Mount Kinabalu Historical Milestones

Once upon a time, in the shadow of the great mountain, hundreds of POWs perished from starvation, diseases, sickness, torture and murder by beastly Japanese captors. Even the last fittest survivors were not spared...from death. The same great mountain shadowed the escape of the few who made it out alive to tell the world about their stories of the Sandakan-Ranau Death March. 

Between January 1945 to August 1945, the survivors of Prisoners-of-Wars(POWs) under the captive of the Japanese Imperial Army had marched up 7,000 feet(2,133.60m) through the eastern slope of a mountain of what is now called Mount Kinabalu(Mt Kinabalu). One of the escaped POWs called the walk "Hell in Paradise". At the foothills of Mount Kinabalu at Ranau, the Sandakan-Ranau Death March ended. So did the Japanese Imperial Army surrendered on 15 August 1945.

The POWs had arrived at Ranau after marching 260 km from Sandakan in 3 batches of marches, through the thick forest of Borneo, swampy lands and mountain ranges. The marches took between 17 to 28 days to complete. Many of the POWs did not have boots and had marched bare-footed. They were poorly fed and had to survive on ants, snails or whatever they could find along the march. Furthermore, they were used as carriers to carry ammunitions, war supplies and rice sacks for the Japanese soldiers. Many died from starvation, malnutrition and diseases such as malaria, dysentery, beriberi and sickness. Others who were too weak to keep up were beaten to death,  murdered, shot  or beheaded by the Japanese soldiers. According to official records, a total of 2,776 POWs consisting of 2,000 Australian and 776 British were sent to the prison camp at Sandakan between in July 1942 and June 1943. By 1 January 1945, only about 1,900 POWs were still alive. 1,066 were forced to march inland to Ranau, to avoid Allied forces invasion at Sandakan. Only 329 made it to Ranau. 12 days after the war ended on 15 August 1945, 30 POWs were still alive at Ranau. They too perished with the rest, when the order was given to put a bullet through their heads. At least 323 POWs died at the foothills of Mount Kinabalu.

Only 6 Australian POWs escaped alive. None of the British POWs survived. All of them give evidence to investigators to convict 14 Japanese officers for their war crimes, after the war.

On 7 July 1945, Keith Botterill, Nelson Short, William Moxham and Andy Anderson, decided to escape from Ranau camp, after a guard leaked to them that they were to be disposed of at final destination. They ran away and hid in a cave on the slope of the great mountain, Mount Kinabalu. As they were escaping from an enemy soldier who had spotted them, they bumped into a local named Bariga. Bariga hid them and took care of them. However, Andy Anderson did not make it and died of dysentery. Bariga helped them to find an Australian unit operating behind enemy lines.

A picture of Bariga at BARIGA'S PHOTO.

On 28 July 1945, Sticpewich and Reither sneaked out of Ranau Camp and hid in the jungle. They met a local Christian, Dihil bin Ambilid who took care of them and refused to betray them in spite of Japanese in the area. The Japanese had offered rewards to any local who would inform them about the whereabout of escaping POWs. Unfortunately, Reither died from dysentery and malnutrition. Dihil connected them to the Allied soldiers and saved them.

Both Bariga and Dihil who had rescued the last 4 survivors are Dusun natives of Kundasang, are also the GRANDFATHERS of your local mountain guides up Mount Kinabalu.

Owen Campbell also learnt of the disposal at the final destination, 80 km into the march. When an allied airplane flew very low and the situation was chaotic, he and 4 other POWs ran in the opposite direction from the guard and hid in a long steep slope until the enemies have passed. One of them, Edward Skinner gave up due to beriberi and malaria and slit his throat to commit suicide. Costin died later from dysentery and malaria. Emmett and Webber were fired upon by a Japanese soldier appearing suddenly from a canoe, while waving at it  hoping for help. After surviving 7 weeks in the jungle, Campbell was finally rescued by friendly fishermen who took him to group of Australian commandos nearby.
His account can be found in CAMPBELL'S ESCAPE
(I want to make a confession here. I wept when I first read his account. I closed the door to my office and wept even more...)

Richard Braithwaite was so ill with malaria that it was a question of escape or die. During the early part of the march, he slipped quietly behind a fallen tree. When the enemy had passed, he made his way at nightfall back to the river where they had earlier crossed, hoping to reach the coast. He met and killed a sick Japanese soldier on the way. He was rescued by an elderly local name Abing. Abing brought him to his own village, cared and hid him. The locals hid him in their boat under banana leaves and paddled for 20 hours downstream to Liberan Island, before finally rescued by an American PT boat.

Kinabalu Park and the Kundasang War Memorial was established as a tribute to the memory of 2,428 POWs of 1787 Australian and 641 British who died in the infamous Sandakan-Ranau Death March(also known as the Sandakan Death March), and to the people of Sabah(then known as North Borneo) who had risked their lives to help the POWs.

During World War II, Major G.S.Carter@ Toby Carter was enlisted with the Royal Australian Engineers. When he was gathering military intelligence in Sarawak, he was so affected by horrors and atrocities of the Death March that he felt a Park and a Memorial be established to remember the heros of the March and the natives who had risked their lives to help them. He submitted the proposal. In May 1962, the National Park Bill was approved by the government.

Most importantly, it serves to remind us about PEACE and to ensure the evils of Sandakan-Ranau Death March never to happen again.

On 7 March 1851, Sir Hugh Low, a British colonial administrator at Labuan was the first man to make an attempt to climb up Mount Kinabalu. He was 27 years of age. Accompanied by the local Dusun guide, he took more than 3 weeks to reach the base of the mountain of what is now known as Kinabalu Park Headquarter. There was no trail then. The Dusun guide only accompanied him up to a certain part of the mountain and then he was left alone to climb. In local Dusun tongue, the mountain is called 'Aki Nabalu' meaning 'revered abode of the dead'. The Dusun people were afraid to climb the mountain to disturb the spirits of their dead ancestors. Sir Hugh Low made it to the summit plateau only. He did not make it the highest peak. However, the highest peak was named after him as Low's Peak.

In 1888, John Whitehead, a zoologist held the honour as the first man to make it to the Highest Peak, i.e Low's Peak. While collecting birds and mammals on the mountain slope, he climbed to the true summit.

In 1910, Lilian Gibbs, a British museum botanist, held the honour as the first woman to make it to the Low's Peak. While collecting plants, she climbed to the true summit.

Climbing Mt Kinabalu had been an awesome experience for us. The memories of our struggle up 13,400 feets beyond the clouds has been and still is... alive and an inspiration to us to climb other mountains in our life. To find out more about planning a trip to climb Mount Kinabalu, visit my website at Your One-Stop Practical Guide to Climbing Mount Kinabalu.

Disclaimers:

The above article is written to create an awareness of the historical events that took place at Mount Kinabalu, without prejudice whatsoever, and is published free for all to view.

While due diligence has been duly done to ensure the accuracy of the information presented, the author will not be held be responsible or liable in any way due to misinformation, errors, inaccuracy or outdated information. All information are researched and compiled from publicly available sources not excluding relevant books, internet resources and other available materials. No permission has been sought from the authors or owners of various resources of information available. The author has no intention to infringe the copyrights of any person or organization whatsoever, and as such the author will not be liable or held responsible in any way pertaining to the above.

Notwithstanding the sensitivity of the issue of the Sandakan-Ranau Death March, the author stands strictly from the point of an observer of historical events that have took place. While due diligence has been duly done to ensure accuracy, objectivity and the sensitivity of the  materials presented, the author will not be liable or held responsible in any way pertaining to the above.