Japan's Pacific War by Peter Williams

Author:Peter Williams
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History / Military / World War II
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2021-06-29T00:00:00+00:00

Marekuni Takahara

Takahara appeared in Chapter Three, when his aircraft was shot down off Darwin in February 1942.

I was one of the early ones to be captured and after Darwin we went across Australia to Sydney via Melbourne, and then I was sent to Hay, where there were lots of civilians. Japanese civilians were interned and there were only the five us from my plane who were military people. I had already made up my false name in Darwin and I didn’t tell the Australians that I was military personnel. I said I was a steward of a fishing boat.

I feel that I am one of the founders of the Cowra camp. In the camp, people just didn’t talk about the past. Many of us had false names and we didn’t say anything about our background. Some people might have suspected that I was military, but we just didn’t talk about what we were before we were captured.

I was a baseball player in high school. Before I went to Cowra, while I was in Hay, I taught baseball to the civilian internees in the camp. By the time I left Cowra I knew how to make equipment and other things. In Hay I learned some English from the civilians in the camp, so I was an interpreter in Cowra. In Cowra we used to make baseball equipment from various materials, like canvas and old clothes, so I had a fairly busy time. I always say I am a graduate from Cowra University.

I felt that the Italians in the camp were relaxed and laid back people. The Australians used to tell us, during the war, that Germans were born with a gun in their hand, Italians were born with a dream in their hands, but we don’t know what the Japanese were born with in their hands. That’s what Australians used to say during the war.

For the breakout itself I didn’t have any particular role, but two months before it I was working as an interpreter in the officers’ camp. I went with three others to the commander of the officers’ camp and told him that I could remain as the interpreter as long as necessary, but I wanted the other three to be changed after three months. I wanted them to be sent back to their original camp; but that didn’t happen. As I was the leader, I decided to go on strike. Because of this, I was sent to a cell for four weeks, and the other three were sent to a cell for one week. After that I was sent back to my original camp.

I didn’t have any particular role in the planning stage. I was told the signal for the breakout would come at 2 am, and I belonged to the first group. I was asked to reach the officers’ camp across Broadway as soon as the breakout started, so that’s what I tried to do.

I escaped, but by the time I got to Broadway there were already about thirty dead bodies lying there.

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