Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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The clip shows a former Japanese prisoner of war (POW) Marekuni Takahara revisiting the Cowra camp in New South Wales where he was held during the Second World War. He remembers the dishonour and shame felt by Japanese POWs for being captured and not dying in battle as their military code demanded. Historic black-and-white film is used to illustrate Japanese militarism and show Japanese POWs. Takahara explains that captured Japanese soldiers were traditionally considered dead. Traditional Japanese music accompanies the clip.

Educational value points

• The anguish and shame of Japanese soldiers taken in battle is revealed by Takahara who, like many other Japanese POWs, adopted a false name on capture. They knew their families would have been informed that they had been ‘killed in action’, which conferred great honour. Many who died at Cowra took their real identities to the grave, as a prisoner was seen to be the equivalent of a traitor and acknowledgement of this situation could threaten their family’s livelihood.

• The Field Service Code promulgated to the Japanese army in 1941 taught that the disgrace of being taken prisoner was dishonourable and would also be conferred to the soldier’s family. Military training, some of which is shown in the clip, instilled obedience to this code. The imperial Japanese army’s methods were excessively harsh, and involved regular beatings and humiliation. Soldiers were taught that capture meant failure and dying in battle was honourable.

• The humiliation on the faces of captured Japanese soldiers seen in the historical footage sheds light on Takahara’s experience. While Takahara is looking into the distance from the former Cowra prison camp, a fade-out leads into film of the camp in the 1940s showing the barbed-wire fence and the inmates, suggesting that he is reliving his experiences as a prisoner at the camp and the actual breakout.

• The suicidal breakout from the Cowra prison camp by Japanese POWs in the early morning of 5 August 1944 was an escape from the dishonour of capture and the opportunity to die a ‘glorious death’. Armed only with baseball bats and knives, 1,100 prisoners charged the barbed-wire perimeter fences into Australian gunfire. Of those, 231 Japanese died and 108 were wounded in the breakout. Over 300 escaped, some took their own lives and it took nine days to recapture the survivors.

• Editing and a musical soundtrack create a contrast between the pride of the Japanese military code and the shame of capture. Historical footage shows Japanese troops in training and in a proud march-past in the streets accompanied by an increasingly fast musical track featuring the Japanese koto. Then the music ceases. A captured Japanese soldier appears half dressed and in a humiliating posture. The mournful sound of the Japanese flute suggests his despondency.