The Witness by Tom Gilling review - Can we ever really understand horrendous evil?

On July 11, 1995 at an Australia Remembers commemoration at the former prisoner of war camp at Sandakan, one of the six survivors, and the only one present, Owen Campbell, rose to speak. The late Dr Allan Hawke, then secretary of the Department of Veterans' Affairs, said later it was the bravest thing he had ever seen a man do.

To go back to this place of evil and overwhelming suffering must have been hard enough for this remarkable veteran. To speak about his experiences moved even hardened journalists to tears.

On a death march from Sandakan to Ranau, when strafed by American aircraft, Owen Campbell and mates made a dive into the jungle and freedom. Now only two of them, the mate was suffering badly and asked Owen Campbell to leave him as he was hindering their chance of survival. Campbell would have none of it, going to a creek to get him some water. When he returned he discovered the man had cut his own throat. Owen Campbell blundered on for 11 days, surviving largely on the moss he collected from tree trunks before being rescued by local people.

Tom Gilling tells Campbell's story in his book alongside many others. But that story has been told before. What is important about this book is its concentration on one survivor, Bill Sticpewich and the mystery which surrounds him.

Gilling cannot solve many of the mysteries about a man some in the prison camp thought of as a "white Jap" but he makes a strong case against him.

While most of those in the prisoner of war camp were being deliberately starved to death by the Japanese, Sticpewich carried no outward marks of malnutrition. While others were routinely bashed and degraded, Sticpewich avoided most of such treatment. He made friends with Japanese and Formosan guards, one of whom warned him that a massacre of remaining prisoners was being planned. Sticpewich slipped out of the camp that night.

Guards hunted for him for over a week recognising what a tale he might tell. Which he did at the war crimes trials in 1946 and 1947, hence, The Witness is an excellent introduction to this era of Australian military law.

But mystery is piled on here too.

Did Sticpewich shield some of the worst guards from their deserved fate? Did he perjure himself against others? Did he, in fact, use his court appearances for his own purposes? Did he retrieve buried treasure from the former prison camp? Was he murdered seven years after leaving the army?

We will never know, is the answer Tom Gilling gives his readers.

Appropriately, I think, for can we ever really understand such horrendous evil?