Australian town marks 60th anniversary of Japanese POW breakout
Michelle Hespe
SYDNEY ‹ Six decades after the deep gulf between Japanese and Australian cultures resulted in the biggest and bloodiest prisoner of war breakout in World War II, the New South Wales town of Cowra, site of the escape, is a sparkling symbol of 60 years of determination to bridge that divide.
Just before 2 a.m. on Aug 5, 1944, an unauthorized bugle blast signaled a mass escape attempt from the inland camp, 250 kilometers west of Sydney, by as many 900 Japanese POWs.
In the nine days that followed, 234 Japanese and five Australians died, some at the hands of their enemy, many by their own hand. The remaining Japanese prisoners were caught.
The escape and the many POW suicides shocked Australia ‹ not so much because of the danger posed by the breakout, but because of the determination shown by the prisoners to either get away or to die by their own hand.
To many of the Japanese POWs, the laid-back Australians had appeared weak and lacking a fighting spirit, while to the easier-going Australians, the fanatic cultural resolve of the prisoners was almost beyond belief.
But that resolve was also a phenomenon that the citizens of Cowra became determined to eventually understand.
In the 60 years since the breakout, being marked with a nine-day celebration in the town of 9,000 between July 31 and Aug 8, Cowra has grown ever more prominent as an Australian link to Japan.
The anniversary celebrations were officially begun by Japan's ambassador to Australia, Kenzo Oshima, on Wednesday.
Lawrence Ryan, chairman of the Cowra Breakout Anniversary Committee, said, "Cowra is the place where reconciliation between Australia and Japan began after World War II, because of the breakout. Not only was it the largest military prison breakout in the world's history, but it was also the only place where a land battle occurred on Australian soil during the Second World War."
In 1964, a war cemetery was established in Cowra following a request by the Japanese government and it now contains the remains of all Japanese POWs and civilian internees who died during their imprisonment in World War II.
Originally, the Japanese POWs who died were placed in mass graves, but the ongoing care bestowed upon those sites by Cowra locals impressed Japanese visitors and fueled the discussions between the Japanese embassy and the Cowra council.
The war cemetery was then agreed upon and the remains of all Japanese POWs who died in Australia were transferred to the site.
The cemetery, which contains 522 graves, including those of Japanese nationals who died during air raids on Darwin in 1942 and Japanese who died in internment camps during World War II, was funded by the Japanese government and the land, now an official war gravesite, was donated to the Japanese government.
In the adjacent general cemetery are graves of the four Australians killed in the breakout.
In 1971, Cowra builder Don Kibbler had an idea to create a Japanese garden to honor the war dead and symbolize the historical ties between Japan and Australia.
The Japanese Garden and Cultural Centre was set up with the aid of the Japanese government in 1978-1979 and is now Cowra's main tourist attraction.
Kibbler, 68, is now the chairman of the Japanese Garden Maintenance Foundation.
"I think back to when I was a child watching prisoners playing baseball in the POW camp," he said. "Sixty years has passed since then and the story that has come about is a better one than before. We've come together with the garden, the cemetery and the World Peace Bell."
Capital cities usually reserve the right to erect World Peace Bells, but Cowra's commitment to the World Peace Bell objectives meant it was awarded to the town in 1992.
The bell was cast from melted-down coins donated by 103 members of the United Nations.
Now the Cowra Breakout Anniversary Committee is creating a Peace Pathway where visitors can buy an individual paving stone and have their name or a message engraved on it.
"The idea is that people have something visible that links a desire to promote peace and international understanding to something you can actually see and walk along. The pathway, through the messages engraved, will contain significant milestones in the reconciliation between Japan and Australia," committee chief Ryan said.
The committee expects more than 200 people from Japan alone to attend the ceremonies over the next few days.
At 2 a.m. Thursday, a fireside vigil attended by hundreds of people will be held by the Cowra clergy and the siren that sounded on the night of the breakout in 1944 will again be switched on.
"What makes this anniversary unique is that people who were involved in the breakout, either Japanese or Australian, can come together, maybe for the last time, because the youngest of the men who were there are now in their 80s" Ryan said.
Special guests at the ceremony will include four POWs, including Marekuni Takehara who has visited Cowra many times, and Wal McKenzie, an Australian guard who was present on the night of the breakout.
©Kyodo News