Author(s): Paul Ham

History / Current Affairs

This is the story of the three-year ordeal of the Sandakan prisoners of war. After the fall of Singapore in February 1942, the Japanese conquerors transferred 2700 British and Australian prisoners to a jungle camp some eight miles inland of Sandakan, in North Borneo. For decades after the Second World War, the Australian and British governments would refuse to divulge the truth of what happened here, for fear of traumatising the families of the victims. Of the 2700 prisoners originally sent to Sandakan, only six - all of them Australians - would survive. This important and harrowing book narrates the full story of Sandakan, as told through the experiences of the participants.