A British soldier’s harrowing secret sketchbook has revealed how prisoners were packed onto sweltering ships and forced into hard labour in Japanese prisoner of war camps.
Second Lieutenant Arkless Lockey spent three years in notorious camps after being captured during the fall of Singapore in 1942.
He secretly filled a sketchpad with 33 detailed drawings that show the appalling conditions the British PoWs endured at the hands of tyrannical prison guards in the hellish Japanese camps.
One of the colourful illustrations highlights how the shirtless men were packed in like sardines for weeks on a sweltering prison ship which took them from Singapore to Taiwan.
Others show emaciated prisoners doing 13 hour non-stop shifts of hard labour, including picking rocks, dragging logs and working in a paddy field.
The secret sketchbook depicted scenes of everyday life for the PoW inside the Japanese prison including cramped dormitories where men in shorts were packed in in the sweltering heat
His drawings give a glimpse of the harsh conditions experienced by the soldiers including being forced into manual labour such as chopping down trees in the humid cliate
The drawings show shirtless men packed into the hull of a ship and transported from Singapore to Taiwan
The sketchbook was kept by Second Lieutenant Arkless Lockey who spent three years in notorious prison camps after being captured during the fall of Singapore in 194
Other manual tasks the prisoners were forced to complete included straw rope making. Each of the 33 drawings in the sketchbooks were captioned and explain what daily life was like
Lt Lockey also despicted the barren living conditions the men were given with bunk beds made from bamboo.
There are portraits of other British and American campmates, and a couple of fearsome looking prison guards.
These would have been done from memory as it was illegal for PoWs to keep a sketchbook or diary.
Had it been discovered, Lt Lockey would have been beaten and punished by the guards.
On the final page is a poignant black and white drawing of a ‘Last Post’ trumpeter.
Durham-born Lt Lockey, who served in the Royal Engineers with III Corps, was held captive at Changi PoW camp in Singapore, Heito in Taiwan and Zentsuji in Japan.
Heito’s camp commandant, 1st Lieutenant Tamaki, was known for being sadistic and caring little for the welfare of the prisoners.
His cruelty was notorious and he once boasted he wanted to ‘fill the cemetery’ which he did as 132 men died at Heito, the highest in-camp death rate for camps in Taiwan.
The tyrannical prison guards watch over pigs in one of Lt Lockey’s drawings
Prisoners were forbidden form keeping diaries or drawings and so all of the 33 detailed sketches would have been done from memory and Lt Lockey may have risked his life in doing so
The coloured drawing show nine men pulling a cart leden with logs down a winding road. The soldiers were forced to ensure 13-hour long hard labour shifts
The drawing shows rows of prisoners sitting on wooden benches and on the right page, a man over a grindstone completing a physical task
The sketchbook also contained detailed birds-eye plans of the prison camp. This drawing shows long prison blocks inside a wire fence in the middle of nowhere, flanked by a large mountain range
The prisoners are seen completely tasks while under the watchful eye of tyrannical prison guards. Conditions were so awful that disease was rife and food was often rotten
Emaciated prisoners working in the rice paddy fields under the scorching sun in Taiwan
PoWs at all three camps were deprived of food and medicine, while being manhandled by the guards.
Their meagre rations were often rotten, and diseases including malaria and dysentery were rife.
Lt Lockey kept hold of the sketchbook, which also had aerial views of camp layouts, as a poignant memento of his struggles after his liberation in September 1945.
Post-war, he settled briefly in Malaya and Hong Kong with his wife, Marjory Tinto, working as a railway officer.
Later in life, he returned to Britain where he died aged 80 in 1981.
The owner acquired the sketchbook at a Hampshire sale about a decade ago, probably from 2nd Lt Lockey’s family.
Ten years on, it fetched a hammer price of £1,650 at Halls Auctioneers, of Shrewsbury, Shropshire.
Militaria specialist Caroline Dennard said: ‘If a PoW was caught with a sketchbook they would have been punished severely.
The double-page spread shows prisoners sat at benches or lying down on mats inside a dormitory. The detailed drawings give a glimpse of the harsh conditions endured by Lt Lockey for three years
A drawing of ‘Room No 3’ by Lt Lockey which shows rows of beds along the walls and long benches in the middle in the sparse hut where PoW were kept after capture
The coloured drawing shows five soldiers pushing a car up a hill while a local or guard watches on with a mask covering their face. The soldiers are part of a ‘Rice fatigue’ according to the caption and were based in Tokyo
The ‘interior of hut no 1’ shows men sat on mats and wooden benches while others play board game son wooden benches
The double page shows soldiers shopping down trees together contrasted with a birds eye view of the area which appears to include shopped down trees and lush fields of crops in the background
The camp was under the commandment of 1st Lieutenant Tamaki who was known for being sadistic and caring little for the welfare of the prisoners
Lt Locley also drew detailed portraits of British and American campmates as well as a couple of fearsome looking prison guards during his three-year internment at the camp
The album is very rare and came at a great risk to Lt Lockey – if he had been discovered he would have been severely punished, possibly beating beaten or put on half rations
‘This is a rare album which was produced at great personal risk, given that prisoners were forbidden from creating any documentation and subject to severe punishment if found.
‘If he had been caught, he would have been caned, forced on to half rations or arbitrary punishment would have been carried out against other PoWs.
‘It is amazing that this emotive sketchbook survived the war.
‘The sketches are accomplished as he was a talented amateur artist, and he has captured the spirit of the officers who soldiered on in hellish conditions.
‘They were packed into prison boats for weeks in the most horrific hot, cramped conditions and you can see them lifting up buckets which would have been full of waste as malaria and dysentery spread.
‘Many thousands of PoWs did not survive the hell, and those who did were very malnourished and emaciated.
‘One can’t imagine what they went through.’
