for those siding with the British. The majority of the POWs were British and Australian soldiers captured after the fall of Malaya and Singapore. The prisoners suffered notoriously inhuman conditions, and amidst continuous Allied bombardments, the Japanese forced them to march into Ranau, which is about 260 kilometres away, in an event known as the Sandakan Death March. The number of prisoners were reduced to 2,345, with many of them killed en route by either friendly fire or by the Japanese. Only six of the several hundred Australian prisoners lived to see the war's end. In addition, of the total of 17,488 Javanese labourers brought in by the Japanese during the occupation, only 1,500 survived mainly due to starvation, harsh working conditions and maltreatment. In March 1945, Australian forces launched Operation Agas in order to gather intelligence in the region and launch guerrilla warfare against the Japanese. The war ended on 10 September 1945 after the Australian Imperial Forces (AIF) succeeded in the battle of North Borneo. British crown colony After the Japanese surrender, North Borneo was administered by the British Military Administration and on 15 July 1946 became a British Crown Colony. The Crown Colony of Labuan was integrated into this new colony. During the ceremony, both the Union Jack and Flag of the Republic of China were raised from the bullet-ridden Jesselton Survey Hall building. The Chinese were represented by Philip Lee, part of the resistance movement against the Japanese, who eventually supported the transfer of power to the Crown colony. He said: "Let their blood be the pledge of what we wish to be—His Majesty's most devoted subjects." Due to massive destruction in the town of Sandakan since the war, Jesselton was chosen to replace the capital with the Crown continued to rule North Borneo until 1963. The Crown colony government established many departments to oversee the welfare of its residents and to revive the economy of North Borneo after the war. Upon Philippine independence in 1946, seven of the British-controlled Turtle Islands (including Cagayan de Tawi-Tawi and Mangsee Islands) off the north coast of Borneo were ceded to the Philippines as had been negotiated by the American and British colonial governments. Malaysia On 31 August 1963, North Borneo attained self-government. The Cobbold Commission had been set up prior, in 1962, to determine whether the people of Sabah and Sarawak favoured the proposed union of a new