Prisoner of war's sister urges Australians to remember horrors of Sandakan

In short:

The small WA town of Boyup Brook has held an annual memorial service for the victims of Sandakan Death Marches for more than 30 years.

June Edwards lost her brother Bill to the horrors of the notorious Japanese Prisoner of War camp.

The Sandakan death marches in WWII are described by the Australian War Memorial as the greatest single atrocity committed against Australians in war.

The last words 101-year-old June Edwards has from her brother Bill Beard are a scrawled note sent from the Sandakan prisoner of war camp in 1945.

Private Beard simply wrote: "Today is my birthday."

He is among the hundreds of Australian soldiers who never made it home from the notorious Japanese internment camp.

After the fall of Singapore in 1942, nearly 2,500 Commonwealth troops became Japan's prisoners of war on the Malay-Indonesian island Borneo.

Just six soldiers survived the horrific treatment inflicted by their captors.

The local connections left a particular mark on the small town of Boyup Brook, about 260km south of Perth, which falls silent each year to remember one of the most brutal chapters in Australia's military history.

Fate shrouded in mystery

Ms Edwards said in the two years after Singapore fell, her family did not know what happened to Bill, who came from the nearby town of Worsley.

Then they received a telegram that he was a prisoner of war.

She said her mother knew her son would never return when his photo fell from the wall.

"We had hopes of him coming back," Ms Edwards said.

"But Mum said ... he'll never come back, I know from his photograph he'll never be back."

The family later discovered he had died from malaria on July 10, 1945, just a month before the end of the war.

Town's dedicated commemoration

Boyup Brook locals built a dedicated Sandakan war memorial in the early 1990s, one of the first in the country outside of Sydney.

A service is held on the second Tuesday in September each year.

Late resident and former POW Ted McLaughlin wanted to pay tribute to his good mates who died in Borneo.

When the horror of what had happened in Sandakan emerged after the war, Joe McLaughlin said his father became dedicated to ensuring those men were never forgotten.

"It took a while to find out how his mates died, and he said he must remember them,"Mr McLaughlin said.

In addition to the memorial service, the town sponsors a local student to travel to Malaysia each year, alongside historian Lyn Silver, to learn the history.

Remembrance critical

Ms Silver said the horrors of Sandakan were covered up after the war, and should never be forgotten.

"The number who died and the manner of death were so horrific," she said.

"When this was all discovered by investigators, a conscious decision was made not to give out any details to prisoners of war's families because it was too distressing."

Ms Edwards was still brought to tears at the memory of her brother, and the cruelties he suffered.

At 101, she concedes this year's service at Boyup Brook could be her last.

But she was touched to see new generations learning the history of Sandakan.

"The schools come down with their choirs and all the young ones are there," she said.

"They've got to hold them to let people know."