Vijay Mohan
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, November 6
The son of an Indian veteran of World War-II who was held as a prisoner-of-war (POW) in New Guinea by the Japanese has documented his ordeal and how he became the sole survivor among 2,400 other captives.
Belonging to the 12th Frontier Force Regiment, Chint Singh, a native of Himachal Pradesh, was taken POW after the fall of Singapore and shipped to New Guinea in April 1943.
In a book, ‘Chint Singh: The Man Who Should Have Died’, his son, Narinder Singh Parmar, a former lecturer at the DAV College, Chandigarh and now an educator based in Australia, has pieced together the story of resilience and survival in unimaginable conditions. The book details the experiences in remote POW camps and the daily grim fight for existence.
Over two years, many of the POWs had died in the thick jungles and swamps due to disease, malnutrition, torture by the Japanese or bombing by Allied forces. Only Chint Singh and 10 others were rescued by Australian forces in September 1945.
Tragically, the other ten died in a plane crash while heading home in November 1945. Chint Singh, should have been on board, but he was needed for testimony in the trials of Japanese soldiers charged with war crimes, making him the sole survivor among the 2,400 Indian POWs.
After returning to India, Chint Singh shifted to the Dogra Regiment and retired in 1974 after commanding an NCC girls’ battalion and then serving as Commandant of a Central Industrial Security Force battalion.
“I have taken up a case with the Australian authorities for a memorial dedicated to the Indian POWs of New Guinea to be established in Australia so as to spread awareness about the role of Indian soldiers and the unimaginable ordeal they underwent. I have been asked to submit a written proposal in this regard,” Parmar told The Tribune during a recent visit to Chandigarh.
