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Hell on earth : Sandakan - Australia's greatest war tragedy / Michele Cunningham.

By: Material type: TextTextPublication details: Sydney : Hachette Australia, 2013.Description: xvi, 335 pages, [16] pages of plates : illustrations, maps, portraits ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780733629891 (pbk) :
  • 073362989X (pbk)
Subject(s): Summary: "The heart-rending story of the Australians brutally imprisoned in Sandakan, the Japanese POW camp in North Borneo, whose very name came to symbolise cruelty and ill-treatment. In mid-1942, after the fall of Singapore, almost three thousand Allied prisoners of war were taken by the Japanese from Changi to Sandakan. Of those, 2500 lost their lives. Men died at Sandakan and Kuching, and on the infamous 'death marches': they died from sickness and starvation, torture and appalling violence, or were killed by the guards as they were forced to keep moving along a seemingly never-ending track. Only six Australians survived the death marches, out of the thousand who left... Michele Cunningham's father was one of those who survived Sandakan, and then Kuching. Through the mateship and common bond of the survivors, she has had access to their stories, and here she gives an account of these courageous men those who refused to break no matter how badly they were treated; and those brave men who didn't make it. And it is the story of the depths to which the Japanese sank. HELL ON EARTH is a remarkable story of bravery, brutality, mateship and survival."--Publisher's description.
Holdings
Item type Current library Collection Call number Copy number Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Non-Fiction Davis (Central) Library Non-Fiction Non-Fiction 940.5472 CUN 1 Available T00547285
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Sandakan is acknowledged as being one of the greatest tragedies in Australian military history. It is the story of 2800 Allied POWs (including1500 Australians) who were taken from Changi in mid-1942 to Sandakan. 2500 died many as a result of sickness, malnourishment and appalling violence by the Japanese. But worse were the casualties from the infamous death marches where many more hundreds died, or were killed by the guards, on forced evacuation marches as the Allied fighting came closer.Only 6 Australians survived from the 1500 who left ChangiHELL ON EARTH is the story of the men who lived and died in Sandakan: the men who refused to break, no matter how badly they were starved or beaten or tortured, the men who escaped in the early days, and fought with local guerillas for the rest of the war, and it is the story of the depths to which the Japanese guards sank in their crueltyMichele Cunningham has interviewed many survivors of the Borneo campaign, including those who spent time in Sandakan in the early years, and has done original research in the Australian and British archives, and has had access to many Japanese records.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 299-302) and index.

"The heart-rending story of the Australians brutally imprisoned in Sandakan, the Japanese POW camp in North Borneo, whose very name came to symbolise cruelty and ill-treatment. In mid-1942, after the fall of Singapore, almost three thousand Allied prisoners of war were taken by the Japanese from Changi to Sandakan. Of those, 2500 lost their lives. Men died at Sandakan and Kuching, and on the infamous 'death marches': they died from sickness and starvation, torture and appalling violence, or were killed by the guards as they were forced to keep moving along a seemingly never-ending track. Only six Australians survived the death marches, out of the thousand who left... Michele Cunningham's father was one of those who survived Sandakan, and then Kuching. Through the mateship and common bond of the survivors, she has had access to their stories, and here she gives an account of these courageous men those who refused to break no matter how badly they were treated; and those brave men who didn't make it. And it is the story of the depths to which the Japanese sank. HELL ON EARTH is a remarkable story of bravery, brutality, mateship and survival."--Publisher's description.

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