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A new book by a World War II veteran has shed light on a little-known postscript to the conflict in the Far East—and one that was officially denied by the UK government of the day.
"Parachute Doctor: The Memoirs of Captain David Tibbs," features photographs taken by the author. The first chapters cover his early years: growing up close to the Croydon aerodrome in south London; studying medicine at Guy’s Hospital, London; and joining the Royal Army Medical Corps as a 23-year-old doctor.
He then volunteered for parachute duty and was assigned to the 5th Parachute Brigade of the 6th Airborne Division.
Captain Tibbs was parachuted into the French region of Normandy on D-Day, 6 June 1944, and earned a Military Cross (MC) for his “untiring and devoted services to the wounded”.
He tended to those of the parachute regiment who were injured as a result of the break out from the Normandy beachhead, and was shot in the shoulder by a German sniper. He recovered and took part in repulsing the German offensive in the Battle of the Bulge, and in assisting both the massive airborne drop across the Rhine and the advance to the Baltic Sea to help prevent the Russians from moving into Denmark.
When the war in Europe was over, Captain Tibbs and his unit were ordered to the Far East, and were scheduled to take part in the parachute drop to recover Singapore from the Japanese garrison.
The plan was cancelled — to the troops’ “great relief” — after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Japanese surrender.
However, Captain Tibbs’ service was far from over. An armed insurrection had broken out on the island of Java, in what had been the Netherlands East Indies prior to Japanese occupation of the colonial state.
“The Japanese had occupied Java in a relatively peaceful fashion — very different from Burma and Malaya, where a violent and brutal assault was employed”, Captain Tibbs told BCCJ ACUMEN from his Oxford home. “They treated the Dutch colonialists in a comparatively benign way because the Netherlands, occupied by Germany, could offer no military opposition.
“The 5th Parachute Brigade went to [the north coast city of] Semarang, where the Dutch people said they had not suffered undue hardship.
“The Javanese, however, had a strong armed force under Sukarno, which opposed the Japanese in any way it could, so an active Japanese military force was necessary against them”, he said.
“When the Japanese war ended and the emperor ordered the Japanese to cease fighting, the Javanese insurgents turned their attacks towards preventing the return of the Dutch colonial power and commenced slaughtering Dutch people throughout Java”.
Two British officers who had recently arrived on the island were killed in the early stages of the fighting.
The Japanese forces took back military control and restored a degree of law and order until the British arrived, after realising that Dutch civilians were about to be massacred by the insurgents.
“This required some fierce fighting and caused a number of Japanese casualties, but they undoubtedly saved the lives of thousands of Dutch people”, said Captain Tibbs, now 92, and whose older brother, Lieutenant Ian Tibbs, had earned an MC for fighting the Japanese in Burma.
Captain Tibbs’ unit arrived in Semarang and immediately realised that they were not strong enough to repel the insurgents. As a result, the Japanese were brought under British command and ordered to defend a large sector of the city.
“This worked out remarkably well”, said Captain Tibbs. “The Japanese were fully armed with their own weapons, and were given extra help by artillery when needed.
“A peaceful and happy city was soon restored within a sizeable perimeter, and the Javanese insurgents were not able to cause much harm within this area”.
In contrast to the experiences of civilians in many other areas that the Imperial Japanese Army had occupied during the conflict, the Dutch who had lived through the years of Japanese control “were full of praise” for their former overseers.
“The Dutch begged us to treat the Japanese well and there was no difficulty in our doing this because the war with Japan was over and, in a way, the Japanese soldiers [in Java] were under our care and protection from the Javanese insurgents”, said Captain Tibbs.
“Moreover, there were no stories of bad behaviour by the Japanese [there] before this”, he said. “This group of soldiers was very different from the Japanese army in Burma and Malaya and, indeed, widely across the many Pacific islands”.
The attitude throughout the action was one of mutual respect and, at times, almost friendship between the two nations’ soldiers and officers, said Captain Tibbs. “They always behaved with impeccable military correctness”, he added.
“Inevitably the Japanese being, in essence, defeated troops, cannot have been delighted by our presence but never showed any hostility towards us”.
The same could not have been said about British public opinion towards the Japanese. As news filtered home about the way in which Allied prisoners of war had been treated, political expediency required the government to deny in Parliament that British troops were fighting alongside Japanese soldiers.
Captain Tibbs said the UK government’s denial was “perhaps understandable, with Japanese atrocities still so fresh in the mind”.
However, he has no ill-feelings towards those he encountered in Semarang and prefers to remember the positives of what they were able to achieve together.
As an honour and in recognition of their conduct, the Japanese were allowed to return home with their swords. Major Kido, the Japanese senior officer, presented his sword to Brigadier Darling, the British commanding officer, as a token of respect.
Captain Tibbs went on to develop a distinguished career as a surgeon.
© Japan Today
12 Comments
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qksand
One should never stereotyping people. There were and still are decent Japanese people. It was the imperial militarists who engaged in inhuman war crimes during WWII and after the war still try to deny what they did. Unfortunately, the Japanese society seems remain quiet about such behavior. The recent rise of the extremely right wing political party plans to revise the Japanese constitution. If the wisdom of the Japanese society at large support such actions, we can only hope that the nation will not re-visit it's devastating defeat.
Steven C. Schulz
After the Treaty of Versailles, the biggest mistake of the 20th century was the cancellation of the Anglo-Japanese alliance.
I think having no strong alliances with another colonial power helped push Japan into a militarist posture. Nor did it save the British Empire, as was the hope...
JeffLee
I think having no strong alliances with another colonial power helped push Japan into a militarist posture.
Ah, yes, the Japanese were "pushed," thereby not really responsible for what they did. Well, the Japanese are among the great warrior races, going back to the medieval period. Their "militarist posture" preceded any "pushing" by those wily gaijin.
Japan to this day doesn't have any strong alliances with anyone, apart from the US defense arrangement, which was foisted on them and which constantly triggers popular protests among the Japanese. That's just the way they are. They don't "do" alliances.
There were hundreds of Dutch sex slaves, some of whom have testified that the Japanese raped and beat them regularly, and some were children, so I guess the situation wasn't all that rosy.
The Indonesia colonial experience is interesting, and little has been written about it in English. I've always wondered how such a tiny country managed to control such a sprawl of heavily populated islands on the other side of the Earth.
sourpuss
You can include not recognizing Japanese as equal to whites, from the Paris Peace conference of 1919. The Australian PM Billy Hughes can shoulder much of the blame for that one.
Kashiwa
According to the Pentagon Papers, a similar situation occurred in IndoChina (Viet Nam) after the Japanese surrender. According to the report, When the British landed in the south, they rearmed the interned French forces as well as parts of the surrendered Japanese forces to aid them in retaking southern Vietnam, as they did not have enough troops to do this themselves "
philsandoz
I don't know what the surprise is about; the same thing happened in Singapore after Japan's defeat, with Japanese troops being reearmed and serving as military police. This was even featured on a TV drama called "Tenko" in the 1970s.
philsandoz
Despite not being surprised by this story, as I mentioned above, I think I should point out that the war against Japan finished in August 1945, so I actually can't see how the Japanese helped the British in 1944; as your story states: "When the Japanese war ended and the emperor ordered the Japanese to cease fighting ..."
Tamarama
I wasn't aware of this and it's a good story. Certainly the kind of story that people need to hear more about.
FightingViking
@philsandoz
I was thinking exactly the same thing...
BertieWooster
That was the first thought that struck me too, FightingViking-san and philsandoz-san.
1944 must either be a misprint or possibly the writer means that the "Java conflict" began in that year.
If the Japanese soldiers helped the British in 1944 it would be treason.
Thunderbird2
Ah my dad's old regiment... ^_^
This is a wonderful story, and while it seems odd to re-arm the Japanese POWs in 1944, perhaps, as for them the war was over, they agreed to assist in return for better treatment, or out of a sense of decency... or a typo. Who knows. I just think in all of the bitterness and horror this story shows that even the most hostile of enemies can co-operate when there is a common enemy.
Fadamor
This just proves the point that the Post-WWII War Crimes trials were a sham. While the Allied prosecutors were hanging Japanese leaders for instigating wars and invading other countries, Britain was assisting the Netherlands in the invasion of Java - instigating a war against the Javanese who preferred independence. Yeah, this British Doc is so proud of the fact that he helped the Dutch conduct their invasion.
Japanese soldiers were kept as prisoners of war for years after the war was over. The Soviet Union forced their prisoners to do years of hard labor before allowing the survivors to be repatriated.
It's not a misprint. Japanese soldiers were kept by Allied countries as conscripted laborers for years after the war was over. The Soviet Union forced their Japanese prisoners to do years of hard labor before allowing the pitifully few survivors to be repatriated years after the war ended. I can easily see Britain putting guns into the hands of their Japanese conscripts and telling them to fight. You can't order a prisoner of war to fight for your country, but as the war was over, these Japanese were not POWs anymore. Until their captors let them go home, they were in a state of limbo and the Allies took advantage of that.