Lecture - WW2 POWs on Ambon Island

Lecture: Dilemmas of Responsibility: Command and control on Ambon Island

Monday 16 September 2019

6:30 pm - 8:30 pm

AH Bracks Library, cnr Stock Rd and Canning Hwy, Melville

PhD student Paul Taucher will speak about WW11 and an East Indies POW camp

More details: https://www.melvillecity.com.au/things-to-do/events/whats-on/murdoch-lecture-2019

Murdoch Lecture 2019:

Presented by the City of Melville, Local History Service, and the Melville History Society

The 2019 lecture is titled The Dilemmas of Responsibility: Command and Control on Ambon Island. During World War Two (1939 to 1945), the Imperial Japanese Navy held approximately 1000 Australian and Dutch Prisoners of War (POW). They were held at Tan Toey POW Camp, on Ambon Island in the Netherlands East Indies. During their captivity, over 400 POWs died as a result of illness, overwork, and mistreatment. After the war, the commander of the camp, Captain Shirozu Wadami was held responsible for the treatment of the POWs. This lecture will explore the difficult position that Shirozu was placed in, as well as discussing his personal failure to improve conditions at the camp.