[naturalman1975]

I had to edit the very long headline to make it fit: The Japanese soldiers who risked death to break out of prison: Historic photos capture the biggest prisoner escape attempt during WWII at a regional Australian war camp

I don't deny the bravery of the Japanese, but personally I wish a headline in a British/Australian publication had instead focused on the bravery of Private Benjamin Hardy, Private Ralph Jones, Private Charles Shepherd, and Lieutenant Harry Doncaster who died as a result of this breakout - some of the relatively small number of Australian soldiers killed fighting the enemy on our own soil. Private Hardy and Private Jones both received the George Cross (personally I think they should have got the Victoria Cross - while the GC is equal in prestige and honour to the VC, so there is no slight on their honour at all, the VC requires the action to be in the face of the enemy while the GC does not - it was ruled at the time that because the Japanese were prisoners not combatants, the GC was more appropriate - but two men standing their ground manning a machine gun as several hundred Japanese soldiers charged towards them and dying at their post when they are overwhelmed... to me, that is the face of the enemy, and I don't think it should be classified as anything else).

[driftdiver]

They were treated so much better than our guys.

[FreeAtlanta]

I did not know about this escape. Thank you for posting.

[yarddog]

It sounds like a fair number were not accounted for unless they were recaptured.

In a way there was not any real chance for them to get back to Japanese territory, or was there?

[Vendome]

Shoulduh shot them dead in Nam...

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

I always think about things like these when pointing out the difference between Conservative and liberals. If we somehow found our into concentration camps we would immediately plan an escape like this or Sobibor. The libs would be fighting for coed showers.

[Drango]

I too did not know of this attempted escape. Thanks. Awkward, but they were wrongly imprisoned IMHO and an escape was justified.

My uncle who was a Japanese prison guard in California during WW2 and I get into arguments about this all the time. Sorry, I believe we were wrong.

[Buffalo Head]

Very interesting. Thanks for the post.

[Chainmail]

Ping for the morning.

[Eagles6]

Thanks for the post. Never heard of this.

[Larry381]

I seem to remember reading about a similar mass escape during the Korean war. Didn’t a bunch of North Koreans and Chinese POWs take over a camp in S Korea?

[Robert A Cook PE]

Thank you.

[morphing libertarian]

What were they going to do, swim for it?

[diogenes ghost]

"...was killed when he was ambushed during the roundup of passengers."

Comforting to see that the UK has lousy editors too.