Stuff You Should Know - Short Stuff: Ramree Island Crocodile Massacre

Episode Date: March 27, 2024

The strange thing about the story of the Ramree Island Crocodile Massacre is that it didn't happen. Yet the story lives on. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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That's right. This one we tell the tale of the Ramrie Island Crocodile Massacre. That was bizarre. Boy, what just happened? So yeah, you mentioned the Ramrie Island Crocodile Massacre. That happens to be the title of this episode. Let's talk about it. Thank goodness.

All right, here's the story. 1945, World War II is happening. The Allies had pinned down a thousand Japanese soldier in a mangrove swamp off of what is now Minimar. Back then it was Burma. I imagine they weren't like me and thought, oh, jeez, I love mangroves. This is amazing. They were scared and it the way they should have been

because only 20 of those 1,000 soldiers made it out alive. And as the story goes, roughly 900 of them were eaten by saltwater crocodiles. Yes. And just an orgy of animal flesh-eating horror. Yeah, which should be the first sign that, hmm, maybe that's not quite right. Well, you just kind of spoiled the whole thing for everybody. Well, what else is there?

The idea that crocodiles ate 900 Japanese soldiers in a single night in a mangrove swamp on Ramrie Island off of Myanmar. Yeah. Well, that's the story that was basically generally believed back when people were, I don't want to say dumber because we're pretty dumb now, but maybe, well, a little more prone to listen to the Guinness Book of World Records. Yeah, and maybe a little less access to good information, even though the internet giveth and taketh away, of course, in that respect.

Sure. But the origins of the story are there was a Royal Canadian Lieutenant Commander named Bruce Wright, who, little side note, he was credited with being the guy who sort of invented the idea of the Frogman Unit, when these scuba diving soldiers would scuba dive near something and spy or maybe stick a bomb on the underside of a submarine or something. I don't know what they do. But he was taking part in a joint British and Indian mission there at Ramrie Island. He

was a leader of the frogmen. He was a reconnaissance guy. He was also a wildlife biologist and author. And then later on in 1962 wrote a book called Wildlife Sketches, Colon, Near and Far, in which he detailed, partially detailed the story of this crocodile massacre. Yeah. And so he was a respected naturalist, a respected biologist by this time. And if he hadn't have been, we probably wouldn't be

talking about this story right now. Yeah. Because like you said at the outset, it's so fantastic that it just defies sensibility. But because there was a respected naturalist, Bruce Wright, writing about this, it was picked up by another scientist, a conservationist named Roger Carras, who wrote a book a couple years later called Dangerous to Man. And even in his account of

the Ramrie Island Massacre, he says like, if this had come from somebody else, I would not be recounting it here. But not only is Bruce Wright, like, very respected and a trustworthy fellow, he was on Ramrie Island when this happened. So it happened. Yeah, but here's the deal. And I said he detailed it, Wright did in his book.

It wasn't that detailed. It was only a paragraph, so it wasn't super robust. I think the more robust account came from Keras' book. But here's the deal, is that Wright was at Ramrie, but he did not witness this happen. He apparently, we found out later, had picked up on this story secondhand from some of his, we said that he was working with the British military, from some of those British soldiers who were patrolling the island. So he picks up that passage secondhand.

And in the book, if you read his passage, he never even claims to have personally witnessed it. Yeah, can't touch this. That's right. So that's another problem. We should probably talk a little bit about the sea crocodiles though, huh? Or should we take a break?

I think we should take a break and come back. All right, we'll do that and then, geez, you're gonna hear so much about sea crocodiles. You'll be crazy with it. I'm gonna be the one to make you feel better I'm gonna be the one to make you feel better I'm gonna be the one to make you feel better I'm gonna be the one to make you feel better I'm gonna be the one to make you feel better I'm gonna be the one to make you feel better I'm gonna be the one to make you feel better

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Also known as the estuarine, estuarine, right? Mm-hmm. Estuarine? Hmm. I just keep saying the same version over and over again. I know how to say estuary, but estuarine, maybe that is it.

It's got to be it. Crocodile. There's only one of two crocodile species that will prey on humans. And one reason they prey on humans is because we're basically like a piece of gum to them. Compared to their size. Sure, an amuse-bouche.

Yeah, they're big. They can get up to 23 feet. They can weigh a ton. They are, like you said, they're pretty aggressive. Like, you know, we've done stuff on crocodiles and alligators even. They're not super aggressive animals, but these saltwater crocs are pretty territorial. And I think they've done some stats. The most recent I found was 2015, 79 fatal saltwater crocodile attacks out of 180 in one year in Southeast Asia and coastal India and Oceania.

So. Yeah, which is where they live. So basically throughout the world, that's how many people were attacked. Yeah, exactly. But 79 fatalities in a year is a lot for, you know, talking about eaten by a crocodile. Yeah. But when you talk about 900 men being eaten overnight, that doesn't sound possible.

Yeah. And there was a historian named Frank McLean who wrote a book on the battle in the Pacific, specifically on, or the war in the Pacific, specifically the battles in Burma. And he mentions this crocodile story and he says that it quote,, offends every single canon of historical verifiability. Every single canon. Verifiability. What is going on? I don't know. You didn't say battle of the specific there, so I was kind of proud of you. The battle of Pasquetti.

Yeah. So, Frank McLintz onto something. He's like, this doesn't even make sense. Because seriously, by this time, the story is that 900 Japanese soldiers were eaten in a single horrific night in an island off of Burma in a mangrove swamp, and that the British who were fighting them heard their horrific cries as they perished. And finally, Frank McLyn's like, this does not make sense, everybody. Let's just stop and use our noodles for a second.

Yeah, the whole thing starts to kind of fall apart. First of all, neither one of the official either Japanese or British military records mention this at all. So that's a big one. Second of all, they didn't lose 900 soldiers there at Ramrie, apparently. There were a couple of investigations and about 500 of the original 1,000 did get out alive. So now we're down to 500. That would still be too many.

And so apparently they did more investigating. They talked to Burmese villagers who were alive during that time. Some of them were actually conscripted by the military of Japan. And they said, you know, most of them actually died from disease and dehydration and exposure. And if any were eaten, it may have been like a dozen or so. Which is still significant.

I mean, like if 180 in a year across the world and only 79 are killed, a dozen in a couple of weeks is pretty significant. The thing is, it's not like this story is completely without merit. It's just, it was so ridiculously embellished that basically everybody's like, this isn't true. But there still apparently were sounds, terrible sounds,

coming from the Japanese soldiers that the British noticed. But there were a couple of investigations into this. Herpetologist Steven Platt investigated in a national geographic show called Nazi World War Weird. Also investigated, and I don't remember which one but one of them looked into the British military records for that battle which again was weeks long, not a single night. And on one particular night though, February 18th, 1945, which would coincide with the

original story about the crocodile massacre, the Allies were alerted by cries of Japanese soldiers, but they weren't being attacked by crocodiles. They were drowning by the dozens as they were trying to swim from Ramrie Island to the Burmese mainland. Equally as horrifying, but I also always thought, didn't we even find out from research that drowning is a pretty quiet affair? Yes, so there were some other things that could have accounted for this.

One, the British started mowing them down with machine guns as they tried to swim away. That was ultimately what accounted for the massacre at Raymory Island. They were also being picked off by sharks. And some of them died as their boats were sinking. And if your boat's sinking, I'm sure that can probably get a pretty good loud rise out of you. Yeah, and I think the next day, at daybreak, there were crocodiles feeding on bodies.

Yeah. And there were just, obviously, there was a lot of, you know, crocodile food there all of a sudden. Yeah. So there were a lot more crocodiles in view, and so I think that it sort of helped the story or at least the legend build. Yeah.

So if you take all that information, put it into Bruce Wright, pick him up, shake him for a little bit, turn him upside down, what pours out is the Ramrie Island crocodile massacre story. That's right. Yeah. So there you go.

Myth busted. Way to go, Adam. Short stuff out? Short stuff is out. Stuff you should know is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts, myHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.