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LEE KONG
LEE KONG being duly sworn and with the assistance of LAURIE CHAN of ANGAU as Interpreter gives the following evidence:- I an a Chinese and I was residing at CANTON when I was taken into custody by the Japanese about December 1941. From there I was taken to HONG KONG. From there to the DUTCH EAST INDIES and then to RABAUL where I stopped for ten days and then we went on to BUIN. It was the latter end of 1942 when I arrived at BUIN. I was a member of the same party with KWUNG LIM working on an island on an aerodrome with the previous witness with KWUNG LIM It was a small island, about an hour and a half by motor boat from KAHILI. There were 30 Chinese originally went there. One died and the remainder came back, 10 at first and than the remainder 19. When I arrived on the Island I saw about 300 white prisoners. Some of them were wearing felt hats like those (Witness indicates Australian Felt Hat ) and others were wearing small brimless cap (Witness is shown rough sketch of forage cap and says "That looks like it"). Those caps had no peaks. They ware khaki. The hats were very old and I did not notice any badges or colours. One of the white prisoners could speak a little Chinese and he was in a compound very close to where I was. I did not talk to him but I hoard KWUNG LIM talking to him. While we were working our guards told us all that they had got the white prisoners from SINGAPORE. The shirts and trousers worn by the white prisoners were old and torn but some of them were wearing stripes like those (Witness points to a set of Australian sergeant's stripes) (and being shown these stripes upside down as well says those he saw were worn. with the apex downwards). The stripes were only on the one arm. I did not see any officar badages.When I left the island there were about 100 white prisoners left. I was an this Island three months. It was about 3 years ago. We went to this Island about 20 days after we arrived at BUIN. While I was on the island a lot of the white prisoners were killed by aerial bombs and about 40 or 60 were wounded, and subsequently died. These casualties ware all from the one night raid. The white prisoners wore not allowed to shelter in slit trenches but the Chinese were alloyed in trenches. While the raid was in progress a Jap guard covered the Australian. compound with a machine gun from his pit. I did not see the Japs fire at the Australians durring the raid. The morning after the raid I saw white prisoners carrying bodies and burying than. I could see the burial from a distance. There seemed to be over a hundred bodies and I would think they needed two or three holes. After the bombing raid the wounded just remained in the compound. During the next few days as the wounded died they were placed in weighted sacks, taken to the small wharf by motor trucks and transferred to motor boats, taken out to sea and dumped. I myself saw about 20 carried out but than may have been others while I was away at work. On one occasion the Japanese beat the white prisoners. During the night a bomb had fallen on the Jap kitchen killing several Japs and the following afternoon at about five o'clock when the white prisoners had returned from work as each man entered the compound the Japs beat him with a piece of wood unless he was carrying some firewood. The beating appeared to be a punishment for those who were not carrying firewood although my guess is that it was a reprisal from the bombing raid. About half of them were beaten. On average each victim received three or four strokes but two or three of the prisoners were picked out for special beatings. These two or three became unconscious and the Japs threw cold water over them and when that revived them they beat them again. When I left the island I noticed that all the white prisoners were vary pale and thin and weak. The name of the unit guarding the white prisoners was OSAKI. They were Marines. The Japanese in charge of the beatings was an NCO. I don’t know his name. I could recognise him if I saw him again. About a month after I got back to BUIN I Heard from the Japanese guards that all white prisoners on the island that I had been at were dead. There had been numerous allied air raids about that time. I remember the incident where one of our Chinese who was sick was put in a sack to be buried while he was still alive. I did not see myself what happened to him but the victim's name was GO SAM, (Chinese spelling written down). While in BUIN I did not see any white prisoners, but I did see some Indians. About April or May 1943 I saw about 10 Indians when they came to collect their rations. l only saw them on that occasion and never heard of them again. Signed in the field this sixth of October, 1945.
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