The Cowra Breakout

　　On August 6 and 9, annual memorials are held to commemorate the victims of the atomic bombs dropped upon Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A few days later, on August 15, Japanese observe the anniversary of the end of the Second World War. For many Japanese, at this time of the year, this all offers an opportunity to reflect upon the tragedies of war and appreciate peace.
　　On August 5, 1944, almost a year before the atomic bombs dropped, 1,100 Japanese prisoners of war attempted a mass escape from Cowra Prison of War Camp in Australia. This resulted in the deaths of 231 Japanese and four Australians soldiers. In Australia there is a cemetery that was erected to honor those involved, but few know of this breakout in Japan.
　　Every year on August 5, both Japanese and Australian officials attend an Australian municipally organized memorial ceremony. I attended one such event and learned a great deal when previously working in the Consulate-General of Japan in Sydney. I felt ashamed of my ignorance in not knowing more about how Australians once perceived Japanese as enemies and yet they buried Japanese in the same cemeteries as their own war dead.
　　What happened in Cowra can also be understood through the dispatch records of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs as released online by JACAR. The Japanese legation in Switzerland in the 1940s had been sending via diplomatic cable to the Foreign Affairs headquarters in Tokyo reports received by the Swiss government written by staff at Switzerland’s consulate-general in Australia. We can assume from this that the Japanese government had some knowledge of prison conditions prior to the breakout. Accordingly, I want to examine that background, the incident, and its aftermath here with the JACAR database.

　　Cowra, the site of the incident, is a town of about 10,000 people 320 km west of Sydney. During the World War II, the twelfth Allied POW camp was placed in Cowra, since its installation site is located inland and thereby difficult to escape. The site is comprised of twelve squares, on two roads that intersect at a right angle. It is divided into four blocks: A, B, C, and D [Image 2]. Block B contained non-commissioned officers and soldiers. Block D, located opposite Block B, had Japanese officers and a small number of Korean and Taiwanese POWs. Block C contained Italian POWs. The breakout started in Block B.

　　The particulars of the breakout can be confirmed from a report included among the Ministry of Foreign Affairs diplomatic cable records of the time (Ref. B02032491300, see 8th to 17th images). This report was produced by an Australian Military Court of Inquiry on the incident that the Swiss Consulate General in Sydney obtained from Australia’s Department of External Affairs (predecessor to today’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade). Much of the information was gathered by a committee that took testimonies from over 60 witnesses between August 7 and 15, 1944, after the Cowra breakout.

Details
● On August 5, 1944 1:50 AM, unauthorized trumpet sounds were heard in Block B. Over 900 POWs then charged their enclosing fence while yelling.
● POWs broke through two places in the prison fence. Another group broke through the fence that separated their quarters from the prison camp road.
● Before leaving their quarters, POWs set fire to them.
● POWs polished and sharpened more than 1,000 table knives with a saw tooth as weapons for attack. They also fashioned bread knives into swords along with baseball bats and clubs.
● POWs wore baseball mitts and other gloves to protect their hands as they climbed over the barbwire fence. Three blankets were also used to get beyond the barbwire. Many POWs wore extra clothing and wrapped towels around their bodies. They used ropes made from rice bags.
● August 14, 1944 9:00 AM, Japanese casualties were confirmed as follows: One officer was killed, 230 other soldiers were killed or died due to injury or suicide. One officer was injured along with ten other soldiers and people (Note: a report from the head of New South Wales to the federal chancellery held by the Australian National Archives states that 107 soldiers were injured.)
● At the funeral of a Japanese officer, two Japanese officers and four other soldiers carried a coffin with an elder Australian military officer.

Australia military casualties were as follows:
● One officer died and three soldiers passed away. Four soldiers were wounded.

　　A few Japanese prisoners escaped successfully, but within a few days everyone had been recaptured. Why would people dare to leave the prison camp in the dead of winter? Even if they got out, the nearest harbor for escape was in Sydney, more than 300 kilometers away. Did a harsh internment drive these seemingly reckless actions? Actually there are no indications that the treatment of the POWs was poor. A report of camp visits conducted by staff from the Swiss consulates in Melbourne and Sydney (again obtained by the Foreign Affairs Ministry through its legation in Switzerland) indicate that the Australians were surprisingly humane [Image 3]. The reports were conducted on May 27, 1943; July 29-31, 1943; September 6, 1943; and January 6, 1944.

Treatment Description

Treatment of Property:
Some POWs had their watches confiscated but were issued a receipt.

Diet in the Camp:
Breakfast: porridge, bread, butter, jam and milk.
Lunch: cooked rice.
Dinner: tea, cooked rice, vegetables and meat.
35 weeks of cigarettes.

Sanitation There were sanitary facilities and no complaints. An ophthalmologist visited once a month.

Labor
Since paid work requires a robust body, the number of employees was low. The employment rate was only 8%, and most were engaged in garden arrangement, logging, and chopping wood.

Exercise and entertainment Baseball, basketball, football and sumo wrestling.

Food target for 1,000 people per week
Beef: 100 pounds, mutton: 25 pounds, pork: 100 pounds, fresh fish: 300 pounds, eggs: 8.5 dozen, bread: 420 pounds, butter: 24.5 pounds, biscuits: 5 pounds, rice: 700 pounds, sugar: 105 pounds, vegetables: 170 pounds, etc.

Former head of the Cowra Society, the late Jiro Doichi, reminisced about the prison camp as follows: