ABSTRACT
Continuous bombing by Allied aircraft rendered Sandakan airfield unusable almost it was completed. At first the Japanese used the POWs to repair the airfield after each attack, but on January 10, 1945, they discontinued this practice, and therefore POWs were no longer required to perform physical labor. In Sandakan, the bombing had continued throughout February while the first march was on the path to Ranau. Hoshijima ordered that a “POW” sign be made in the camp compound, with each letter 10 meters high and wide. After the second march left Sandakan, there were 288 prisoners remaining at Sandakan, most of them too weak to have undertaken the march, as well as a few relatively healthy men who had stayed to tend to the sick. Because the camp buildings had been burned down, the prisoners were forced to improvise huts from whatever materials were at hand.
