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57 At the end of 1943 all civilian internees from South, Central and North Sumatra were brought together in a few new camps located in the interior and the old internment camps were evacuated. Records of Sumatran Internees have been prepared by Jonathan Moffatt and others https://tenkotv.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/sumatrainterneesdocument.pdf ). In October 1943 the male internees including Charles Samuel were transported from the Padang camp by train and later by open trucks to Bangkinang about 70 km west of Pakanbaru and about 250 km north-east of Padang where they were housed initially in an abandoned rubber factory. In December 1943 the women and children aged under 12 in the Padang camp were also transported to Bangkinang to a camp located about 3 km west of the men’s camp in the middle of a jungle of rubber trees. At the end of 1944 both camps collectively held about 3,200 internees. I have checked the list of Internees in the Diary table above against the Moffatt List and added some extra detail in the above table. In the Bangkinang camps the Japanese surrender was announced on 22 August 1945 and the next day the men were allowed to visit their wives and children. Large amounts of food, medicine and other goods came into the camp. On 10 September a seven man reconnaissance team was dropped over Bangkinang. Evacuation started and internees were taken to Medan, Palembang, Padang or Singapore by trucks and then by airplane from Pakanbaru airfield. On 11 November the evacuation was completed. See http://www.indischekamparchieven.nl/en/general-information/per-island/sumatra
58 * survived until after WW2.
59 Age in 1942.
60 Cecil N Buck an engineer was interned with Charles Samuel. His wife Clothilda was also interned in the Women’s Camps in Padang and then Bangkinang with their son Edward (b1931) who was later transferred to the Men’s Camp on 29.6.1943 according to the Moffatt List in footnote 57. This might be the same boy as Butt MC aged 14 in the table at the end of the Diary. All the family survived.
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Civilian PoW Camps in Sumatra
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