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785609
Corporal
Joseph Charles Van Der Straaten
1917/12/25 - Born Jesselton, North Borneo
Son of Mary Lee Gan Howe
Occupation Storekeeper
Next of kin, Mrs Abel AhChaek, Tanjong Clinic, Nelson Road, Singapore
Royal Air Force
Special Technical Corps
Service
1941/04/14 - Enlisted
Japanese PoW
1942/03/08 - Captured Java
PoW No. J-9901
Japanese Index Card - Side One
Japanese Index Card - Side Two
1943/02/09 - Transported oversea from Java with Java Party 13 in the Roko Maru to Singapore
1943/02/13 - Arrived Changi
1943/05/05 - Transported overland to Thailand with ‘H’ Force, train 1
Commander Lt-Col. R.R. Humphries, 77 H.A.A Regiment, Royal Artillery
New PoW No. 10233
Working at Hin Tok Road Camp
Then Hin Tok River before Kanchanaburi
Transported back to Singapore in late 1943.
1945/11/02 - Index Card date of liberation. General Seishiro Itagaki, Japanese Commander of Singapore, would not accept the surrender. Plus it gave him time to cover up all Japanese Atrocities in Singapore. The allied naval landing force 'Operation Tiderace' were delayed as it was still understood the Japanese would dispose of all the PoWs in Singapore if they landed. Mountbatten ordered British paratroopers into Singapore to protect the camps. To many of the PoWs in Singapore, those red berets of the paratroopers were the first signs that the war had ended. All this delayed organising the PoWs. It wasn't till the 12th September that Lord Mountbatten accepted the Japanese surrender at the Municipal Building. Hospital cases were the first to leave Singapore 1945/09/10 on the HMHS Koroa. They were soon followed by Repatriation ships which started reaching the UK about the 15th of October 1945. Why many of the liberated PoWs on these ships had November on their Japanese Index cards, I don't know as in other areas of the Far East, PoWs were marked as Liberated at their PoW camps with the correct date. Unless General Seishiro Itagaki did not make the cards available when the camps were liberated.
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Pacific Star
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War Medal
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1939-1945 Star
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Far East Medals
Information
Derek Joseph Sun
Andrew Snow - Thailand Burma Railway Centre
Java Index
Japanese Transports
Thailand Burma Railway
KEW Files:- WO 361/2216, WO 392/26, WO 361/2009, WO 361/2233, WO 361/1948, WO 345/53,
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