P03737.002 Accession Number: P03737.002

Description

Draft of wording of an open postcard written from Melbourne in February 1947 by VX71997 Lieutenant Colonel (Lt Col) William John Rendell Scott. The original postcard was sent to Mr K M Yamaguchi, the Managing Director of the Fujiya Hotel, Miyanoshita, Hakone, Japan. Lt Col Scott's reply to Mr Yamaguchi expresses his astonishment at receiving Mr Yamaguchi's postcard, and he proceeds to describe precisely the treatment of prisoners of war by the Japanese. Lt Col Scott, had been a pre war guest at the hotel and during the Second World War commanded the 2/21 Battalion (Gull Force) on Ambon Island. After the Japanese attack on the island most of the survivors of his force were captured by the Japanese Imperial Army on 3 February 1942. The story of the Australian and Dutch Prisoners of War (POW) held on Ambon and later on Hainan Island was one of brutal treatment by their captors. Of the 1130 or so Australians in Gull Force at the time of the Japanese attack on Ambon, 292 were killed at Laha, of these it is estimated that 47 were killed in action and the rest were massacred after they had surrendered. Of the 528 men left at the Tan Toey POW Camp near the township of Ambon, after the party departed for Hainan in October 1942, only 119 survived. Of the 263 Australian POWs who were transferred to Hainan, under Lt Col Scott's command, only 181 returned to Australia. The letter reads: 'To Yamaguchi, Fujiya Hotel, Miyanoshita Hakone, Japan. As one who has had the awful experience of being a Prisoner of War in Japanese hands for more than three years in the recent war, I was astounded to receive a post-card from you advising me that your hotel, at which I stayed many years ago, is now opened again. You suggest that I "extend the same friendship to you, as Managing Director, as your lamented predecesor had." I have no memory of him and am delighted to hear from you that "he passed on in 1944." I am sure it was a far more comfortable death than was had by many thousands of Australian Prisoners of War, including nursing Sisters of the Australian Medical Services, who were murdered, starved, beaten to death, tortured to death, mutilated and otherwise disgracefully treated in a way only possible by the worst type of savage - your countrymen. It is most regrettable that your Hotels were, as you say, "left untouched and intact during the war." The time has passed for this to be rectified. Your wish that I am "in good health" is neither acceptable not appreciated. After twelve months hospital treatment since the War, I am slowly recovering from the unspeakable treatment all Prisoners of War in Japanese hands experienced. W J R Scott.' (See P03737.001 for the postcard sent to Scott by Mr Yamaguchi).

Details

People

• Lieutenant Colonel William John Rendell Scott DSO

Conflicts

• Second World War, 1939-1945

Tags

• Postcards
• Prisoners of war