How The Cowra Breakout Story Started With The Bombing Of Darwin

Last Sunday may have been the anniversary of the Bombing of Darwin during World War II, however it also marked the anniversary of the first Japanese Prisioner of War to be sent to the Cowra POW Camp.

On 19 February 1942, over 260 Japanese aircraft bombed Darwin, killing over 250 Allied service personnel and civilians, significantly damaging the city and sinking watercraft.

One of the airmen involved in the raid was Hajime Toyoshima, who flew a Japanese Mitsubishi Zero which was shot by Australian soldiers - his plane was damaged he made a crash landing on Melville Island.

Toyoshima was disarmed and captured by indigenous Australians who then took him to Bathurst Island and handed him over to 23 Field Company, Royal Australian Engineers, who escorted him into captivity.

Toyoshima became the first Japanese prisoner of war to be taken by Australians, and was sent to Cowra, NSW where he was known as Tadao Minami.

At just before 2am on 5 August 1944, it was Toyoshima who sounded the bugle which signalled the start of the Cowra Breakout – over 1000 prisoners armed with knives and improvised clubs rushed from their huts and began breaking through the wire fences. There intention was not so much to escape, but to con-tinue to fight against the enemy and if it came to it – die with honour as a Japa-nese soldier.

This gives the Bombing of Darwin a direct link to the Cowra Breakout, and the rest, as they say, is history.

This information was provided by Mat McLachlan, an expert historian on the Cowra Breakout who last year published his book, titled ‘The Cowra Breakout’. Mr McLachlan also runs a tour company that takes tourists to former battlefields around the world, called ‘Mat McLachlan Battlefield Tours”.

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• History