- TO HELL AND BACK" REVEALING DOCUMENT Perth Major's Diary Of Life In Japanese Prison By Jack Atkinson. In the possession of Major A. E. Saggers, of Dalkeith, who returned last Monday from a Japanese prison camp, is a ledger entitled "Record of Defects for the Dockyard." Externally it is just a most uninteresting ledger, but a perusal of its 200 closely written pages makes you realise the reason Major Saggers treasures it. The book, "acquired" when Singapore fell, is his faith-fully-kept diary during 3½ years of prison telling a story of hardships, intermingled with humour and camp side-lights, and exposing the Japanese in all his stark, brutal primitiveness.
Of course the Japanese banned the keeping of diaries, but Major Saggers risked the danger of execu-tion to pen his expose of Nippon and human picture of camp life. The diary will certainly be used offi-cially. It contains a valuable record of names of other P.O.W. and the entries for a period of six months-graphically and cryptically, entitled "To Hell and Back"--will probably be used in the compilation of a fur-ther list of Japanese war criminals. Some of the entries, written when the author was in a weakened state through malnutrition and allied complaints, reach the high-water mark of literary effort. An illus-tration is part of the entry for July 9, 1944: "How I pray that this dread-ful war may soon terminate victor-iously for us, but not if it means that another war will break out within the next two generations. It is far better that we should be prisoners for another two years.
MAJOR A. E. SAGGERS. Photographed yesterday at Holly-wood Military Hospital.
need be, and finish the job properly than to half-defeat our enemies, thus having another war to fight within 25 years." For all but six months-when he made the trip to "Hell and Back," working on the Siam-Bangkok rail-way in the wilds of Siam--Major Saggers spent most of his prison life in various camps on Singapore Island. At one large camp, where there were inmates of 30 different nationalities, he was the internal camp commandant. From his ac-count, the work must have been equivalent to controlling a division of men with facilities for a battalion. Apart from the working parties and frequent inspections, the Japanese guards were not seen a great deal, and the camp functioned along the same lines as any millitary camp in Australia--with the exception that there was barbed-wire around this one. Camp Administration. Early after the fall of Singapore, A.I.F. officers drew up a scheme of P.O.W. administrations, frequent conferences were held, and the offi-cers retained the same control over the men, with the resultant reten-tion of a high sense of morale. Camp inspections were maintained, with the usual "biting the ear"-just like the Northam days--if things were not just so; if the cooks, our men incidentally, were falling down on their job, or the men were not keeping what remained of their gear in trim. Messing arrangements had to be carried out by our officers. The Japanese would dump down so much food-usually rice, of course-and after a few exchanges with another mess, the cooks would get busy and try to make the food with a rice base as palatable and varied as pos-sible. During the 3½ years, several Red Cross parcels and supplies of stores were received. These were carefully distributed and the goods helped to eke out the men's meagre rations for a time. It was discovered after Japan's capitulation that thou-sands and thousands of other Red Cross parcels, which would perhaps have saved the lives of many who died through malnutrition and de-ficiency diseases, were wilfully with-held by the guards. Some of these stores were belatedly issued soon before the men were liberated. To while away idle time, and also provide supplementary food, most men worked on vegetable gardens and soon before the Japanese sur-rendered, 77 per cent of the veget-ables supplied the men were grown in the camp gardens, which extended for some acres. Camp funds were set up and ad-ministered by Major Saggers. He managed to buy a number of ducks, and a good percentage of the eggs went to the hospital patients. These men fared little better than the other P.O.W. on a deficiency diet and any "luxuries," a change from the monotonous rice, were eagerly ap-preciated. Those who were not in hospital-"the less sick"-could not help their comrades as much as they would have liked for inflation hit the camp and some goods rose 800 per cent in price. The Japanese guards, ever willing to turn a dis-honest penny, figured largely in this black market. The details officers had to attend to were legion. Here is a list for one day prepared by Major Saggers: Duty company fatigues and how al-located, sports clothing, iron beds for hospital, canteen organisation and control, officers' lecture parade. sports meeting to be arranged, gar-dening and organisatlon, tools in unit. black market activities. kitchen organisation, sick, building of oven, bricks to be carted on trailer, clothes lines. Q.M. store troubles, rations distribution. boots, educational scheme, laundry for ablution and washing, additional shower points. renairs to kitchen roof and orderlies duty roster. Lectures and Frog Races. Major Saggers deals at great length in his diary with the educa-tion lectures given both officers and men. Subjects taught ranged from accountancy to Malay and Hindus-tani and the lectures ranged from a discussion on the racehorse to Egyp-tian archaeology. embracing prac-tically every subject in between. Singing and voice production les-sons were well attended and the men soon had a first-rate choir. with an orchestra, playing with camp-made instruments, providing the music. Numerous sing-songs were held around a rickety old piano and an arts and crafts display was also held. Major Saggers's entry was a panoramic sketch of the view of Singapore Harbour from his room. The few books in the camp were bound and re-bound. Books of music were transcribed for the orch-estra, and alo other music was writ-ten from memory. Then men organised frog-racing. They had a judge's box, a starter's box, bookmakers and clerks and a tote; in fact, it was run almost like a normal W.A.T.C. meeting. The
frogs were garbed in tiny rugs with numbers on them and there was the hot favourite--who generally broke down-just as in horse-racing. One owner was warned off the course for life and fined two packets of ciga-rettes for "doping" his entry by put-ting pepper on the frog's tail. "Smithy Leading Japanese!" Rumours, of course, provlded nearly as much amusement, although at times there were a few who took them seriously. A sample: Sir Charles Kingsford Smith, reported lost in the Pacific some years ago, had in reality gone to Japan and was now leading the Japanese Air Force. Shades of Smithy! What were not rumours but hard facts, however, were the sights the men in Changi in the early days of their prison life witnessed in the harbour. One day a fleet of 47 Jap-anese warships, including seven air-craft carriers and several heavy cruisers, sailed in a northerly direc-tion. "The Japanese are certainly making good use of this great naval base," wrote Major Saggers at the time. If only his careful entries could have been transmitted to the Allies then. Frequently the Japanese searched the camp for diaries or cameras, but always Major Saggers managed to hide his incriminating ledger. A page, heavily underscored in red ink, he carefully cut out and placed among his letters from home, which the guards generally just scanned. However, if he had encountered a guard who knew English he cer-tainly would not be up and about in Perth now, for that one page was crammed with irrefutable evidence of Japanese brutality. On March 10, 1943, he had re-ceived the first letter from home, containing a photograph of his daughter, and he celebrated the great event by "going on the spree" with his only tin of condensed milk which he had been saving for months. Well-kept War Cemetery. Practically every Sunday thorugh-out the 3½ years, church services were held and these were usually well attended, especially during the last weeks. Many pilgrimages also were made to the war cemetery at Changi barracks. "This must be the best-kept war cemetery in the Pacific," said Major Saggers. "The War Graves Commission should have nothing to worry about there. Work-ing parties kept the surrounding
gardens in excellent order and cement crosses were erected, with the dead soldier's number inlaid on a brass plaque. "Our check parades are a spec-tacle," says an entry in the diary. "Everyone is dressed differently. many in khaki but most in Dutch green clothes or white calico shorts. Footwear is wonderfully varied, anything from home-made slippers and clogs to rubber kneeboots. But the greatest variety is in headgearthere must be hundreds of different styles of hats worn." "During July. 1944," says another entry, "our camp bootmaker repaired 3,236 pairs of boots .We repaired 5,653 articles of clothing and manu-factured 85,000 yards of sewing cot-ton, 450 brushes and brooms, also 744 tooth brushes and reconditioned 484 during the same month." Versatile Workers. Here is an entry made in August, 1945: "Raw cellulose pulp is being made from lalang and is being stored pending the completion of a paper-making plant. The tailor's shop has continued under increasing difficul-ties, while the cobbler's shop carried out the usual repairs. "The rubber factory is still mak-ing sandals, etc, and has repaired a number of medical appliances--air cushions, syringe bulbs, etc. The brush factory made 167 pairs of clogs in addition to the usual output of brooms, brushes and squeezes, etc. "Grass (vitamin extract) centre produced 36gals of grass extract daily. Alcohol for medical purposes is being made from the washing of sugar sacks 'toddy' and occasionally waste pineapple. Tapioca leaves have been found to be of consider-able value for the treatment of beri-beri "The artificial limb factory is still doing excellent work: the dental laboratory is producing new den-tures and the repair of old ones is still undertaken. About 120 pairs of glasses were repaired last month. "The production of 'toddy' for July was 302 pints. This is done by climb-ing the coconut trees and tapping a certain portion in the heart of the tree foliage. The camp has six goats, milk from which goes to the very sick, and recently twins were born; mother, son and daughter doing well."And And the entry for August 17: "Peace at last! Thank God that hostilities have ceased and all our men can return to their homes and enjoy the blessings and comforts of peaceful life once more."
West Australian (Perth, WA : 1879 - 1954), Saturday 29 September 1945, page 8
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1899 - 1966 (67 years) Has 2 ancestors and 11 descendants in this family tree.
