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Batu Lintang camp (also known as Lintang Barracks and Kuching POW camp) at Kuching, Sarawak on the island of Borneo was a Japanese internment camp during the Second World War. It was unusual in that it housed both Allied prisoners of war (POWs) and civilian internees. The camp, which operated from March 1942 until the liberation of the camp in September 1945, was housed in buildings that were originally British Indian Army barracks. The original area was extended by the Japanese, until it covered about 50 acres (20 hectares).〔Firkins 115〕 The camp population fluctuated, due to movement of prisoners between camps in Borneo, and as a result of the deaths of the prisoners. It had a maximum population of some 3,000 prisoners.〔Keith 76〕 Life in the camp was harsh, with POWs and internees alike forced to endure food shortages, disease and sickness for which scant medicine was made available, forced labour, brutal treatment, and lack of adequate clothing and living quarters. Of the 2,000-odd British POWs held there, over two thirds died during or as a result of their captivity.〔Ooi 1998, 636〕 The construction and operation of a secret radio for over 2½ years, from February 1943 until the liberation of the camp, was a morale booster and allowed the prisoners to follow the progress of the war. Discovery would have resulted in certain death for those involved. Following the unconditional surrender of Japan on 15 August 1945, the camp was liberated on 11 September 1945 by the Australian 9th Division. On liberation, the camp population was 2,024, of whom 1,392 were POWs, 395 were male civilian internees and 237 were civilian women and children. Amongst official Japanese papers found at the camp following its liberation were two "death orders". Both described the proposed method of execution of every POW and internee in the camp. The first order, scheduled for enactment on 17 or 18 August, was not carried out; the second was scheduled to take place on 15 September. The timely liberation of the camp may have prevented the murder of over 2,000 men, women and children. In July 1948, a teachers' training college moved to the site, where it continues to this day, the oldest such establishment in Malaysia. ==Location and organisation== Kuching lies some up the Sarawak River from the sea;〔Keith 75〕 the camp was situated some to the southeast of Kuching.〔Ooi 1998, 8〕 The barracks were built by the Sarawak Government in early 1941, when Britain, in agreement with the Rajah of Sarawak, sent the 2nd Battalion, 15th Punjab Regiment of the British Indian Army (2/15th Punjab Regiment) to defend Sarawak in case of attack by the Japanese. The camp was near completion for occupation by May 1941.〔Kirby 1969, Appendix 30; Lim 1995, 19; Lim 2005, 34〕 The Japanese first invaded the island of Borneo in mid December 1941, landing on the west coast near Miri;〔Ooi 1998, 6-7〕 invasion was completed by 23 January 1942 when they landed at Balikpapan on the east coast.〔Wigmore 179〕 The first Allied prisoners held in the camp were about 340 British and Indian soldiers who were interned there in mid-March 1942. In time, it held both Allied POWs and Allied civilian internees. Local Sarawakians including ethnic Chinese were not interned in the camp, although some were imprisoned in Kuching gaol.〔Three Chinese men from North Borneo, all staff at the Chinese Consulate at Sandakan, and their families were held in the camp: Mr Huan Lai Cho (the Chinese Consul), his wife and two children; Mr Ting Yuan Li and his wife and child, and Mr Philip Yang; a total of eight Chinese people interned in the camp.〕 Allied civilian prisoners came almost exclusively from different territories on Borneo: from North Borneo (now Sabah), from Brunei, from the Straits Settlements island of Labuan, and from Sarawak, all of which were under British control, and from Dutch Borneo (now Kalimantan). In contrast, the POWs were brought to Batu Lintang from places such as mainland Malaya and Java as well as from Borneo. Many spent time at transit or temporary camps, such as the one at Berhala Island, North Borneo, prior to their transfer to Batu Lintang.〔Ooi 1998, 286〕 The camp officially opened on 15 August 1942, at which time a commemoration stone was erected at the camp.〔Keith 180; Australian War Memorial (AWM) photograph 120332〕 The camp commandant was Lieutenant-Colonel (Lt.-Col.) Tatsuji Suga. Suga was the commandant of all POW and internees’ camps in Borneo; there were others at Jesselton (later Kota Kinabalu), Sandakan and briefly on Labuan island〔Wigmore 595 note 9〕 and also at Tarakan, Banjarmasin and Kandangan; Suga was often absent from Batu Lintang as a result. His second-in-command was Lieutenant (later Captain) Nagata; some sources say Negata or Nekata. Most of the camp guards were Koreans, with a few Formosans (Taiwanese).〔 There was a range of administrative buildings, quartermaster’s stores, guard houses, guards’ quarters and a camp hospital. Throughout its operation, all the camps at Batu Lintang, including the internee ones, were conducted under prisoner-of-war rules.〔Keith 83〕 The entire camp was surrounded by a perimeter barbed wire fence. The internees were segregated into categories and assigned separate compounds, each of which was also surrounded by barbed wire fencing. There were 8-10 compounds,〔Kirby 1969, Appendix 30〕 although their make-up varied through the period of operation of the camp.〔At the beginning the British officers shared with the British Other Ranks, but were later separated into two compounds; at one point the Indonesian soldiers and the Dutch officers were sharing a compound, whilst at another they were in separate compounds; the Indian POWs were kept in different locations over the period of the operation of the camp. (Ooi 1998, 139, 317)〕 The make-up was determined by the arrival and departure of different groups of prisoners as Batu Lintang camp was also used as a transit camp: at one point some of the Australian and British soldiers who were later to die on the Sandakan Death Marches were held at the camp.〔Ooi 1998, 320-1, 384-5; Wigmore 596〕 Contact between the inhabitants of the different compounds was forbidden and transgressors were severely punished. The main groups of POWs were British officers, Australian officers and non-commissioned officers (NCOs), Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (KNIL) officers, British Other Ranks, British Indian Army (2nd/15th Punjab Regiment) personnel, Netherlands East Indies (Indonesian) KNIL soldiers. The British and Australian personnel had mostly been sent from Malaya and Singapore, after the Allied surrender there, whereas the KNIL soldiers and the Punjab Regiment had defended Borneo. The civilian internees were mostly Dutch Roman Catholic priests, British civilians (including children), and British and Dutch Catholic nuns. Each compound had its own "camp master" (or "camp mistress", in the case of the women's compound). The camp master was responsible for liaising between the internees and the Japanese authorities. Each compound contained a number of long barrack buildings, usually , each of which housed 30-100 people. A barrack master was appointed for each building. The camp and barrack masters were appointed by Colonel Suga. In addition, the Dutch other ranks and about 50 British soldiers were stationed in a separate compound at the Kampong Batu Tujoh airfield (also known as Bukit Stabah), near Kuching.〔Ooi 1998, 317, 399-400〕 The camp included areas that had once been a rubber tree plantation, and some of the trees remained inside the compounds, providing a limited amount of shade. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Batu Lintang camp」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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