Australia and the World Past and Present

Did Australia ever hold Japanese prisoners of war on Australian soil during World War II? If so, where?

1,104 Japanese were held near Cowra in regional New South Wales

On the 5th August 1944, the biggest prison escape of WWII took place there. This was the Cowra Breakout.

4 Australian soldiers were killed and 231 Japanese were either killed or committed suicide.

The Japanese were not the only prisoners held at Cowra. Italians, Koreans and Taiwanese were also held there. Some prisoners were merchant seamen.

At the prison camp, there had been problems with communication between the Australians and the Japanese.

Machine gun installations were located around the camp.

A decision had been made to separate the Japanese prisoners. Some would be sent to Hay. The POWs caught wind of this information.

They rushed fences on three sides of the compound, some with baseball bats as improvised weapons.

Australian soldiers started firing the machine guns. One machine gun installation was overrun, but the gun’s bolt was removed by the Australia soldier mannning it before this happened. The gun could no longer be fired.

359 prisoners had escaped, but all were recaptured within 10 days.

Today there is a Japanese war cemetery at Cowra – the only one in Australia.