|
Group VI
We had no idea how long this march would last, after a while bulky items would be discarded, a pillow a small stool, mess kit, empty water bottle and some books. These things that could have made life more bearable later on. I like most others, no longer had the strength to carry them any further. The trail was littered with belongings of many prisoners, which had been jettisoned.
Soon, some of the men in our group could not carry on anymore and fell along the wayside. No amount of beating by the guards could get them up any more, and they were summarily left behind. Some of them were picked up by later groups of prisoners. Some were never heard of again and we could only guess what happened to them.
In our case we marched for six days until we reached Sai Yoku where I learned later, the head-quarters of our group of camps was situated. On the opposite bank of the river we could see a small village of which we were not allowed to enter. This village of a few houses was probably the nucleus of the community, which is nowadays the capital of the province of Sai Yoke, with 50.000 inhabitants.
Our first few weeks were taken up by jungle clearing and the building of shelters. First for the Japanese guards. After that, huts for the prisoners themselves, we had to sleep in the open on bare ground with the constant attack of mosquitoes and other vermin. Many suffered from diarrhoea, malaria and dysentery and though only a few had died in the earlier weeks, there was hardly a day when we did not have to bury one of the prisoners, who had succumbed.
The railway troops were Japanese and they were under even more pressure from their superiors than the camp-guards, since they were held directly responsible for the completion of the track before the deadline. As a result, their maltreatment of the prisoners gradually worsened as the deadline approached as it was at Hintok.
Early March 1943, we were told to move again some of us by barge but nearly 5000 men British and Dutch had to walk. In small groups, the straggling band of sick and tired POWs covered the 30km that separated the old camp from the new one at Hindato.
From Neilīs Story
|
Kinsaiyok Jungle Camp 2
Japanese
