Following Nazi Germany’s enactment of the infamous Nuremberg Laws in 1936, expatriate Jewish organisations sought to help as many potential victims out of Germany and Eastern Europe as possible. The USA, Britain and Shanghai China became potential sanctuaries.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbXPKMtpT12JWNgedyr9Kq5WJymAlATyeqlA2BNck3G3dGKx8lS3eOnnHVLq9k_pjWT-FzfZ1coK3o-wk2ch5cCMen3kSDvS4q2ctX5tHb0eDPMFyXNcRU6LHt5SYY2m5b1Pk1sjV213zstuo/w400-h225/CowraJapaneseCamp.jpg)
Japanese prisoners of war, 12th Prisoner of War Camp, Cowra
July 1, 1944.
Australian War Memorial
Location of Cowra, Hay and Tatura camps
in S.E Australia
Museums Victoria
Early in WW2, the majority of internees in Australia were herded into old internment camps, the Germans and Italians being established at the old Holsworthy Barracks in NSW. As the numbers grew, new camps for prisoners of war were needed. By Sept 1940, the government had completed 4 compounds at Tatura (Victoria), 3 at Hay and 1 at Cowra (NSW), 3 at Loveday (S.A) and one at Harvey (W.A).
Since they were German and Austrian citizens, the Jewish refugees who'd arrived with swastikas on their passports were initially regarded as Enemy Aliens and threatened with internment. But how could they be Nazi sympathisers if they were fleeing Nazism? Soon they became Friendly Aliens.
Cowra (pop now 10,000) is a pleasant town in a farming district 314km west of Sydney; it has two important war tales to tell. The first was the story of a settlement that became a haven for Jewish refugees who had fled Europe early in WW2. These were German Jews who had initially fled to Britain to escape Nazi persecution and were imprisoned on the Isle of Man. In 1940 Australia reached an agreement with Britain to accept c3000 German, Austrian and Hungarian young male prisoners, mainly Jewish. They were sent from Britain aboard the ship HMT Dunera. On arrival in Melbourne in Sept 1940, 500 deportees were transferred to Tatura internment camp while the remaining males went north to Sydney and thence to Hay’s camps.
What the refugees needed in these horrible wartime conditions was food: vegetables, poultry and sheep. So the Australian Jewish Welfare Service established two companies: 1. Mutual Farm Ltd and 2. Mutual Enterprises Ltd, to settle the refugees into agricultural enterprises. This would satisfy the government’s requirements and guarantee the newcomers would not weigh on Australia’s economy.
The refugees were largely city-people and few had worked on the land. The main training initially took place at Chelsea Park in West Sydney where 200+ people lived. Meanwhile 25 families moved to their own properties, while 28 couples and 63 young men went into rural employment.
Mooringa, a 100-hectare property outside Cowra, was purchased by Mutual Farms in Sept 1940. The Mooringa Settlement disappeared but historian Graham Apthorpe has recorded an amazing era of WW2 history in his book, A Town at War. Apthorpe interviewed 4 key people: Harry Kramer-Cromer, Claude Newcombe, Margit Scouller and George Bluth.
Australian War Memorial
Italian Prisoners of War installing a new filtration trench
for their POW Camp septic system.
Digger History
Austrian Kurt Pisk (b1937) and his parents Fred and Anna Pisk fled Vienna after the Mar 1938 Anschluss/annexation by Hitler. During their time at Mooringa, the Pisks were allocated two Italian POWs to help them with farm-work. In fact the refugees were all helped by local families, as was seen in the collection of rare photos Apthorpe found in Cromer’s photo album. [NB Mooringa refugees were forbidden cameras, cars and guns, in case they used them to advantage Australia’s enemy].
They were still under surveillance of course. Regulations insisted that the Mooringa Jews travel weekly by horse-drawn sulky to the local policeman in Cowra. So the sensible sergeant, realising the Jews weren’t a risk to Allied security, told them to report monthly. The community at Mooringa totally ensured safety once the Jewish men were allowed to enlist in the Australian armed forces, in Feb 1944.
In 1964 Cowra became an official Japanese War Cemetery when the remains of all the Japanese who had died in Australia were raised, transported and buried together. A gathering was held at Cowra to memorialise these Japanese men, and to build the World Peace Bell. Cowra’s lovely 5 hectare Japanese Garden and Cultural Centre were opened in 1979, and expanded in 1986.
News of the Cowra Outbreak,
Aug 1944.
Cowra was also known for holding 1,104 Japanese POWs, guarded by the 22nd Garrison Battalion. In response to information that the prisoners were planning a mass outbreak, notice was given that all Japanese prisoners of low rank would be transferred to Hay Prisoner Camp. In Aug 1944, a prisoner ran shouting to the camp gates. Soon a bugle was heard when prisoners, armed with knives and improvised clubs, rushed from their huts in a suicidal mission. Sentries opened fire but hundreds of prisoners hacked the wire fences and escaped into open country, while others set fire to the huts. This was the Cowra Breakout, a desperate event that resulted in 231 Japanese dying and 108 wounded; 3 Australian soldiers were killed and 3 wounded. It was the largest, most tragic WW2 prison escape on Australian soil.
In 1964 Cowra became an official Japanese War Cemetery when the remains of all the Japanese who had died in Australia were raised, transported and buried together. A gathering was held at Cowra to memorialise these Japanese men, and to build the World Peace Bell. Cowra’s lovely 5 hectare Japanese Garden and Cultural Centre were opened in 1979, and expanded in 1986.
29 comments:
As a famiy, we lived at Holsworthy barracks from 1982 to 1984 but I never learned any of its history. I remember it as the place where a new officer replaced the "happy hour" Fridays with locked doors so none could leave until he was ready to leave, usually when he was drunk enough to be carried out. I never actually checked on this, wondering at the time if it was just another of Hubby's "whoppers". (lies)
Thank for that Hels.
Have visited Cowra and that area many times in the past. Pity there is nothing left on the camp there, just the paddock and a few stones but a commentry in the man made tower started the last time we was there and told much about that time.
The graves are amazing, interesting along with the Japanese garden nearby.
Helen When the Dunera ship arrived in Australia in mid 1939, the deportees were taken to internment camps in Tatura, Orange and Hay. I even remembered that while they were imprisoned, these clever men established a university, libraries and orchestras. But I don't remember hearing about Cowra.
Margaret
Many thanks ...I went back and added a photo of the Japanese War Cemetery in Cowra which may be the only formal Japanese war memorial cemetery in Australia.
There may be few relics of the war time camp to inspect now, but I suspect that was because Australians were mortified by how we treated our war-time prisoners. Cowra and District Historical Museum is therefore well worth you visiting because it is the only collection I have seen with the extant photos and documents.
Joseph
Dunera eventually got a lot of exposure in journal articles, books and films, and we know the names of every survivor and which rural prison settlement he was sent to. But I don't think a single Dunera academic or professional etc ended up in Cowra. Thus it was much harder for us all to research the Cowra experience for Japanese, Jews, Italians etc who ended up in Cowra.
I doubt if any of the prisoners are still alive and in good enough condition to be recorded.
Cowra Prisoner of War Camp was constructed in 1941-2 to house captured Italian POWs in a nationwide system of enemy alien containment. 28 major camps were established in Australia by the British Military Board. The first internees were marched into Cowra in Oct 1941. The major building program was still underway and was not completed until well into 1944 with both POW and local labourers being used to complete the work. Meanwhile the prisoners lived in tents. 2,000 mainly Italian, prisoners and internees were housed in the camp, until 1943-4 when 1000 Japanese POWs and internees arrived. The camp was by then overcrowded beyond its capacity.
Such a great piece of history to relate to Australian town locally.
River
Thank you for mentioning Holsworthy which was created even before Federation and was very active from World War I on. The reason I didn't mention Holsworthy Barracks in detail was because it was an major base for the Australian Army in NSW, and not used much for foreign prisoners, deportees and enemy aliens. I might have another look now.
Desperate times for desperate people on all sides. The Japanese breakout must have caused much alarm.
Cowra Council
Excellent. I noted that camp was constructed from 1941 specifically to house Italian 2,000 POWs captured by Allied Forces in Oct 1941. But where were the Italians captured and why did the Allies bring the Italian prisoners and internees to Australia, in general, and Cowra, in particular? I won't change my text, but I will definitely change the post title.
roentare
I am embarrassed to admit that I knew far more about British, French, German, Russian, Dutch, Spanish and Italian history than about Australian history. And when I did write Australian history, it was largely based on the large cities and not on small rural towns. Like many others, it would have been difficult to locate Cowra on an Australian map "blush".
Since starting this blog in 2009, I have been examining Australian history in much more detail, thank goodness!
jabblog
my parents remembered the 1944 Cowra Breakout as horrific. 340 Japanese prisoners were killed or seriously wounded, even though they had stormed the perimeter fences and overcame the machine gun posts. A Military Court of Inquiry did the investigation and presented the findings to the Federal Government via the Prime Minister John Curtin later in 1944.
Perhaps the inadequate food supplies and living conditions made the Japanese prisoners almost suicidal.
Desperate people make desperate decisions when they have nothing to lose. I knew more of the Japanese breakout than of the internments. Authorities were very good at monitoring communists and it is a wonder to me why they could not have monitored those with connections to the enemy countries without interring them.
This was interesting. First of all I'd hate to be a Jewish refugee and gone to Shanghai because of the revolution that happened there. That might be traumatic. It's also interesting how Australia was a bit reticent to take in Jewish people. I think the US was too. I also like your point about how these poor people had swastikas on their passports. Thanks for sharing this.
Andrew
authorities have always been good at achieving whatever they want, whether it was legal, productive or dangerous. We have known about that all over the world, but the shock was only what Australia accepted as moral in the 1940s. There were heaps of better options available that could still have protected the recipient nation from potential enemies.
Mind you, Australia's Defence Minister reported that asylum seekers on boats intentionally threw their own children overboard to drown, thus prompting rescue-efforts for the parents. 167 desperate asylum seekers drowned at sea in 2000 and the Immigration Minister blamed Australian relatives for encouraging their overseas relatives to risk drowning, just to get asylum here.
Erika
Fortunately in those final few months before Hitler invaded Poland in Sept 1939, Shanghai was an open treaty port, a safe haven that accepted refugees without an entry visa - bless them. Survival in Shanghai was risked by poor food supplies, bad sanitation and tropical diseases, but it was much better than any alternative. Compared to Europe’s exterminations, Shanghai was a haven of safety. (Japan changed that, but that wasn't Shanghai's fault).
The US and Australia were not the only countries refusing to allow Jewish refugees in 1938-41. The rare welcoming countries were Spain who provided identity papers so that 5,000 people Jews could survive, as did Sweden, Dominican Republic, Bolivia and Mandatory Palestine. Not as many desperate refugees as Shanghai, of course.
Ironically, if those Japanese prisoners had remained incarcerated for the duration of the war, they may have gained citizenship and had a good life. At any rate that's what many Italian POWs (and a few Germans) did in the UK. In Forest Gate, east London, Wanstead Flats housed an Italian POW camp. They mostly went out to work and went to football matches and had a better time than being in the war!
Hello Hels, It's good to know that there were people, both official and local, who had some kindness and common sense and helped the wartime refugees. About the Cowra breakout, I find that a little odd. If it were all Japanese prisoners escaping, and there was no large local Asian population, they must have known that there would be a massive manhunt, and their chance of true escape was nil. On the other hand WWII Japanese soldiers were famous for their suicide missions, although this breakout had little chance or harming their military enemies of that time. By the way, thanks for that clear map--it helped make understandable the details of this post.
--Jim
I have been to Cowra but it was ages ago and would love to go back now that my love of history has surfaced. I really enjoyed this post
Jo-Anne
absolutely so. Do your reading first, just in case your parents did not talk to you about Cowra, Hay, Tatura etc etc
bazza
I don't think anyone would have thought of giving enemy prisoners of war "a good time", at least until after the war ended. But the Japanese and Italians were young, mainly healthy young men who could have been given half way decent conditions and language classes, in return for working the land and building camp facilities.
The Jewish Dunera Boys were treated abominably on board the ship, but they never became prisoners of war in the Australian camps. They created communities which encouraged education and culture, drawing on their training back home - theatre, musicals, instrumental performances, furniture making and above all conducting lectures.
Parnassus
the Australian soldiers and civilians were horrified by the Cowra Break Out because the military protection outside the camp was clearly active. The Japanese prisoners of war knew what would happen if they broke out, yet they did it anyhow! Thus I am beginning to agree that there was a theory of suicide being honourable in the Japanese army.
Never heard of Cowra, but that much I know: it's important to learn about the past, since history repeats itself, whether we like it or not. Sadly, we are not finished with desperate refugees of war or of climate disasters.
DUTA
Yes. In fact the number of desperate refugees seems to be going up, people who are so desperate they are taking horrible risks to save their families' lives. How many people have drowned in the Mediterranean on crowded rubber boats? And what do they live in, even if they arrive In Europe alive?
I understand refugees are not prisoners of war, but we have to ask similar questions.
Hello Hels , My mum grew up in Cowra and as a little kid can remember hearing the Italian prisoners of war being to taken to The Edgells Cannery to work . They were in the back of a truck and would sing Italian Opera as they drove along . She and her mates would run along after the truck chasing it . She said they were a cheerful bunch and friendly . Quite a few stayed in Australia after the war . She still loves listening to Italian Opera !! :)
A colleague of mine is the daughter of a Duneera Boy . he was plagued by mental health problems all his life . I think he was very young when he lost touch with his family . So sad .
There was a culture of suicide as being more honorable than being a prisoner . This was true of the Kamikaze pilots as well as soldiers out in the field . Its what made the Japanese army so feared . They would do whatever it took including killing themselves to achieve the honor of Japan and the emperor. This was down to the extreme brutality which was used on army recruits in their training and is thought to be one of the reasons the Japanese were so brutal to their prisoners of war . They heal them in utter contempt for submitting to being prisoners.
The culture of Japan's army underwent an enormous change in the post war years. I don't think though , that they ever faced up as a nation, to the crimes committed in their name during the war in the same way as the Germans did .
Helen, if you didn't see it, there was a wonderful documentary on the Nuremberg Trials and the young prosecutor who led some of the trials on the ABC last n=ight ( Monday ) . I am sure you would really love it .
mem
Your family is the first one I know of where an important relative grew up in Cowra :) I am so glad she talked about the prisoners of war in her town, clearly not afraid of the young men who the Australian authorities had thought might become a real risk to Allied security.
The Dunera Boys included really educated, talented and cultivated men, but as you point out, that doesn't mean that they didn't pay a great price for the rest of their lives. We haven't learned much about looking after migrants and refugees, have we :(
mem
Alas yes. Every nation has its own set of moral codes that are either compulsory for all citizens or highly recommended. Mostly that seems very reasonable, but the idea of suicide being a most honourable way for young Japanese soldiers to behave ...sounds brutal. Young lads killing themselves to "protect the honour of Japan and the Emperor" seems both cruel and counter-productive.
Many thanks for the ABC reference. I will find it easily.
Dabas
I wonder why there were no relics/memorials/historical collections left as evidence of past or current Jewish presence in Cowra. You are quite right about Japanese garden being beautiful and painted murals on the pylons under its bridge being important.
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