Australian prisoners of war: Second World War - Prisoners of the Japanese, Singapore (Changi and Singapore Island Camps)

Changi was the main prisoner-of-war camp in Singapore. Some 14,972 Australians captured at the fall of Singapore were imprisoned there(as drafts were sent away, the numbers at Changi declined, then after the completion of the Burma-Thailand Railway, numbers rose again). Lieutenant Colonel F. G. “Black Jack” Galleghan of the 2/30th Battalion was commander of the AIF in Changi. Many work forces were assembled in Changi before being sent to the Burma-Thailand Railway and other work camps. It was also used as a staging camp for those captured elsewhere.

Prisoners were used on heavy labouring works in and around Singapore. Tasks included road-building, freight-moving, mine removal and work in chemical factories. These troops suffered from diseases such as beriberi, malaria, and dysentery. Prisoners of war were sent to the following camps around Singapore: Great World, Adam Park No. 1, Bukit Timah No 5, Thomson Road No. 3, Lornie Road, Serangoon Road, Adam Park No. 4, Woodlands, Pasir Pajang, River Valley Road, Havelock Road, and Blakang Mati; and in Malaya to Johore Bahru, Mersing, and Endau.

Official records

Official records held by the Memorial include:

• AIF casualties: Malaya, Java, Timor, as known by 2nd Echelon AIF Malaya. Arranged alphabetically and by service number. Also supplementary roll. Includes force and fate. (Nominal roll). AWM54 171/11/2
• [8th Division in captivity - Changi and Singapore Island:] Report by Brig F.G. Galleghan, Appendix 2-7. AWM54 554/11/4 PART 1A &1B
• War crimes and trials. Affidavits and sworn statements. [F.G. Galleghan]. AWM54 1010/4/56
• Records of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. AWM83
• Records of the Adjutant General dealing with trials of war criminals. AWM166
• Records of Australian Military Forces prisoners of war and missing, Far East and South West Pacific Islands . Contains nominal rolls and paybook photographs arranged by name, theatre of war and unit, location of POW camp. AWM232. The nominal rolls are available online.

Private Records

Private records held by the Memorial include:

• F.G. Galleghan (Brigadier, DSO, OBE, ED, 8th Aust Div, and prisoner of war, Changi). Summary of events, conditions and treatment in Changi. Galleghan's record of events. 3DRL/2313
• F.G. Galleghan (Brigadier, DSO, OBE, ED, 8th Aust Div, and prisoner of war, Changi. Notebook containing information on prisoner-of-war numbers, rations, Red Cross rations, hospital cases, atrocities perpetrated by the Japanese, cemeteries, and numbers left at liberation. 3DRL/2191
• Reginald W.J. Newton, (Captain). Records relating to officers and enlisted men of U Battalion and the 2/19th enlisted men of U Battalion and the 2/19th Battalion who were Japanese prisoners of war in Burma, Thailand, and Japan. The items include nominal rolls of killed, wounded and missing, and lists of unit members who survived the war. PR01596
• Charles Henry Kappe, (Lieutenant Colonel, OBE). Lieutenant Colonel Charles Kappe wrote The Malayan campaign while a prisoner of war in Changi and Thailand between 1942 and 1945. He drew upon Australian and British war diaries and recollections of fellow prisoners of war. MSS1393

Books

Books held in the Research Centre include:

• Stan Arneil , Black Jack: the life and times of Brigadier Sir Frederick Galleghan, (South Melbourne: Macmillan, 1983)
• David Nelson, The story of Changi, Singapore. The story of the UK Bureau of Record and Enquiry set up in Changi (West Perth, WA: Changi Publication, 1974). Appendices contain a detailed record of the movement of prisoner-of-war parties, commanders of prisoner-of-war parties ex Changi, and Java parties to or via Singapore and Sumatra.
• Hank Nelson, POW Prisoners of war: Australians under Nippon. (Sydney : ABC Enterprises for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 1985)
• A.W. Penfold, W.C. Bayliss, K.E. Crispin, Galleghan's greyhounds: the story of the 2/30th Australian Infantry Battalion, 22nd November 1940 - 10th October 1945 (Sydney: 2/30th Bn AIF Association, Halstead Press, 1949)
• Allan S. Walker, Middle East and Far East, Australia in the War of 1939-1945, Series 5 (Medical), vol. II (Canberra: Australian War Memorial, 1953)
• Lionel Wigmore, The Japanese thrust, Australia in the War of 1939-1945, Series 1 (Army), vol. IV (Canberra: Australian War Memorial, 1957) : Chapter 24 and 25 : maps of railway on pages 542 and 563