Japanese Prisoner of War - Request for info

[Ermantrude]

I am writing on the off chance that someone may be able to assist me in my search to piece together details about my grandfather who was a Japanese prisoner of war.

We have some very loose information about his time in captivity and I am hoping to fill in more of the details. I would be grateful for any advice that you can offer or details of any organisations that you recommend I contact for further information.

My grandfather, David Murray, was a civilian (from Scotland) working for the organisation Harrison and Crosfield in Sumatra on a rubber plantation at the outbreak of War. We believe that he was conscripted into the Dutch East Indian army with only a rifle, uniform and pay book but was never issued any ammunition. Subsequently we he was captured by the Japanese in March 1942 (we think).

Of the very few possessions that my grandfather possessed at the end of a War was a metal tin which we believe was his food bowl and scratched into the metal are the following names, which we believe to be either ports or names of camps:
Bindjei
Sian tar
Togabolon
Shoehan/Smoehan
Balige
Belawan
Mergui
Ryjst Pelleris
Tavoy Kadwe
Ye Paingwun
Thanbyuzayat

We know that after he was liberated he was issued a soldier's pay book for the Australian Military Forces and was moved to a field hospital in Kanchanaburi. He then subsequently made his way from Nakompaton to Bangkok, Bangkok to Singapore and Singapore to Melbourne by boat (The Circassia) where we has reunited with his family (my mother, uncle and grandmother).

We also have postcards written from camp no. 3 Branch Thair War and camp Nike in Thailand.

Any assistance you could offer would be greatly appreciated. He survived 3 years in some of the most dreadful conditions and yet very rarely talked about this traumatic period of his life. Hoping on the off chance that someone may read this and point us in the right direction!


Thanks in advance.

Karin

[shippo]

he was issued a soldier's pay book for the Australian Military Forces

Hi,
Does his pay book have a service number noted on it?
Also do you have a year of birth for your grandfather and a name for your grandmother? It just helps to confirm that if anything is found that we have the right fella.

[christanel]

Welcome to the British-Genealogy forums.

If you came to us from FWR reading This will tell you a little about us,

Was your grandfather living in Australia prior to working for Harrison and Crosfield in Sumatra? I am just trying to get a handle on where, or indeed whether, there will be any records to access. Being issued with an Australian soldier's pay book seems to indicate he was regarded as an Australian prisoner of war.
This site may have some useful links.

Christina

[ellej06]

Hello Karin,
I've just started looking at this site and was looking for some information about my great great grandfather.
I stumbled on your post by accident and just wanted you to know that my father was on one of the ships carrying the prisoners of war from Japanese camps. Just witnessing the state of those men was the worst experience he had during his years of war. He was only 19. He also rarely spoke of it so I don't know the name of the camp.
Take care,
Eleanor

[wimsey]

Bindjei, Balige, Belawan are in Sumatra - coastal towns I think

Mergui now Myeik, Myanmar (Burma) site of Mergui Road worked on by prisoners under brutal conditions (apparently)

Thanbyuzayat, Myanmar, site of a camp, a railway built by prisoners and a large prisoner cemetery

not sure of the other places - spellings change