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Stolen Years: Australian prisoners of war - Artist on the Burma
Introduction
First World War
Second World War
Korean WarPrisoners of the Germans
Prisoners of the Italians
Prisoners of the Japanese
Artist on the Burma–Thailand Railway: the drawings of Jack Chalker
Jack Chalker, serving in the Royal Artillery, was captured at the fall of Singapore. In October 1942 he was in a party sent to Thailand to construct the Burma–Thailand Railway.
Chalker secretly made drawings of the various camps and conditions endured by the prisoners. He drew and painted on whatever materials he could find or steal from the Japanese, hiding his work in sections of bamboo buried in the ground, the attap roofs of huts, or the artificial legs worn by amputees in the hospital camps. His work provides a candid and moving record of the prisoners’ suffering.
Works by Chalker have been donated to the Memorial by the families of Albert Coates and Sir Edward “Weary” Dunlop. In 2002, a further major collection of more than 70 drawings and documents was generously donated by Tattersall’s Holdings Pty Ltd.
The Japanese demanded “fit” prisoners to work each day. Despite their emaciated and sick condition, they deemed very few to be unfit. Those too ill to work had their meagre rations reduced and token pay denied.
This drawing has special significance for Chalker. A Korean guard caught Chalker hiding his sketches and forced him to tear them up. He was beaten for two days. Chalker later discovered that this drawing had survived undetected in a pile of rags.
Accession Number: ART91811
Jack Chalker
Second World War served British Army
Two working men, Konyu River camp
pen and brush and ink on paper
drawn in Konyu, Thailand, in 1942
acquired in 2002
Accession Number: ART90855
Jack Chalker
Second World War served British Army
Konyu River camp dysentery latrines
pen and brush and ink on paper
drawn in Bangkok, Thailand, in 1945
acquired in 1999
Accession Number: ART90845
Jack Chalker
Second World War served British Army
Cholera hospital, Hintok
watercolour with pen on paper
drawn in Bangkok, Thailand, in 1945
acquired in 1999
Konyu River was the first camp Chalker was sent to. He arrived in Thailand after a five-day trip by rail from Singapore. Chalker recalled that 32 men were crammed into each metal boxcar, in stifling heat and with little food or water. The prisoners were then forced to march to their campsites.
Accession Number: ART91814
Jack Chalker
Second World War served British Army
Konyu River camp
pen and brush and ink on paper
drawn in Konyu, Thailand, in 1942
acquired in 2002
Accession Number: ART91816
Jack Chalker
Second World War served British Army
Cookhouse, Konyu River camp
pen and blue ink on paper
drawn in Konyu, Thailand, in 1942
acquired in 2002
Accession Number: ART91823
Jack Chalker
Second World War served British Army
Roman Catholic church, Chungkai
pencil on paper
drawn in Chungkai, Thailand, in 1943
acquired in 2002
When Chalker became too ill to labour any further he was sent to Chungkai where a large hospital camp had been set up in an attempt to care for thousands of sick and dying men.
In early 1944 Lieutenant Colonel Edward “Weary” Dunlop arrived at Chungkai; recognising Chalker’s drawing talent, he asked him to start making secret records of the prisoners’ medical conditions.
Accession Number: ART91822
Jack Chalker
Second World War served British Army
View from the artist’s hut, Chungkai hospital camp
watercolour over pencil on paper
drawn in Chungkai, Thailand, in 1943
acquired in 2002
Between April 1943 and January 1944, the Canadian surgeon Markowitz performed more than 120 leg amputations at Chungkai. On 19 January 1944, two days after Dunlop’s arrival, Markowitz was moved to another camp.
While the two doctors did not actually operate together at Chungkai, Chalker has depicted them doing so as a tribute to the tireless efforts made by both men to save as many of their comrades as possible.
Accession Number: ART91848
Jack Chalker
Second World War served British Army
Colonel Edward “Weary” Dunlop and Captain Jacob Markowitz working on a thigh operation, Chungkai
oil on cardboard
painted in London in 1946
acquired in 2002
By the end of 1944 Dunlop’s medical team had moved to the major hospital camp at Nakom Paton, and Chalker went with them. He continued his secret medical and surgical drawings for Dunlop, and also recorded the people, events and landscape.
Accession Number: ART91836
Jack Chalker
Second World War served British Army
Nakom Paton base hospital
watercolour on paper
drawn in Nakom Paton, Thailand, in 1945
acquired in 2002
Accession Number: ART91837
Jack Chalker
Second World War served British Army
Nakom Paton base hospital
pencil on paper
drawn in Nakom Paton, Thailand, in 1945
acquired in 2002
Accession Number: ART90846
Jack Chalker
Second World War served British Army
Nakom Paton: alcohol distillery and vinegar plant
watercolour with pen and ink over pencil on paper
drawn in Bangkok, Thailand, in 1945
acquired in 1999
Even small cuts and scratches could turn into gaping and stinking tropical ulcers, caused by bacteria in the soil. Operating confronted doctors with a terrible choice: a bad ulcer could kill a man, but operating on weak men with inadequate or inappropriate drugs resulted in an appallingly high death rate.
Accession Number: ART90854
Jack Chalker
Second World War served British Army
Tropical ulcer; Gunner Harper
watercolour heightened with white over pencil on paper
drawn in Nakom Paton, Thailand, in 1945
acquired in 1999
Accession Number: ART90839
Jack Chalker
Second World War served British Army
New arrivals: dressing ulcers, Chungkai
watercolour with pen and brush and ink heightened with white on paper
drawn in Bangkok, Thailand, in 1945
acquired in 1999
Prisoners of the JapaneseSurrender
Changi
The Burma-Thailand Ralway
Survival
Ambon & Hainan
Sandakan
Outram Road
Nurses
Civilian internees
Witness
Stolen Years: Australian prisoners of war - The Guards
Many of the guards on the railway were Japanese colonial soldiers from Korea or Formosa. Harshly treated by the Japanese, they behaved with particular brutality toward the prisoners in their control. After the war, this man was sentenced to death and executed for his brutal treatment of prisoners.
The Boy Bastard and his cobbers. Japanese soldiers posing in front of a guardhouse on the Burma–Thailand Railway.
Prisoners gave their guards inventive nicknames: “The Boy Bastard”, “The Boy Bastard’s Cobber”, “Fishface”, “Poxy Paws”, “Babe Ruth”, “Gold Tooth”, “Paddle Feet”, ‘The Snake”, “Modern Girl”, “The Spitting Gunso”, “The Boy Shoko”, “The Black Bomber”, “Maggot”, “Boofhead”, “Snake Eyes”, “Charlie Chaplin”, “Barrel Guts”, “Wire Whiskers”, “Tom Mix”, “Cookhouse”, “Foghorn”, “Woof Woof”. Nicknames remained one of the few ways prisoners could retaliate against men who controlled their lives.
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