevent the ill-treatment of the men, although it caused frequent punishment for the officers and the N.O.O's for not working the men hard enough. Quite early in our imprisonment

BRIGADIER BLACKBURN

BRIGADIER BLACKBURN

we made it a rule to hold church parades every Sunday, and al- though the Japanese interfered quite frequently and prevented us from worship, we held them when- ever possible throughout those years. When no chaplain was pres- ent, one or other of the officers would take the service. TO-MORROW: 'Black Force' Turns to Sabotage.

The movements of Black Force in Java from Feb- ruary 17, 1942, to March 12, 1942, when the force surrendered.