Reparation, Recognition and Relief for victims of Siam-Burma Death Railway

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A BRIEF REPORT SUBMITTED BY THE ACTION COMMITTEE TO THE AGM OF NETAJI WELFARE FOUNDATION ON 6/10/21 REGARDING THE SIAM BURMA DEATH RAILWAY (SBDR) VICTIMS EXERCISE

INTRODUCTION

The decision to enumerate survivors of the Siam Burma Death Railway (SBDR) arose out of a casual discussion on Netaji Foundation Watsapp between like minded members. This morphed into a Team of 3 (T3) and actions were set afoot to "walk the talk.

2. THE OBJECTIVES

2.1. The objectives of the exercise are:

(I)To identify and obtain reliable information from survivors and from victims next of kin;

(II) To create a dossier of real information on survivors and victims so that their names and plight are not lost as forgotten persons in history. This information will be updated regularly and be made readily available to be viewed by any persons;

(iii) To ensure that the information so obtained be kept sacrosanct and be available for viewing on the net and in any other place and manner, deemed appropriate;

(iv) To erect a Cenotaph in the memory of the said victims at an agreeable and accessible place within Malaysia;

(v) To determine and designate an appropriate Remembrance Day where victims and kin can recall these fallen people, both named and unnamed, and offer their respects and prayers;

(vi) To contact the British and Japanese parliaments’ human rights groups, and henceforth highlight to them the atrocities committed on the victims and seek some form of redressal either as scholarships, training assistance, and financial support for the construction of some existing Tamil schools to be done in the memory of the victims.

3. LIMITATIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS.

3.1. For the purposes of the exercise, “Victims” mean " anyone during the Japanese Occupation of Malaya who was uprooted from their place of stay, either as individuals or as members of a family who were taken along recruited workers, either to support one another or they themselves not wanting to miss their family member who was being taken, and later on site, had to share the pain, burden and were made to toil at the Death Railway sites under difficult survival conditions until they were released after the Japanese surrender.”

3.2. During the entire interactions with the respondents and survivors, the team was mindful with regards to compensation which has become an enticement offered by parties whenever such work was undertaken. The above objectives were distinctly told to them.

4. METHODOLOGY

4.1. Publicity on the effort calling for public participation were undertaken 3 times through Tamizh newspaper advertisements, Minnalfm radio announcements, social media platform messages and team member visits to homes of living victims.

4.2. Responses subsequently, were obtained by Google forms that were distributed; through personal telephone interviews, and from discussions with individuals who had authentic records on the victims.

4.3. Personal interviews with real life victims were recorded on videos and uploaded into our FB dossier.

4.4.The team has also met a Malay survivors group at Temerloh and had discussions to solicit information.

5. ACCOMPLISHMENTS

5.1. A facebook account detailing all information, write ups. photographs, video interviews and other related issues was created to store the information for posterity in the net. It can be viewed at “Reparation, Recognition and Relief for Victims of Siam Burma Death Railway”.

5.2. To date there are some 680 records collected by the team. However, not all records are posted at the site to limit “privacy and unauthorized use” as work is still in progress.

5.3. Reviewing the above, objectives (i), (ii) and (iii) as stated above are met.

5.4. The team has also contacted a local book writer, Dr Sasidaran Sellappa. The latter has authored a highly creditable book published by University Malaya Press, entitled “REVISITING THE DEATH RAILWAY: THE SURVIVORS ACCOUNT”. The team has also had several discussions with the author on actual events on SBDR issue.

5.5. The author has also shared all records of victims which he has laboriously collected on his own with the team.

6. WAY FORWARD

6.1. In undertaking the above task, the Team has found that the rendering of the book in Tamil would benefit the Tamil speaking population with an authenticated text on SBDR victims rather than they being exposed only to literary summations.

6.2. Initial discussions have taken place with UM Press, the author and the Team on publication details.

6.3. Meanwhile, the team recognizes that work on objectives (iv), (v) and (vi) has to resume. It involves interactions with outside parties and have financial implications.

By
JAYAMOHAN THARMALINGAM
LEAD COORDINATOR
FOR THE TEAM ON THE SIAM BURMA DEATH RAILWAY (SBDR) VICTIMS EXERCISE

FRANCIS TANG POOI KONG, now 83, was 4 years old (Chinese age 7) when he followed his parents, his grandmother, his 2 siblings and a cousin to the Death Railway.

Francis recalls that they stayed at long house type structures made of attap, bamboo and wood at Kanchanapuri. This was camp A and there was Camp B. The sprawling camps housed an administrative office, a hospital, the Commandent’s office, a workshop, accommodation facilities for workers etc. It also had POW quarters, with the whole area being fenced up to prevent escape misadventures and outside intrusion.

He remembers that at the camp, there were some 500-600 Asian workers. And most of them were accompanied by their families. This proves a point that it was not just the workers who were conscripted for work; many workers indeed had brought with them their family members – wives, children, brothers, sisters, uncles etc. it was an agony to be shared by all.

The Asian workers he knew, worked as mechanics, welders, electricians, hospital assistants, clerks, typists, cooks, kitchen helpers, tailors, carpenters, artisans. In other words, apart from the tough muscled man, the Japanese also needed skilled workers to assist them in their rail infrastructure.

Nostalgic of the past, and wanting to validate his accounts regarding the Japanese, Francis has also searched for “like victims” and gathered their stories. And these stories as we examine do authenticate Tong’s account. He has been to Thailand 3 times, and based on his memories, he has tried somehow to locate the site of the former camp at Kanchanapuri. In each of his journeys, he had hoped that through someone or by pure luck he could identify some semblance of a camp there. To date his search continues.

WE BRING YOU THE MANY STORIES OF SURVIVORS ALIKE HIM AT THE CAMP…. UNEDITED AS THE SURVIVORS RECOLLECT….

Battle hardened octogenarian, THARMALINGAM, born in 1934 at Gopeng (PERAK), now 88, amidst struggling memory, recalls the atrocities of the Japanese.

His father, RAMAN, an estate KANGANI, was taken by the Japanese in 1943. Two months later, another recruitment team arrived, and this time they took his married brother, PUNIAKODI. Filial piety, you might say, unwilling to part with his baby brother, PUNIAKODY, the elder sibling, took THARMALINGAM along. Imagine the heart wrenching scene ( as THARMALINGAM recalls) his sister- in- law sobbing and standing at the IPOH Railway Station waving off both the brothers, among hundreds of crying and wailing others sending off their loved ones to “a journey of no return”.

On arrival, men were separated from boys. THARMALINGAM recollects being taken to Kanburi (aka Kanchanapuri) camp. And later, as the Japanese required workers, he was shifted from one camp to another i.e to Wampo, Wan Yai and Hintok. Each camp was 3 miles away from another. It was here that he learned that his father had passed on. THARMALINGAM had his fair share of tough work carrying earth to the railway track.

Like many others, he was struck down with cholera. He was taken in a gunny sack stretcher to the “home of final destination”,simply an isolation hut where the severely ill were kept for a few days before they were dumped either dead or half dead into a mass pit. Call it good fortune or mercy, after a few days, our hero somehow found strength and crawled out of the hut. He returned to the camp and later being declared fit, started working again, this time as a kitchen help. He started asking about his brother, only to be told, he too succumbed to cholera and was taken to the same hut days before THARMALINGAM but he never saw the day.

Once the war ended, like others he was grouped together, sent to Bangkok and from there returned to Penang by ship via Singapore. After 3 days of being quarantined at Penang, the returnees were sent to their estates. THARMALINGAM, now 11 years old, found his way to Kajang and subsequently was sent to Benta Estate, Pahang.

Young and energetic but without support and guidance, THARMALINGAM was wondering around, and for sometime worked as a house caretaker of one Mr.GOVINDASAMY, a Tamil School inspector. In the course of time, a sympathetic Veterinary Department Officer, Mr. Azariah, came along, adopted him, and worked out the identification card of THARMALINGAM. History tells us that this was the Emergency period and good hearted AZARIAH was shot by the Communists. However, with a little help here and there, THARMALINGAM came to be housed in a Boys Home at Serendah where he picked up heavy machinery maintenance skills and later, as he progressed started working in a nearby firm at Batu Arang.

As all sad tales have a happy ending, THARMALINGAM got married to Parvathy in 1957, and they were blessed with 5 children. Now, he stays with his son in Rawang, once in a while, recollecting the fateful past, and sharing his tales with the younger ones.

A SAMPLE OF RESPONSES THROUGH QUESTIONNAIRES FROM VICTIMS DESCENDANTS. MORE WILL BE REVEALED.

1. He served in death railway

2. Victim had Senior Cambridge education.

3. Victim followed nephew to keep him company on the request of his sister

4.Told he was thrown into the pit. His married brother was listed to go by the estate. But he was brave to tell the recruiters that he would volunteer on behalf of his brother.

5. He was taken to Kelantan Kra returned one side paralysed

6. She was an INA member of Jansi Rani Regiment.
He was married in Bangkok.

7. When he returned from Siam, he brought along one sack full of Japanese currency as salary of 3 years service in Siam. But by the time he return to Malaya, the currency is no more valid. He burnt the currency's at the back yard of Tapah road Railway house. (We were scared of the communists)

8.No

9. My grandfather was taken away by Japanese army from Juru Estate Mariaman Temple around 3.00am. Family members all gathered at the temple, had a prayers. Japanese truck was ready to take them. ( Told by my Mother - P. Soondaram )

10. He was a hunter and i had his gun licence renewed. .. I was told by my dad that my grandfather was taken to work either as security personel or to shoot birds that sit on bamboo trees. Bamboos were used to make slipper for railway track.

11.My Grandmother thought my Grand father died but suddenly one day He's come back....

12. He was a victim and had told his predicament to me and my father. He had left behind his son and wife for almost a year. Since he fell sick and unfit, he was sent home to his estate.

13. My father retired as a policeman and can speak Siam

14. Passed away 2002

15.The victim is alive. He stays with me for past 31 years. I have done a research paper on him while studying in USM under the request of Prof. Abu Talib . I am still keeping that assignment.

16. He was from MINNAL AROKONAM,TAMIL NADU. He migrated with my mother.