Valentines day.............not as happy for some.

[muffett.2008]

75 Years ago today, marks the anniversary of the Alexandra Hospital Massacre by the Japanese on Singapore.
To many this day would usually go unnoticed, to those involved, who lost loved ones, this day will always be remembered with distaste and sadness.

For my family, today means not just remembering the loss of a family member, but the lies and deceit of a government, that still 75 years on, fails to correct the records concerning the event.

My Uncle was a member of the 2/18th Battalion, battled the Japs from Mersing down the peninsula until finally placed in a defensive perimeter on Singapore.
His battalion was flanked by the 2/20th on his right and the 2/19th on his left, these three Battalions bore the brunt of the Japanese thrust onto Singapore Island and were gradually pushed back.
Records show that my Uncle was reported MIA on the 10th Feb, but the 2/20th has him recorded as being on strength with them as of the 12th Feb. (so far so good, risen from the dead) reported as wounded about the period 12/13th, and supposedly transported to Alexandra Hospital by British Soldiers carrying wounded for attention.

The Japanese attacked the Hospital early on the 14th, shooting and bayoneting Medical Staff and Patients, you can read about this yourself, I tend to beat myself up a bit when I think of it, wounded carted out and bayoneted, Nurses shot and bayoneted, walking wounded crammed into confined spaces, then systematically taken out and slaughtered.......
the atrocities go on.

So no real records of patients and staff in situ on that day, the daily register goes missing, only that 300 were killed, mainly British but a few other Nationalities amongst them.
Recorded interviews with POW's later pieced together a bit of a record, Australian Unit members who were involved in the cleanup of the bodies recorded who they could, but those bodies thrown in ditches and burnt were not recognisable.
The Brit's had a fairly detailed list of their personnel, most of the Aussies being moved(those not badly wounded) prior to this event. But those that remained met the same fate, only a few survived to tell the story.

So my beef is the Secrecy Involved, the Failure to correctly Identify and Notify family, the quashing of the War Crimes Trials and the Failure to recover all the remains and return them and to correct the Records.

Now I have a family member, who supposed went MIA from the 2/18th, but is not recorded as being on strength with that Unit, nor is he listed on that Units tablet at the AWM.
However, he appears with the 2/20th two days later and is on their Tablet as Presumed Dead, at the AWM.

Funnily enough, his dog tags were recovered from a ditch post war at the Alexandra Hospital, his name also appears on the Memorial Tablet there.

My Grandmother never got over this, she always said they were lying, having received mail dated after his supposed demise.
Having personally checked his service records myself and the file numbers relating to War Crimes that were in his file, I managed to piece together the story..........doesn't make me feel any better, just bitter.

Knowing the Oz Govt. and being bound by the OSA for my early service years, and knowing that by the time these restrictions are lifted, if ever, I will be long dead, I pity my grandchildren that try to piece together that story.

Maybe I should write a FICTION novel about those days, my Daughter(mad Archivist) can put it all in perspective........maybe.

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[mr.e moose]

Oh what a glorious war. Sometimes I think those that were killed suffered a bit less than the ones that survived. My uncle lived the last 48 years of his life until he passed in 1993 living with the horrors of what he saw. In Europe his Coy was decimated and when he could not function anymore in a fighting unit he was put into a Special Employment Coy that buried the dead. Almost 50 years of his life living in madness.

[CINDERS]

I hope Muffett that you can get closure in your lifetime, the Govt knows more than its letting on no doubt has a swag of things stored that we the general public will never know, thing is all the key players are dead so what is the use of hiding stuff or are they afraid of the public backlash who knows.
I have a book written by David Day that as a deal of us helping Britain they would ensure we were backed up in Singapore well as we know they left us cold footed then tried to get 2 battleships there which were promptly sunk with a great loss of life.
The battle of the Bismark sea I feel had a huge impact on Australias fate, the govt of the day had drawn up the Sydney line in anticipation for a Japanese invasion thankfully Yamamoto's proficy came true Japan indeed awoke a sleeping giant and with their help and the great work by the 39th & A.I.F regulars stopped the Japanese thrust for the first time in the jungles of New Guinea.Attachment 80664

[Gil Boyd]

Muffet,
My sympathies go out to you and your family on this day, who have carried this burden for too long.
I just thought I would chip in and tell you that, sometimes, it appears like there is a Governmental coverup, but often it is down to the operational circumstances at the time in war of poor recording.

I run a system called GRAVEWATCH predominantly for The Parachute Regiment, but also Special Forces in some cases, and log the burial place of every soldier that fell in conflict, whereever it is in the world, with a full record of him and his ultimate sacrifice to his country. The aim is to ensure their graves are ALWAYS in a good condition and reflect their service ton their country with the help of the CWWG Commision and other volunteer parties.

The reason I raise this, is because, on a number of occasions after extensive investigation, I have found gravestones insitu, but found the alledged person buried there had in fact be repatriated later in the conflict or shortly after in many cases back to England by the families.
Also the graves shown as being there but no gravestone.

Having just recently found three examples of this, one in Cyprus and two in Silent Valley, in Aden.
These three lads died in conflict in fairly recent times, ie 1965-7, and their records were wrong, even those held by MOD/CWGC and the National Arboretum.
They are thankfully being changed as we speak, but it was a long hard slog to establish the right information. You note I didn't use the word truth there, because, I truly believe, pressures were on recording such graves in the days when computers were not around even in these recent times, and everything was done by manual hand written paper in triplcated usual Military format, with many manual records destroyed for whatever reason later once the "job" had been done!!.

I make no excuses for any Government, but I do see their situation, especially in the Fall of Singapore, having lived there for 3 years I know only too well the sacrifice that ALL nations made on behalf of the "Commonwealth" having visited all the graves at Kranji Cemetery and other places on the island.

Take solice in the fact that his death along with thousands of others, helped to stop the Japanese Empire going even further south in their dominance of the world with Germany, and I know that probably doesn;t help me saying that, but I know these men and women did a fantastic job that is even today appreciate by the People of Singapore.

It helps to speak of these things as PTSD affects everyone within families and your story is a very sad one indeed. I am sure when your Government open access to the files you'll find your Uncles journey will in part be logged, but in the realisation, that it must have been a hard thing to do accurately in the circumstances, knowing how vicious the Japanese were with all prisoners.
I wish you luck in your quest, one that might be helped by speaking to your local Government "ex service" MP or representative who will at least be sympathetic to your search for the truth if it is recorded and the files are still there somewhere!

[henry r]

Muffet, my grandfather was wounded in singapore and I'm guessing in the alexandra hospital as he said he was on the last hospital ship out of singapore and all those left behind were bayoneted in their beds.

My grandfather told of the doctors walking down his ward, looking at the men, their charts and then deciding who they thought could survive the trip and who was not likely to. (I think he also said something along the lines of he thought they were including the likelyhood of them making a decent recovery as well)
His opinion was that the doctors knew the gravity of the decisions they were making and took it very seriously.

He ended up being made a TPI (legally classed as totally and permanently incapacitated and never able to work again, from his war wounds for the non australians) in his late 50's or early 60's but i think the emotional marks were far greater than the physical as he was well aware of the fate of everyone who stayed in singapore.

[Flying10uk]

It is my understanding that the Japs didn't just bayonet soldiers in their hospital beds but in some cases female nurses threw themselves over their patients in an attempt to protect them but the Japanese soldiers simply bayoneted both the nurse and the patient on the hospital bed.

[TheRollingBlock]

This is the first I've heard of this. While I am American I still kind of wonder why I haven't.

Sad...

[Gil Boyd]

Sadly, this one episode was not unique. The marauding Japanese soldiers massacred many more U.K/U.S & Commonwealth soldiers on many of the islands in the Pacific, normally those classed as non combatants or "easy" prey.
These links perhaps tell it honestly the second being from a former patient:

BBC - WW2 People's War - The Alexandra Hospital Massacre

Soldier's account of Japanese World War Two massacre to be auctioned - Telegraph

The video shows specifically video footage of the Australian involvement in Singapore which was vital:

[CINDERS]

Awesome 4 corners, I feel the author surmising and not interviewing the Australian soldier who left Singapore re entered the fighting on Java only then to endure the captivity was a mistake on his part as he took for gospel what another author had written this I found repugnant, for a start the soldier was only 23 y/o and totally untrained I mean they gave him a Bren which he had never seen before or fired how was he to cope with a stoppage or choked gas cylinder without training!
Also the Australian soldiers acquitted themselves well killing 18,000 of the 30,000 casualties the IJA suffered in the Singapore campaign I do not think that authors book will find its way here as it is to flavoured by facts from other books and the authors spin on things.

Great story Badger thanks for that bloke.

[CINDERS]

I do not think one nation on the allied side of the coin escaped the absolute barbarism of this IJA yes it was that generation but the infamy of that generation will long be etched in this world no matter how the eons pass, Australia had Sandakan where the POW's were told "Nippon very sorry but men must die" they used murderous tactics on POW's where ever they were.
The Bataan death march was another for the US troops I remember reading in a book I have where a Captain approached a high ranking Japanese to complain about the way the men were being treated as if they did not keep up they were shot or bayoneted. There was a discussion between them which resulted in the Japanese officer getting highly agitated he had the captain kneel drew his samurai sword and decapitated the captain there and then to the horror of the onlookers one describing the head rolling past them with dark blood gushing from the headless body and the hands jerking clenching and opening in spasm.

Other books tell of similar treatment across the board in the end justice was served to those who deserved it but the biggest battle was for those left behind from those camps and island campaigns the horrors and nightmares sentenced them for the rest of their lives. Even though the US did not have a 4th bomb to drop I should say there are plenty of the vets who like Gene Hackman said in Crimson Tide "Yes sir I'll drop that sucker twice" or words to that effect to drop as many nukes as they possibly could before they ran out. The No.1 bomb was detonated in the Manhattan project to see if it worked which it did.