Rempang Island War-Prisoner Camp Part I -III (contributed by Tetchann)

The Rempang Island was an Indonesian uninhabited island of some 10 kilometers located at southeast of Singapore. On this unfamiliar island, Japanese soldiers around 100 thousand were imprisoned soon after we were defeated in the WWII.

Since we suffered from starvation and severe environment on this island, we had a special emotion toward the island, calling it as a death island or REN-PAN island (phonetic translation of Rempang, in Jananese characters which means lovesick and meal.)

For my contribution to the board "When WWII was over," one of my net-friends toshy wrote a comment which said the Rempang island might be "a memory you do not want to remember, but I recommend to write it on this board as a fact to be a record handed down to future generations." So, I decided to write about the Rempang island in three parts.

Contents

Part I The southern Malay Peninsula: The Keluang checkpoint
Topics: From Keluang to the Rempang Island

Part II The Rempang Island: SHIZUKA-Village KOUBOU- Hill Camp
Topics: Farm cultivation and relcamation
So-called Rempang dropsical swelling (malnutrition)
Malaria
Ration
New Year's Day, 1946

Part III Haiku gathering and homecoming of TAKIMOTO Party.
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Part I
The southern Malay Peninsula: The Keluang checkpoint

Around 21 October '45, after we moved from Laon Gosse to Menkipole at the southern Malay Peninsula, we heard a rumor which said "Japanese army war-prisoners are to be sent to an uninhabited island called Rempang, on the island of which, so many German war-prisoners of WWI were starved to death."
On 23 the same month, we received an order from the British army to move to the Rempang Island via Singapore through Kluang.

At Keluang, there was a grave British army checkpoint, prepared with showy guarded black, gray, and white camps. Then, swept us was a rumor which said that the black camp was for those who did not obey to commands, nor answer
to questions honestly and those who had hid personal possessions.

Black camp: For war criminal suspects. Surrounding were barbed wire fence with lookout posts at four corners.
Gray camp: For suspicious personnels.
White camp: For unsuspicious personnels.

At the checkpoint, we were at high tension not knowing what kind of inspection would be, but my group could comparatively easily pass the inspection.
The (ex-)enlisted men were simply inspected for their personal possessions, while the (ex-)officers were inspected by Blitish inspectors and Indian enlisted men.
When my turn came, with absent of interpreters at the time, I was passed as "OK" without knowing what was going on. And, all the members of the TAKIMOTO Party were fortunately sent to the white camp.

From Keluang to the Rempang Island.
Under the guard of the British and Indian military men at the Kluang Station, we were sent on board the freight train, which moved slowly to the south taking exceedingly over 10 hours to the Singapore station.

From there, under the guard by the British and Indian military men and all kinds of insult and abuse words by the residents watching by the side, we moved to the KEPPEL harbor and got on boad a cargo boat of some 100 tons, on 26 October the same year.
When I saw the Rempang Island after some hours of sleep, I felt it unexpectedly big.

When our boat came alongside a quay temporary constructed by our engineer troops, which had came here earlier and gave the pier a paradoxically splendid name "TAKARA-KO (in a mean of the pier for a treasure boat)," I saw there were half-naked and emaciated laboring soldiers and some of them collected discarded cigarette stubs.

They depreciated themselves and said we were "Rempang beggars."

End of the Part I

To be continued to Part II