Do you have any info on the Japanese pearl diver interred in a POW camp in broome who had almost finished a scuba system?
Also Jack Sue?
Based as I am in the UK, and having never visited Australia, these stories are complete news to me. Can you tell me what you already know to get me started?
In the meantime, I have done a little trawling online on Jack Wong Sue (below). He died in 2009.
Here's a tribute at
Radschool Association Magazine - Vol 30. Page 2:
Ted McEvoy sent us the following which appeared in the West Australian on the 17th November and was written by Malcolm Quekett. It concerns a remarkable Australian,
Jack Sue, a quiet hero and a brave man of action
There are times when a man’s heroics are of such magnitude that they logically belong in the world of fiction. Jack Wong Sue’s wartime deeds fall into such a category. But they were fact.
Mr Sue, who died yesterday,(16th November) aged 84, was reluctant to talk much about his own efforts, but his actions speak for themselves. Sent behind enemy lines during WWII with the
Z Special Unit of the Services Reconnaissance Department, agent AKR 13’s team of seven agents was charged with getting information on Japanese troop movements as a prelude to the Australian invasion of Borneo. Borneo was occupied by 37,000 troops of the Japanese Imperial Army and so those sent from Fremantle in 1944 aboard the USS Tuna on operation Agas 1 were issued with “L-táblets”, lethal capsules which would bring death in 30 seconds. They were to be swallowed if captured to avoid interrogation and torture.
The unit trained Chinese and Malay guerrilla fighters and harassed the Japanese, killing many. They gathered information for Operation Kingfisher, the plan to rescue the Australian and British prisoners of war at the infamous
Sandakan camp.
Mr Sue had to reconnoitre the camp and the landscape and the images of the emaciated Australian soldiers remained with him. The rescue plan was later cancelled.
In June 1945, in desperate need of intelligence, Mr Sue. dressed as a Chinese coolie, walked into a railway station which was crawling with Japanese troops. He found the Japanese-appointed Chinese station master, spoke to him in Chinese, made threats and walked out with vital intelligence. The act won him the Distinguished Conduct Medal.
But, feeling ashamed by his threats, he searched for years after the war for the station master. In the late 1990s, Mr Sue found the man’s family and apologised to them for what he had said.
Jack Sue – second from left
He was born in Perth in 1925. His father was a Chinese doctor. Schooled at Perth Boys School, Mr Sue, a sea scout, would ferry in US crews from their Catalina flying boats as the war loomed. At 14 he played piano for the troops at the City Hotel. Sent a white feather at the age of 16, he put his age up and joined the Norwegian merchant navy He then tried to join the Royal Australian Navy, but was refused because of his Chinese parentage.
After the war Mr Sue remained tied to the ocean, starting Jack Sue WA Skindivers in 1951, and was a key figure in the world of scuba diving for decades. Mr Sue was awarded an Order of Australia Medal in the General Division in 2006.
He had three wives and seven children.
Mr Sue’s son Barry said yesterday his father had no idea of fear “He was not one to brag about himself, he was very humble,” Barry Sue said. “He’s lived the life of 10 men.” Ray Krakouer, 87, a friend of Mr Sue’s for 50 years, summed up his mate simply: “He was a good Australian. There was no better Australian than Jack Sue. He was fair dinkum.”
Another tribute can be found at
Western Australian Television History (WA TV History) » Blog Archive » Tribute to Jack Wong Sue. There seems to be plenty more about Jack Sue where that came from. I'll conclude for the moment with an image of his erstwhile dive store in the Western Australia city of Perth, where I see you are also based:
