Sources for Japanese breakout from Cowra Prisoner of War Camp

At 1.50 am on 5 August 1944, almost a thousand Japanese prisoners-of-war interned at No. 12 Prisoner of War Camp, Cowra, NSW, staged a mass breakout. 22 Garrison Battalion was assign as the camp guard. Armed with improvised weapons including baseball bats and sharpened mess knives the Japanese stormed the prison barb-wire fences. 234 Japanese prisoners died with 108 wounded. Four Australian guards were killed, with four wounded (three by friendly fire).

NAA Fact Sheet 198: Cowra breakout, 1944 (pdf)

The following includes a list of sources to aid researchers of this event.

22 Garrison Battalion - Unit War Diaries - Australian War Memorial

• May - August 1941 - AWM52 8/7/47/1
• November - December 1941 - AWM52 8/7/26/1
• January - February 1942 - AWM52 8/7/26/2
• March - April 1942 - AWM 8/7/26/3
• May - June 1942 - AWM52 8/7/26/4
• July - August 1942 - AWM52 8/7/26/5
• September - October 1942 - AWM52 8/7/47/2
• November - December 1942 - AWM52 8/7/47/3
• January - March 1943 - AWM52 8/7/47/4
• April - June 1943 - AWM 52 8/7/47/5
• July - September 1943 - AWM52 8/7/47/6
• October - December 1943 - AWM52 8/7/47/7
• January - April 1944 - AWM52 8/7/47/8
• May - July 1944 - AWM52 8/7/47/9
• August - September 1944 - AWM52 8/7/47/10
• October - December 1944 - AWM52 8/7/47/11
• January - March 1945 - AWM52 8/7/47/12
• April - May 1945 - AWM52 8/7/47/13
• June - August 1945 - AWM52 8/7/47/14
• September - November 1945 - AWM52 8/7/47/15
• December 1945 - February 1946 - AWM52 8/7/47/16
• March - April 1946 - AWM 52 8/7/47/17
• May - June 1946 - AWM52 8/7/47/18
• July - August 1946 - AWM52 8/7/47/19
• September - October 1946 - AWM52 8/7/47/20
• November - December 1946 - AWM52 8/7/47/21
• January 1947 - AWM52 8/7/47/22

National Australian Archives

• A3688 - 675/R1/2 Copies of exhibits used in the Court of Inquiry into Japanese breakout from Cowra Camp, 5 August 1944
• SP459/1 - 445/1/6700 Court of inquiry - death of Sergeant Hancock
• A7711 - Volume 1 Report on the Directorate of Prisoners of War ... 1939-51 + report on Cowra Breakout escape attempt
• SP1714/1 - N45633 Part 2 Cowra Internment Camp (21.4.42 - 28.5.44) [Intelligence file] [box 42]
• SP1714/1 - N45633 Part 3 Cowra Internment Camp (12.11.42 - 20.3.43) [Intelligence file] [box 42]
• SP1714/1 - N45633 Part 4 Cowra Internment Camp (25.4.43 - 26.1.44) [Intelligence file] [box 42]
• SP1714/1 - N45633 Part 5 Cowra Internment Camp (4.8.43 - 26.1.44) [Intelligence file] [box 42]
• SP1714/1 - N45633 Part 6 Cowra Internment Camp (26.1.44 - 5.9.44) [Intelligence file] [box 42]
• SP1714/1 - N45633 Part 7 Cowra Internment Camp (29.8.44 - 25.11.44) [Intelligence file] [box 42]
• SP1714/1 - N45633 Part 8 Cowra Internment Camp (26.10.42 - 11.4.43, 24.9.44 - 10.6.45) [Intelligence file] [box 42]
• SP1714/1 - N45633 Part 9 Cowra Internment Camp (9.11.42 - 21.12.42, 26.11.44 - 20.3.45) [Intelligence file] [box 42]

Japanese Cowra trials 

• SP196/, 1 part 1 Japanese Cowra Trials [military Court trial of PWJA 145648, Yoshida, Hiroshi, 12 Prisoner of War Camp, Cowra]
• SP196/, 1 part 2 Japanese Cowra Trials [military Court trial of PWJA 145648, Yoshida, Hiroshi and PWJA 145535, Kanazawa, Akiro / Akira, 12 Prisoner of War Camp, Cowra]
• SP196/, 1 part 3 Japanese Cowra Trials [inquisition held by the Coroner at the Court House and the Prisoner of War Camp at Cowra, 11-15 December 1944; 3 copies] [0.5cm each copy; box 1]
• SP196/, 1 part 4 Japanese Cowra Trials [enquiry into the death at Cowra Prisoner of War Camp, of Harry Doncaster, Charles Henry Shepherd, Benjamin Gower Hardy and Ralph Jones, and a number of Japanese prisoners of war; charges against PWJA 145535 Sgt/Maj Kanazawa, Akira]
• SP196/, 1 part 5 Japanese Cowra Trials [transcript of Inquiry into deaths at Japanese Prisoner of War Camp, Cowra, heard 11-15 December 1944 by the Coroner at Cowra,
• SP196/, 1 part 6 Japanese Cowra Trials [charges against PWJA 145535 Sgt/Maj Kanazawa, Akira, Cowra Prisoner of War Camp, abstract of evidence
• SP196/, 1 part 7 Japanese Cowra Trials [inquisition before the Coroner, held at the Court House and the Prisoner of War Camp at Cowra 11-15 December 1944, and statements dated 31 October 1944]
• SP196/, 1 part 8 Japanese Cowra Trials [outbreak of Japanese prisoners from Cowra Prisoner of War Camp, 5 August 1944 and arrangements for the inquiry]

Thematic

Graham Apthorpe, A town at war: stories from Cowra in World War II (Self published, 2008)
Teruhiko Asada, Cowra: The night of a thousand suicides (North Ryde, NSW: Angus & Robertson, 1985).
Harry Gordon, Die like the Carp (New South Wales: Cassell Australia, 1978).
Mat McLachlan, The Cowra Breakout (Sydney: Hachette, 2022).
Neil Smith, Men of Cowra: the 22nd Garrison Battalion and the Cowra break-out 1944 (Gardenvale, Vic: Mostly Unsung Military History Research and Publications, 2006)

Historical Fiction

David Gormley-O'Brien, An Attractive Naivety: Australia as a new nation in a complex world (Rev. Ed.) (Nihil Alienum, 2026)