The Task

It is October 1945. You are a member of the 3rd Prisoner of War Contact and Inquiry Unit that has been sent to Sandakan to find out what happened to the 2,345 Australian and British POWs who were imprisoned in the camp in January 1945 and are now missing. Only six have survived.

There are five types of evidence:

  • Prisoners
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  • Japanese
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  • Physical remains
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  • Local people
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  • Statement by escaped prisoner, Owen Campbell
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Your task is to discover:

  • What the experience of being a prisoner of war at Sandakan was like

  • How many of the prisoners died

  • How they died

  • Where they died

  • When these deaths occurred

  • Who was responsible

  • What the families of the dead can be told

  • What happened to those who escaped

  • Why more did not escape

  • What evidence exists to carry out war trials against those responsible for war crimes discovered in your investigations

  • What problems arise in coming to definite conclusions about what happened.

Use the evidence that you have discovered to do one of the following:

  • Write a letter to the family of one of the victims of the March explaining what you think happened.

  • Conduct a hearing, calling witnesses and questioning them, to decide if there are individuals who should be put on trial for war crimes.

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