It is also of interest to note that 203 of the Dutch have no known memorial or grave. Dutch authorities placed a plaque in the DonRak cemetery to honor 72 of their fallen whose bodies were not recovered[1], but have somehow lost 203 others.
Of those 203, 163 were lost at sea. 27 others died in Burma – seemingly along with some of those honored on the DonRak plaque. The remaining 13 died in Thailand or Japan.
It is hard to fathom how the Dutch decided to some honor their fallen with memorial graves but failed to name others. But this is not limited to the Dutch authorities. There are no Dutch names engraved at the Singapore Memorial Columns. 225 are memorialized in two cemeteries in Jakarta.
The Dutch contingent that was sent to Burma in Nov 42 experienced a unique horror. During the transit on the Hellship Maebashi Maru[2], they experienced an outbreak of dysentery. This was so debilitating that hundreds of them had to be hospitalized and never made it to the TBR. Over the course of the next few months, at least 212 of these men died in Rangoon. 142 of them are memorialized in Jakarta and 50 are among the 72 names on the DonRak plaque. But another 20 seem to have been lost with no memorial.
In summary, of the 3348 documented Dutch POW TBR deaths, 2906 are documented in the three main CWGC TBR-related cemeteries. Another 225 are memorialized in Jakarta and 14 – all of whom died in Saigon – are buried in Kranji. But that leaves the 203 for whom there is no known memorial[3].
[1] A number of these died in Rangoon while en route to the TBR, but not all.
[2] This was the ship that also carried the US Fitzsimmons group and other POWs to Rangoon. They were seemingly unaffected by the dysentery outbreak.
[3] 5 more are among the UNKNOWN SOLDIER graves at ChungKai.