Balalae Island mass graves

The Balalae Island mass graves were a war crime committed by the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II against British prisoners of war. The mass graves were discovered by Australian investigators after the end of the war.

Background

In October 1942, 600 British prisoners of war who were taken prisoner after the fall of Singapore, along with their commander Lieutenant Colonel John Bassett, were loaded onto a ship and were told that they were being transported to a prison camp in Japan. They arrived on Balalae Island in late November 1942.

Forced labour

The prisoners were forced to build a runway for the Japanese that is still in use today. Approximately 100 of the prisoners died from overworking, exhaustion and tropical diseases. The Japanese also used the prisoner's camp as a human shield against air raids; 300 prisoners were killed by an allied air raid on the island.

Massacre

On 30 June 1943, after completing the runway, the remaining prisoners were executed en masse and thrown into mass graves. Many of them were either bayoneted or decapitated. Amongst the prisoners killed was the English cricketer Norman Bowell.

Discovery of the mass graves

The mass graves were discovered after the war by Australian investigators in November 1945. They exhumed the remains of over 400 bodies from the mass graves. They also found two sets of broken rosary beads, both of which were missing their crucifixes. Japanese authorities denied the war crime and claimed that the prisoners were lost at sea when their transport was torpedoed.