Japanese POWs
During the Second World War, more than 4,000 Japanese prisoners of war were held in camps across Australia. Most were captured in the Pacific campaigns, and while the majority remained in captivity until the war's end, the 1944 Cowra Breakout—the largest prison escape in military history—became one of the most dramatic events on the Australian home front.
Ashes and Sakura: an Australian story of the making of a Pacific nation
Set against the remote Pacific island of Morotai and the ruins of postwar Japan at war’s end, Ashes and Sakura follows Tom Darcy, a young Australian soldier serving with the British Commonwealth occupation forces in Japan after the Second World War. As he encounters the devastation of a defeated nation and forms unexpected bonds with those on the other side of the conflict, the novel explores war, memory, love and reconciliation.
Sources for Japanese breakout from Cowra Prisoner of War Camp
List of accused at Morotai war crimes trials
This database lists Japanese prisoners of war accused of war crimes in the Australian military trials conducted on Morotai between November 1945 and February 1946. It records the names, ranks, military units, charges, trial references, sentences and, where applicable, the dates and locations of executions, drawing on official Australian military records and contemporary historical sources. The database provides a valuable research tool for historians, genealogists and family researchers investigating Australia's early post-war war crimes programme and the administration of military justice in the South-West Pacific.
Note: Accused war criminals with a (2) against their name indicates that they were also tried for a second war crime at Morotai.
List of war crimes tried at Morotai (Nov 1945 - Feb 1946)
This database lists the war crimes prosecuted by Australian Military Courts at Morotai between November 1945 and February 1946. Organised by individual case rather than by accused, it identifies where each offence was committed, the nature of the crime, and the corresponding trial references. The cases include the murder and mistreatment of Allied prisoners of war, the execution of captured RAAF airmen, torture, and other violations of the laws and customs of war committed across Ambon, Halmahera, New Guinea, the Talaud Islands and northern Celebes. Together, these records provide an overview of the offences investigated by Australian authorities as part of the first stage of Australia's post-war war crimes programme in the South-West Pacific.
An Attractive Naivety: Australia as a new nation in a complex world (Revised Edition)
An Attractive Naivety is an epic work of Australian historical fiction spanning the first half of the twentieth century. Through the lives of ordinary men and women, it traces the nation’s journey from Federation and plague to Depression, war, and uneasy peace. Interweaving fictional characters with real events, the novel explores the humour, hardship, courage and contradictions that shaped modern Australia.
COWRA, NSW. 1944-07-01. JAPANESE PRISONERS OF WAR PRACTISING BASEBALL ON THEIR SPORTSGROUND
Japanese prisoners playing baseball in B Compound, Cowra POW Camp.
COWRA, NSW. 1944-08. BLANKETS THROWN OVER THE BARBED WIRE IN B CAMP, (THE JAPANESE SECTION)
Aftermath of mass Japanese POW breakout at Cowra - blankets over barbed wire
COWRA, NSW. 1944-08-05. THE MORNING AFTER THE OUTBREAK REVEALED DEAD BODIES LYING EVERYWHERE
Aftermath of mass Japanese POW breakout at Cowra - bodies entangled in barbed wire
Japanese prisoner-of-war camp Morotai
Japanese prisoners held in POW camp at Morotai