COLLETT BOYS MEMORIAL
On December 7th 1941 the Empire of Japan, in its efforts to control & subjugate the entire Pacific/East Asia/Australasia region, launched a surprise attack on the huge US naval base at Pearl Harbour located in the Hawaiian Islands in the central Pacific. Simultaneously, Japanese forces attacked the US protectorate of the Philippine islands (defended by US General Douglas McArthur) as well as the British bases at Hong Kong & Singapore. Hong Kong fell to the triumphant Japanese army on Christmas day 1941.With respect to the British base at Singapore which had been long declared an “impregnable fortress” for the defence of Australia, it was extremely concerning to the Australian people when that “impregnable fortress” fell to the Japanese army in February 1942 after a bitter struggle. Australia itself was now in dire peril of invasion. At the surrender of Singapore more than 85,000 British & Australian soldiers went into Japanese captivity. Tom & Jim were not part of that military catastrophe as they were stationed further south defending the island of Java just north east of Australia. However the Japanese military juggernaut continued its victorious southward drive & during March 1942 attacked the small Australian garrison at Java, which surrendered after a brief battle due to overwhelming force. Both Tom & Jim found themselves POW’s of the Japanese army. Both brothers wanted to stay together but it was not to be. We shall now outline the very different paths taken by these brothers as Japanese POW’s.
Tom Collet was drafted by the Japanese army for manual, slave labour work on the Singapore docks & transported there from Java by ship in late 1942. After a few months of very hard work on the docks he was shipped to the island of Sumatra, in modern day Indonesia, to a jungle camp for railway construction & mining work. This was hard & brutal work for Tom & the others since the Japanese military code of “bushido” looked down at prisoners as a lower form of life that could be ill treated, brutalised and killed as they saw fit. Tom suffered this existence for over three long years whilst his comrades died around him of starvation, disease & maltreatment by the cruel Japanese & Korean guards. Tom somehow managed to survive the war in captivity & he returned to Australia in 1945 following the Japanese surrender. His health was never the same again but he soldiered on to make a decent life despite his terrible war experiences. His daughter Raelene is in this audience tonite. Gilbert will now point out to you on the story board some of Tom’s typical experiences as a POW in Japanese captivity. These include disturbing images of the deplorable camp conditions & the “skin & bone” POW’s that were forced to perform hard manual work in this pitiable condition but, like Tom, managed to survive their horrendous ordeal.
Jim Collett was separated from his brother & drafted by the Japanese army to work in Thailand on the Thai-Burma railway project. This was a special Japanese army project that entailed the construction of a 400 kilometre railway line through dense jungle between Bangkok/Thailand & Rangoon/Burma to assist in the projected invasion of British India which lay to the west. The Japanese army needed this railway constructed quickly & therefore decided to fast track its construction by the mass employment of local Asian & POW slave labour. What now was put in motion represents one of the darkest chapters of the Second World War history & ranks with the Nazi concentration camp experience. The Japanese employed over 180,000 Asian labourers & 60,000 POW’s to construct this railway under the most brutal of conditions. Starvation, disease, cruel maltreatment & executions resulted in enormous suffering & very high death rates amongst the workers. It was this “hell on earth” where Jim Collett found himself in 1942-43. Despite his best efforts Jim tragically died in October 1943 by circumstances unknown, but easily guessed at. Jim was only one of over 90,000 Asian labourers & 12,000 POW’s that perished at that terrible place. Jim had done his duty to his country & he had made the ultimate sacrifice.
