The Shrine Job (Fallen Warriors Shrine) - stories

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POW | Surrender - 1942 | Singapore - from Feb.1942 | Burma -Thailand Railway | "A" Force | "B" Force | "C" Force | "D" Force | "E" Force | "F" Force | "G" Force | "H" Force | "J" Force | Singapore - from March, 1945 | Surrender - 1945

1) Japanese officer and his sword

NX76207 - PEACH, Francis Stuart Banner, Col., BHQ, Adjt.

"C" Coy was detached from the Unit at Changi fairly early in 1942 and moved to Adam Park Camp. I went with them. At the time we were employed as a 'working party' on the Royal Singapore Golf Links, building an ornamental bridge over the McRitchie Reservoir to some high ground, where another party led by Roger Cornforth was working on a shrine. It was, in fact, by comparison with other experiences, a congenial occupation. The Japanese in charge was Lieut. Kanamoto, an engineer; an earnest young man, and there was little real trouble although we were still adjusting ourselves to the idea of being Ps.O.W.

One day I was contemplating the world in general and nothing in particular when I noticed Roger (a big man who played Rugby for Australia) leading his team across a temporary footbridge just up to our left. He was heading past our site so I walked up to a green surrounded by bunkers to intercept them and pass the time of day.

It turned out that Roger had had a row with the Japanese and was walking off the job and returning to his camp. I thought this was a little strange at the time.

However, they passed on and I continued my contemplation on the side of the bunkers until I noticed a Japanese officer running across the footbridge and heading in my direction. He seemed angry and, as he approached, he drew his sword which he brandished in a most unpleasant way. He was frothing at the mouth and I quickly realised that he had mistaken me for Roger. I could not recall the unarmed counter to a two-handed Japanese sword so, when he became uncomfortably close, I decided I had better move on.

I was quite satisfied with my reaction, I did not panic (much) but managed at a standing jump to clear first one bunker (about 25 yards) on a low trajectory, and then another similar bunker on the far side of the green. The Japanese officer, no doubt without the same incentive, got bogged down in both bunkers which gave me the opportunity of moving down the hundred odd yards to Kanamoto with what shreds of dignity still remained, and reach him and safety, a short head in front of the angry one.

On my comment that I thought I was being followed - Kanamoto replied, "Ah, it is Capt. Aoki, I think he is very angry". I agreed, as there was no doubt of this by the way he was continuing to wield his sword. However, Kanamoto explained all and in due course the captain turned to me and said, "I Captain Aoki make a mistake, I aporogise."

Then followed further discussion in which Aoki said, "Kanamoto has very old family Samurai sword." The swords were unsheathed and I noticed that Aoki's sword was notched all down the blade. In reply to my question about it, he replied, "Shina", and pantomimed the lopping of heads - in China.

Aoki again said, "I, Japanese officer - I make a mistake ­ I aporogise - we will fight - Mr Kanamoto will lend you his sword." This did not look too good, and to make matters worse a number of my "friends" from "C" Coy had gathered around and appeared to be barracking: it was reminiscent of schooldays: when a fight broke out, the cry "Brawl on", and a crowd would gather.

This still seemed to put me on the spot, so, to play for time, I requested a few lessons in the use of a Japanese sword. It appears that there is no parry, merely a matter of slash and thrust. There was no question, I felt really on the spot.

However the last remnants of adrenalin did not forsake me and I had an inspiration, I informed Aoki that I had been the champion swordsman at the Royal Military College, Duntroon and that, at graduation, I had become the champion swordsman of the entire Australian Army, and had never lost a fight. I told him that if we fought I would surely kill him. I added that if he went on with the whole thing, he would place me in a most difficult situation, because it would take a lot of explaining to his superiors. I said that, "If he was a Japanese officer and a gentleman, he really should not put me in such an impossible 'no win' situation".

Further discussion followed and then to my relief Aoki said, "You are right, I put you in difficult position, I Japanese officer aporogise - we will not fight." This was not the end of it, as I distinctly recall sighs of disappointment coming from my "C" Company "friends".

There seemed something odd about this, and I recall thinking "Who wants friends, when you have "C" Company?". However we subsequently spent some time together at places like Second Ave., Hindhede's Quarry and Bukit Batok etc. I made many chums and we shared many experiences, e.g. Schofield's rice grinders and kitchens (I always knew we were due for a move when we got the kitchen floor cemented); Bob Jack's radio etc. I formed a tremendous regard for those wonderful chaps and have always greatly appreciated their friendship and companionship.

(Source: Stuart Peach - Makan No. 276, Jan/March, 1985)

2) Accident at McRitchie Reservoir

NX25651 - EGAN, Jack Edgar George Banner, L/Cpl., B Coy, 11 Pl.
NX36588 - WARTON, Allen Charles, Pte., B Coy, 10 Pl.
NX66072 - STONER, James Ronald, A/L/Sgt., B Coy, 10 Pl.

He had tried to bring himself to my memory by asking if I remembered the incident, when the gangs were cutting the road to the Shrine through the jungle and a tree had fallen on Jack Egan and killed him. Allen said that he had had his spine fractured and some ribs as well, at the same time. He then spent nearly five months in a plaster cast. He still has some arthritis in the back as a result.

(Source: Allen Warton - Makan No. 237, Nov/Dec, 1977)

I was in hospital, when ALLEN WARTON was in plaster sent back from the Bukit Timah Road Job. He was on extra rations to keep the plaster tight; also, I remember, he had a piece of wire that he used to shove down his back, so as to try and shift the bugs, that got under the plaster. Since the plaster was in short supply, they could not take it off and put another one on.

(Source: Jack Burke - Makan No. 239, Jan/Feb, 1978)

On 29/10/1942, I was detailed to accompany a Japanese 3 star soldier in a truck to supervise a small working party of Ps.O.W.

We proceeded to a small forested area near the McRitchie Reservoir on Singapore Island. The Jap instructed us to fell several trees selected by him, which were to be used in the construction of Japanese Toris or gateways.

An axe was provided, and two men started felling the selected trees.

I was standing with Jack Egan from Lismore and Allen Warton of Temora and kept an eye on the first tree being felled.

When I saw the first tree being felled quivering, I yelled, "TIMBER", and heard a crackling above our heads, and half a second later yelled, "LOOK OUT", as I saw a tree falling towards us.

About 3 metres of the tree alongside us fell on us, grazing my right shoulder and hitting Jack Egan on the head, killing him instantly. It struck Allen Warton on the back and he dropped to the ground crying, "My back, my back". The Jap panicked and did not know what to do.

We found a flat sheet of iron plate on the floor of the truck, moved Jack Egan's body to the truck and then lifted Allen gently on to it, put him on the floor of the truck and told the Jap to drive us to the hospital at Changi.

Jack Egan's body and Allen were handed over to the hospital and after being given morphia the surgeons encased Allen's body in plaster and he eventually came back to the 2/30 Bn. lines and, by the grace of God and stoical determination on his part, is thankfully still with us.

On ascertaining the cause of the accident, we found that the jungle vine believed to be a loyer vine about 2 to 3 inches in diameter stretched between the tree being felled and the one that shed about 3 metres of its top upon us. The vines have a tensile strength approximating steel rope strength and are quite common in rain forests.

(Source: Ron Stoner - Makan No. 276, Jan/March, 1985)

3) Melbourne Cup Day, 1942

NX19398 - HARDING, Alfred Henry (Alf), Pte. - A Company, 9 Platoon
NX47865 - WARD, Kevin James, Pte. - A Company, 8 Platoon
NX70486 - BOOTH, Edward Holroyd (Baldy or Ward), Capt. - D Company, O/C

I am told that Melbourne Cup Day was celebrated in various ways in different camps, but the Work Party on the "Shrine Job" based in the cottages at Caldecott Hill had the advantage of having Alf Harding with them  ......read more"

(Source: Kevin Ward, Makan No. 236, Sept/October, 1977)

4) Transport Detachment

NX65871 - ALLARDICE, Stephen Russell (Steve), Sgt. - HQ Coy. HQ. Transport Platoon
NX27335 - McKNIGHT, Gordon Leslie, Sgt. - HQ Coy. Transport Platoon

Steve tells me that while a large part of the Battalion was working on the "Shrine Job" as their first Working Party, (Japanese), he and some 70 men made up a Transport Detachment at 2nd Avenue, off Bukit Timah Road, and their trucks picked up the men who were at Adam Road Camp and took them to the Shrine and then carted blue metal and cement.

He asks, "How many of the boys of that detachment remember the American-Jap, taxi-driver, Okamoto, who was their interpreter and who drove a jeep, on to which each morning they loaded a 44 gallon drum of petrol, so that it was covered by the curtains at the back, and which he drove away to sell the petrol bringing back the empty drum, to be-filled with water and to be returned to the stack?

Or, the little wooden plaque, issued for each vehicle, the Japanese writing on which plaque said, in effect, that it was to be allowed to proceed out of the camp along Bukit Timah Road without a guard so that it could have a "road test". Invariably the vehicle could not be passed in its test?

Or, who would remember Gordon McKnight running a lot of Sig cable wire from the house beside the creek to the camp in order that they could have electric light? Or, who would remember the training and racing of bullfrogs and Bill Bailey being the bookmaker laying the odds, most particularly on the Jap Soldiers' pay-day?

(Source: Steve Allardice, Makan No. 236, Sept/October, 1977)

5) Day 13 of the Return to Malaya tour

Norm King, Athol Charlesworth and some others, tried out the fairways and greens at Singapore Golf Club.

Norm King made sure that George Aspinall photographed at the lakes on the golf course, in order to show, where tree trunks were launched into the water, after being felled in the jungle and brought to the banks of the lake, as he was one of those, who had to swim alongside the logs, guiding them to where they were wanted by the Japs for their bridge on the road to their shrine. George's photos show only the sections of the piles, showing above water. The bridge was destroyed and the tops of the piles cut off, after August 1945. Incidentally it was "Dutchy" Holland, who was able to pinpoint in one photo, the jungle, where Jack Egan was killed, whilst on the Shrine Job by a tree, which had been felled, but the top hamper of which had been so interwoven with vines, that its butt swung back and hit Jack in the face. (See map page 242 "Galleghan's Greyhounds": "Syonan Biazya" - "Divine Bridge".)

(Source: 248 - Special Issue, June, 1979 - 2/30 Bn Group Tour, Malaysia and Singapore)

6) March to the Shrine Job

Keith said that at Singapore he was in touch with the Chinese lad, Wu Wen Kay, who was of so much assistance with the lads, on the march to the 'Shrine Job' and in camp at Mount Pleasant. He is now Chief Storeman in one of the Govt. Stores, and treasures a book "The Australians" given to him by "B.J.".

(Source: 234 - Keith Broughton, Makan No. 234, April/May, 1977)

7) Twenty first birthdays

NX47498 - GRANT, Thomas Bertram (Tom ), L/Cpl. - C Company, 14 Platoon

Tom, one of the young fellows in the Battalion, had his twenty first birthday on one of the Working Parties on Singapore Island. I asked him which one it was and he has told me that he was working on the "Shrine Job”, but he's not quite sure of the name of where he bedded down for the night.

The Party, as a whole, was somewhat of Brigade strength with a major part of the 2/30th plus a company of odds and sods from Division HQ as a group under Noel Johnston as Commanding Officer. These were first on an Estate known as Mount Pleasant, buildings, housing civilian whites before the War; the Party later moved over to Caldecott Hill near the wireless station.

Another portion of the Party from the Artillery, 2/15, 2/10 and 4th Anti/Tank were in buildings on lower ground in Thompson Road.

"Black Jack" was in command of the whole, occupying one of two cottages with the Japanese guard occupying the adjacent one, and it was the guard there that B.J. had outfitted by Bert Galbraith, as Regimental Tailor, because their ragged uniforms offended his dignity, that he should be a P.O.W. under a guard of what seemed "Rag Tag and Bob Tail" of the Japanese Army.

Tom declares, "The Mt. Pleasant tag is near enough for where we slept, though I have never been quite sure whether that name or Caldecott Estate was the correct one. By a process of association I tend to call the place Caldecott. You will recall a malady which afflicted most of us at that time. It was named according to where you were at the particular time; such as, Changi Balls; Bukit Timah Balls; ice Balls and so on. We referred to it as Caldecott Cods, hence you will understand why I refer to the Caldecott Estate as the place of the Camp. I have never heard it referred to as Mt. Pleasant Balls or Cods etc. I am writing, of course, about what our medical people, who, by their training and knowledge, referred to it as Dermatitis of the scrotum. Those who experienced it will not forget what an uncomfortable condition it was. (On Caldecott Hill, Tom, Capt. John Taylor had his R.A.P. in a garage, situated on a concrete driveway, serving various houses, and I can conjure up a mind picture of vigorous fanning to ease the stinging of whatever mixture it was that John Taylor was trying out, because there was a lot of experimenting to find what might combat the troubles, so that there were various colours of potions applied, and another name I recall was "Flaming Onions". Ed)

Tom continues: "We were not to know at that time but Caldecott Estate was, in my experience, far and away the best camp during my P.O.W. days. Mostly we travelled from there to the shrine job at Bukit Timah. On the day I turned 21, I found myself at the shrine, which atop the hill was probably the highest point on the Island. It. was approached by a length of roadway and then by a flight of concrete stairs, which, I suppose, were quite impressive in their way. My thoughts at the time could be summed up, I suppose, by saying that I wondered, if I might see my next birthday. Such occasions were not celebrated in the way one might expect had circumstances been otherwise.

Most of us would have celebrated four birthdays over there; some might have had five. It was possible that the Burma Railway was the venue for the next. I am not at all sure whether it was at No 1 or No 2 Camp. Indeed conditions were such, that I doubt, if I could have told you off hand what month it was, let alone the date of birthdays or any other anniversary. The wonder of that place was not that so many died but that any one at all survived the place.

My next anniversary was on the 'drome job at Changi and the following one at Johore Bahru; after the Burma Railway experience these places tend to be forgotten. The 'drome is not much mentioned these days, though it was, at that time, a long haul, exposed to the sun all day and every day and tended to take away some of the edge one may have had. In Johore Bahru I was on Xl Tunnelling Party and that was also hard work on the rations of that time.

(Source: Makan No. 236, Sept/Oct, 1977)

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Last updated 21/06/2020