Agnes Keith House — the wartime ghosts of Sabah's colonial writer's home

The Agnes Keith House in Sandakan, Sabah, is a reconstruction of the home of American author Agnes Newton Keith, who wrote the classic memoirs 'Land Below the Wind' and 'Three Came Home' about her life in North Borneo before and during the Japanese occupation. The original house was destroyed during World War II, and the reconstruction stands on the same hillside overlooking Sandakan Bay. The house is reportedly haunted by figures from the wartime period. Staff and visitors have described seeing apparitions in both colonial-era and Japanese military clothing, hearing voices speaking in English and Japanese, and experiencing sudden cold drafts in the tropical heat. Some visitors have reported seeing a woman at the window who matches descriptions of Agnes Keith herself, though Keith died in 1982 in Canada. The house's connection to the Sandakan Death Marches — forced marches in which Japanese forces killed thousands of Allied prisoners of war — adds a deeply tragic dimension. Sandakan was the site of the largest concentration camp in Borneo, and the entire region carries the weight of wartime atrocities. The Agnes Keith House, perched above the bay where so much suffering occurred, serves as both a literary memorial and a haunted monument.