Location
Lat 5° 49' 60N Long 118° 7' 0E  Located on the north-east coast of Borneo.  Developed into a huge Japanese base. The area was assaulted by the Australian 17 Division on July 1, 1945.

Sandakan Airfield
Japanese airifeld built by POW labor. Still in use today

Sandakan POW Camp
Thousands of Australian and British POWs were interned here during WWII, before being marched across Borneo on the "Borneo Death Marches" that claim more of the starved survivors of the camp.

Berhala Island (Berhala Rock)
Island at the entrance to Sandakan Harbor. Prewar, the island was a leper colony. The Japanese used it as a prison camp in 1941 American writer Agnes Keith married to a agent for the British North Borneo Company who produced and sold rubber was captured with her husband by the Japanese and temporarly imprisoned on Berhala Rock and later transfered to a Japanese concentration camp Kuching on the southwest coast of Borneo. They were extremely lucky to both survive the war.

Sandakan Harbor
Harbor to the south of Sandakan town.

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Last Updated
October 1, 2009