Cowra POW Camp, 1 July, 1944. Japanese POWs practice baseball near their quarters, several weeks before the Cowra breakout. This photograph was taken with the intention of using it in propaganda leaflets, to be dropped on Japanese-held areas in the Asia-Pacific region.

During World War II, a prisoner of war (POW) camp near the town of Cowra in New South Wales, Australia was the site of one of the largest prison escapes of the war, on 5 August 1944. (See: Large escapes during World War II.) At least 545 Japanese POWs escaped, or attempted to escape, from the camp. Image File history File linksMetadata Cowrapowcamp. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Cowrapowcamp. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... Geneva Convention definition A prisoner of war (POW) is a soldier, sailor, airman, or marine who is imprisoned by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict. ... Cowra is a town in the Central West of New South Wales, Australia in Cowra Shire. ... Slogan or Nickname: First State, Premier State Motto(s): Orta Recens Quam Pura Nites (Newly Risen, How Brightly You Shine) Other Australian states and territories Capital Sydney Government Constitutional monarchy Governor Professor Marie Bashir Premier Morris Iemma (ALP) Federal representation  - House seats 50  - Senate seats 12 Gross State Product (2004... is the 217th day of the year (218th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ... model of a Stalag Luft III compound Stalag Luft III (Stammlager Luft, or Permanent Camp for Airmen #3) was a German Air Force prisoner-of-war camp during World War II that housed captured air force personnel. ...

The camp

Cowra, in a farming district about 300km west of Sydney, was the town nearest to No. 12 Prisoner of War Compound, a major POW camp, where 4,000 Axis military personnel and civilians were detained. The prisoners at Cowra also included Italians, Koreans who had served in the Japanese military, and Indonesian civilians detained at the request of the Dutch East Indies government. The Sydney Opera House on Sydney Harbour Sydney (pronounced ) is the most populous city in Australia, with a metropolitan area population of approximately 4. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

By August 1944, there were 2,223 Japanese POWs in Australia, including 544 merchant seamen. There were also 14,720 Italian prisoners, who had mostly been captured in the North African Campaign, and 1,585 Germans, mostly naval or merchant seamen. During World War II, the North African Campaign, also known as the Desert War, took place in the North African desert from September 13, 1940 to May 13, 1943. ...

Although the POWs were treated in accordance with the Geneva Convention, relations between the Japanese POWs and the guards were poor, due largely to significant cultural differences; Japanese culture at the time regarded capture and detention as shameful and expected soldiers to die rather than accept capture. The Geneva Conventions consist of treaties formulated in Geneva, Switzerland that set the standards for international law for humanitarian concerns. ...

A riot by Japanese POWs at Featherston prisoner of war camp in New Zealand, in February 1943, led to security being tightened at Cowra. Eventually several Vickers and Lewis machine guns were installed to augment the rifles carried by the members of the Australian Militia's 22nd Garrison Battalion, which was comprised mostly of old or disabled veterans and young men considered physically unfit for frontline service. Featherston prisoner of war camp was an internment camp for captured Japanese soldiers during World War II established near Featherston, New Zealand. ... The Vickers machine gun or Vickers gun is a name primarily used to refer to the water-cooled . ... The Lewis Gun was a pre-WWI era British machine gun that continued to see service all the way through WWII. It is visually distinctive because of the wide tubular cooling shroud around the barrel, and the top mounted drum magazines. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Following the federation of Australia in 1901, the six colonial militias were merged to form a national reserve army. ...

The breakout

In the first week of August 1944, a tip-off from an informer at Cowra led authorities to plan a move of all Japanese POWs at Cowra, except officers and NCOs, to another camp at Hay, New South Wales, some 400km to the west. The Japanese were notified of the move on 4 August. A non-commissioned officer (sometimes noncommissioned officer), also known as an NCO or noncom, is a non-commissioned member of an armed force who has been given authority by a commissioned officer. ... Hay is a town in the western Riverina region of south western New South Wales (NSW), Australia. ...

In the words of historian Gavin Long, the following night:

At about 2 a.m. a Japanese ran to the camp gates and shouted what seemed to be a warning to the sentries. Then a Japanese bugle sounded. A sentry fired a warning shot. More sentries fired as three mobs of prisoners, shouting "Banzai", began breaking through the wire, one mob on the northern side, one on the western and one on the southern. They flung themselves across the wire with the help of blankets. They were armed with knives, baseball bats, clubs studded with nails and hooks, wire stilettos and garotting cords.[1]

Soon afterwards, most of the buildings in the Japanese compound were set on fire. Sentry may refer to: A sentry is a guard at a gate or other point of passage. ... Banzai charge (or banzai attack) is a term related to the Japanese samurai spirit and ideology of not accepting the shame of defeat. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... A stiletto is a long, narrow-bladed dagger. ... A garrote (alternative spellings include garotte and garrotte) is a handheld weapon, most often referring to a ligature of chain, rope, or wire used to strangle someone to death. ...

Within minutes of the start of the breakout attempt Privates Benjamin Hardy and Ralph Jones manned the No. 2 Vickers machine-gun and were firing into the first wave of escapees, but they were soon overwhelmed by the sheer weight of numbers and killed. However, Private Jones managed to remove and conceal the gun's lock prior to his death. This rendered the gun useless, thereby preventing the prisoners from turning it against the guards.

The actions of the Japanese POWs in storming machine gun posts, armed only with improvised weapons, showed what Australian Prime Minister John Curtin later described as a "suicidal disregard of life". Nevertheless, 359 POWs escaped. Some prisoners, rather than escaping, attempted or committed suicide, or were killed by their countrymen. Some of those who did escape committed suicide, or were killed, to avoid recapture. All those still alive were recaptured within 10 days of the breakout. A machine gun is a fully-automatic firearm that is capable of firing bullets in rapid succession. ... John Joseph Curtin (8 January 1885 – 5 July 1945), Australian politician and 14th Prime Minister of Australia, led Australia when the Australian mainland came under direct military threat during the Japanese advance in World War II. He is widely regarded as one of the countrys greatest Prime Ministers. ...

During the breakout and subsequent rounding up of POWs, four Australian soldiers and 231 Japanese died and 108 prisoners were wounded. The leaders of the breakout commanded their escapees not to attack Australian civilians, and none were killed or injured.

The findings of an official inquiry into the events was read to the Australian House of Representatives by Curtin on September 8, 1944. Among its findings were: Australian House of Representatives chamber Entrance to the House of Representatives The Australian House of Representatives is one of the two houses (chambers) of the Parliament of Australia. ...

• Conditions at the camp were in accordance with the Geneva Convention;
• No complaints regarding treatment had been made by or on behalf of the Japanese prior to the incident, which appeared to have been the result of a premeditated and concerted plan;
• The actions of the Australian garrison in resisting the attack averted a greater loss of life, and firing ceased as soon as they regained control;
• Many of the dead had committed suicide or been killed by other prisoners, and many of the Japanese wounded had suffered self-inflicted wounds.

The Japanese Garden (Spring 2004)

Hardy and Jones were posthumously awarded the George Cross as a result of their actions. The Geneva Conventions consist of treaties formulated in Geneva, Switzerland that set the standards for international law for humanitarian concerns. ... Image File history File links CowraJapnaeseGardenSpring2004. ... Image File history File links CowraJapnaeseGardenSpring2004. ... A posthumous recognition is a ceremonial award given after the recipient has passed away. ... The George Cross (GC) is the highest civil decoration of the Commonwealth of Nations. ...

No. 12 Camp continued to operate until the last Japanese and Italian prisoners were repatriated in 1947.

Cowra maintains a significant Japanese war cemetery, and a Japanese garden was later built, on Bellevue Hill, to commemorate these events. The garden was designed by Ken Nakajima in the style of the Edo period. Castle Ashby Graveyard Northamptonshire A cemetery is a place in which dead bodies and cremated remains are buried. ... This view from the Symbolic Mountain Lookout in Cowra, NSW shows many of the typical elements of a Japanese garden Stone lantern amid plants. ... The Edo period ), also called Tokugawa period, is a division of Japanese history running from 1603 to 1868. ...

Fictional accounts

Dead Men Rising, Mackenzie, Kenneth (1975, Angus & Robertson, Sydney)

A novel by Seaforth Mackenzie, who was stationed at Cowra during the breakout.

The Cowra Breakout (1984) Kenneth Ivo Brownley Langwell Mackenzie (Pen name: Seaforth Mackenzie) (1913-1955), was an Australian poet and novelist. ...

A critically acclaimed 4½-hour television miniseries, written by Margaret Kelly and Chris Noonan, and directed by Noonan and Phillip Noyce

A miniseries (sometimes mini-series), in a serial storytelling medium, is a production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. ... Several well-known people have been named Margaret Kelly. ... Chris Noonan (b. ... Phillip Noyce on the set of Rabbit-Proof Fence with the films star, Everlyn Sampi. ...

See also

• Military history of Australia
• Pacific War
• South West Pacific Area
• Imperial Japanese Army
• Imperial Japanese Navy
• The Great Escape from Stalag Luft III

The Military history of Australia spans several centuries and includes Australias involvement in wars. ... For other uses, see Pacific War (disambiguation). ... South West Pacific Area (SWPA) was the name given to one of the four major Allied commands in the Pacific theatre of World War II, during 1942-45. ... The Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) (Kyūjitai: 大日本帝國陸軍, Shinjitai: , Romaji: Dai-Nippon Teikoku Rikugun) was the official ground based armed force of Imperial Japan from 1867 to 1945. ... For Combined Fleet, please see that article. ... The Great Escape, written by James Clavell, W.R. Burnett, and Walter Newman (uncredited), and directed by John Sturges is a popular 1963 World War II film, based on a true story about Allied prisoners of war with a record for escaping from German prisoner-of-war camps. ... model of a Stalag Luft III compound Stalag Luft III (Stammlager Luft, or Permanent Camp for Airmen #3) was a German Air Force prisoner-of-war camp during World War II that housed captured air force personnel. ...

External links

• "The Cowra Breakout" David Hobson in World War II 1939-45 (Published by) the ANZAC Day Commemoration Committee (Qld) Incorporated. (1998)
• "Official Cowra Japanese Garden Home Page"
• "The prison breakout at Cowra, August 1944" Gavin Long, in Australia in the War of 1939-1945 (Published by) the Australian War Memorial. (1963)
• "Cowra POW Camp Slideshow", Cowra Shire Council (no date)
• Wal McKenzie, "Memories of the Cowra Breakout" (no date)
• "Uprisings remembered" S. Muthiah, in The Hindu (Indian national newspaper). (February 13, 2005)
• "Fact Sheet 198: Cowra outbreak, 1944 National Archives of Australia. (2000)