P03737.001 Accession Number: P03737.001

Description

Postcard from Mr K M Yamaguchi, the Managing Director of the Fujiya Hotel, Miyanoshita, Hakone, Japan, sent to Lieutenant Colonel W J R Scott, a pre war guest at the hotel. The text of the postcard reads: "October 1946. Dear Friend: We are happy to advise you that thank goodness the Fujiya Hotel, Miyanoshita, and other hotels were left untouched and intact during the war, but regret to inform you that Mr H J R Yamaguchi, Managing Director, passed on of sudden illness on Feb. 14, 1944. The writer, his associate for 34 years in the Fujiya Hotel, has succeeded him as Managing Director of Fujiya Hotel Co. It is our ardent wish that you will extend the same friend-ship to me that my lamented predecessor had. We hope that this will find you in good health and in due course of time bring good tidings from you, for which we thank you in anticipation. Yours sincerely, (signed) K M Yamaguchi, Managing Director, Fujiya Hotel." Lt Col Scott commanded the 2/21 Battalion (Gull Force) on Ambon Island and 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. (See P03737.002 for the letter Lt Col Scott wrote in response to Mr Yamaguchi's postcard).

Details

Conflicts

• Second World War, 1939-1945
• Period 1940-1949