page_title: Rowley Richards
section_title: Second World War
hierarchical_section_title: Rowley Richards / Second World War
caption_attribution_description: English: Informal group portrait of Australian survivors (all but one) from the Sakata prisoner of war camp in Japan (north-west Honshu). All survived the sinking of the Japanese troop transport Rakuyo Maru and were subsequently rescued by other Japanese ships to continue their journey from Singapore to Japan. Here they are onboard the aircraft carrier HMS Formidable on their repatriation to Australia in October 1945. From left to right; back row: VX61564 Craftsman Stanley J Manning, 2/10 Field Workshop; VX12548 Geoffrey MacAulay, 1 Australian Corps Petrol Park; said to be W R Smith; NX32933 Ernest J Wade, 2/15 Field Regiment; NX26519 John Wade, 2/15 Field Regiment; QX13145 Sergeant Arthur W Hall, 2/10 Field Regiment. Front row: SX13426 Private Alick A Robinson, 2/10 Ordnance Workshops; VX17827 Private Harold G Ramsey, 2/2 Australian Pioneer Battalion (with the Kawasaki group); NX70273 Captain Charles Rowland (Rowley) B Richards, medical officer, 2/15 Field Regiment; NX68567 Warrant Officer Class II Keith H H Martin, 2/3 Motor Ambulance Convoy; VX32162 Driver Francis A 'Titch' Lemin, 2/2 Motor Ambulance Convoy and QX10108 Gunner Kitchener 'Kitch" M Loughnan, 2/10 Field Regiment.
context_page_description: Charles Rowland Bromley "Rowley" Richards MBE, OAM, ED was an Australian Army medical officer who, as a prisoner of war during the Second World War, is credited with saving countless lives on the notorious Burma Railway where prisoners suffered and died under inhumane conditions. Journalist Andrew Denton described him as "as good a man as this country has produced".
  A graduate of the University of Sydney, Richards became Regimental Medical Officer of the 2/15th Field Regiment in 1940. When Singapore fell on 15 February 1942, he became a prisoner of the Japanese. In September 1944, the transport on which he was being shipped to Japan was attacked and sunk by US submarines. He spent three days on a raft before he was picked up by a Japanese warship, and spent the rest of the war in Sakuta in Japan.
  Richards returned to Australia in October 1945, married and established a private practice. He served as chairman of the St John Ambulance Association, as medical adviser to the Australian Olympic rowing teams, and as honorary medical director of the City to Surf. He published two books about his wartime experiences.
context_section_description: On 27 August 1940, Richards joined the Second Australian Imperial Force (AIF), and was allotted the AIF service number NX70273. He was appointed Regimental Medical Officer of the 2/15th Field Regiment, an artillery unit of the ill-fated 8th Division, on 18 November 1940, and embarked for Singapore with his unit on 29 July 1941. During the Malayan campaign, Richards coordinated the medical care for his unit, which fought gallantly but unsuccessfully to stem the Japanese advance on Singapore. He became a prisoner of war of the Japanese when Singapore fell on 15 February 1942.
  Richards was initially held in Changi Prison. On 20 May 1942, he was part of 'A' Force, which sailed to Burma, where the prisoners initially worked on building and improving roads and airstrips. Over time they shifted to working on the  notorious Burma Railway. The prisoners suffered from malnutrition, appalling conditions and tropical diseases, particularly cholera, malaria and dengue fever. There were casualties from Allied air attacks on the railway, and from brutal beatings administered by the Japanese and Korean guards. Richards and other medical officers struggled with a lack of supplies. He insisted on the strictest standards of hygiene, and kept a secret diary that he hoped would provide evidence against the Japanese in post-war war crimes trials.
  In September 1944, Richards heard a rumour that he was to be transferred to Japan. He gave his diary to a friend, Major J. A. L. Shaw, and buried a summary with the body of Corporal S. R. Gorlick. The rumour was true; he left for Japan with a convoy of five escorts and six ships, including two carrying prisoners, 950 on the SS President Harrison, which had been captured by the Japanese and renamed the Kachidoki Maru, and 1,350 on the Rakuyo Maru. Richards travelled on the latter, which also carried senior officers including Brigadier Arthur Varley.
  On the night of 11/12 September 1944, the convoy came under attack from an American submarine wolf pack consisting of the USS Growler, USS Sealion and USS Pampanito. They sank two of the escorts, the destroyer Shikinami and the frigate Hirado, and then  the transports Rakuyo Maru, Nankai Maru and Kachidoki Maru, and an oil tanker. Kachidoki Maru sank in 20 minutes and most of the men on board had little chance, but none of the prisoners on the Rakuyo Maru  were severely injured by the explosions and it took twelve hours to sink. On 15 September, Pampanito returned to the area and found British and Australian survivors. It picked up 73 of them. A call for assistance brought Sealion to the scene, and it collected 54 survivors. Two other submarines were sent to the area and picked up 32 more survivors.
  Richards was the only officer on the Rakuyo Maru to survive. After three days in the water he was picked up by a Japanese warship, and was transferred to a whaling mother ship, which Richards took about other 600 prisoners rescued by the Japanese on to Japan. He was one of 261 British and 29 Australians who reached Sakata on 3 October 1944, and became their medical officer. While conditions were grim, they were not as horrific as on the Burma Railway, and a package of Red Cross medical supplies arrived on 1 January 1945. After being in the tropics, the prisoners now had to suffer the harsh Japanese winter, which caused a number of cases of pneumonia.
  Released from captivity by the surrender of Japan in August 1945, Rowley returned to Australia in October 1945 on the British aircraft carrier HMS Formidable. Shaw returned his diary later that year, having kept it safe in the bottom of a billy. In 1947, the Directorate of Australian War Graves uncovered the buried summary in Gorlick's grave and returned it. As he had hoped, they were used to prosecute Japanese war criminals. For his services as a prisoner of war, he received a mention in despatches on 6 March 1947. He was awarded the Efficiency Decoration on 17 June 1948.
caption: Australian survivors from the Sakata prisoner of war camp. Richards is front row, third from the left.
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