‘The outrage in Miri'

It was just after midnight on 3 August 1945 when four Australian infantrymen of the 2/13th Battalion left camp and walked down a track to the river near the town of Miri in Sarawak, British Borneo. The Battalion had arrived in the area at the end of June, with orders to flush out the remnants of scattered Japanese units, secure the burning oilfield (which contained the first of the Shell Company’s wells in Malaya) and begin rebuilding infrastructure and civilian institutions in the devastated territory. Miri had fared badly during the Japanese occupation: disruption to the local economy saw an exodus of townspeople, and many buildings had been reduced to rubble by Allied bombing and the retreating Japanese. But with the arrival of the Australians, many of the people of Miri returned, including the large Chinese population. ² It was towards the Chinese quarter that the four Australian soldiers now walked. They crossed a footbridge and knocked on the door of the nearest house, where a couple lived with their six children and the husband’s elderly parents. The husband opened the door. Two of the Australians were carrying guns. The men walked inside.