by Tim Bowden
Some were grateful for the experience:
Yes, it was the greatest privilege I ever had. I was so lucky to have been a prisoner of war and come to an understanding about things that are important—to my life with those POWs with whom I lived, and to make in my own tiny way, a token gesture for Australia. (Stan Arneil)
It gave me a great understanding of men. And a great appreciation of the ordinary things of life—bread and butter, a bit of jam on your toast in the mornings, a glass of beer when you’re thirsty. And, the value of human relations. You know when it comes to the end, the only thing that really matters are the people whom you love and the people who love you. (Dr Kevin Fagan)
The 14,000 surviving POWs at the end of the war were scattered widely through Asia, including Japan. Some of them who were working in Japanese coal and iron ore mines actually saw the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, so pivotal in abruptly ending the war. In the immediate aftermath, while waiting to be rescued, POW medico Dr Ian Duncan decided he would use this time to interview every Australian and British soldier in his camp—he was the only medical officer there.
I thought it was my duty to record their disabilities. And you’d say to them, ‘What diseases have you had as a prisoner of war?’ ‘Oh, nothing much, Doc, nothing much at all.’ ‘Did you have malaria?’ ‘Oh yes, I had malaria.’ ‘Did you have dysentery?’ ‘Oh yes, I had dysentery.’ ‘Did you have beriberi?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Did you have pellagra?’ ‘Yes, I had pellagra but nothing very much.’ All these are lethal diseases but that was the norm, you see, everyone had them. Therefore they accepted them as normal.
Duncan remained concerned even when treating ex-POWs in postwar civilian life:
A lot of them had stomach trouble, a lot of gastric duodenal ulcers, a lot had chronic diarrhoea. But everyone who worked—certainly on the railway and in the mines of Japan—has some form of arthritic degeneration caused by the conditions of their work. I’ve seen X-rays of the spines of some of these men and they are really shocking—how they got around I don’t know. But they did and made very light of it. The men almost invariably came in and said, ‘Well I don’t want to seem to be a bludger, but I’ve got this trouble,’ or, ‘I thought I’d come along and see you. I don’t think I deserve any pension, we didn’t do much fighting.’ And this was their attitude. They actually believed that they were not entitled to a lot of the benefits of ex-servicemen. But they were. They fought a pretty hard war—as POWs.
And the last word on the POW experience is from Ambon survivor, Jack Panaotie:
When we get talking together, we say—couldn’t go through it again, but we wouldn’t have missed it. An experience that we know, that nobody else knows. Not that you don’t want anyone else to know about it, but you cannot explain it to anybody else. Because we are unique.
Chapter 23
FINAL THOUGHTS
It is odd, that although most of us were aware last century that we would not have the World War I veterans for very long, somehow—even historians—we believed that we would have the World War II men and women forever!
Suddenly, in the 21st century, we have belatedly realised that not many are left at all. Even the teenagers who upped their ages from as young as fifteen to join the Australian Militia and the AIF are now in their 90s. My father, Major John Bowden, who enlisted in the AIF from Tasmania at the age of 33 to serve in Palestine and later in Central and Northern Australia, would be 111 if he were alive today.
In reading the mostly self-published books written by ex–World War II soldiers, I am astonished at their bravery, and self-deprecating accounts of their role in savage actions in the Middle East, Japanese prison camps in South-east Asia, and in the South Pacific area—particularly their honesty and larrikin humour in writing about what really happened to them on the battlefield and off.
I have been particularly privileged to get to know and enjoy the confidences of many ex–prisoners of war of the Japanese, when historian Hank Nelson and I (on his instigation) began our oral history project in the early 1980s that resulted in the ABC Radio series, and Hank’s book, Prisoners of War: Australians Under Nippon. The men and women interviewed were then in their mid-60s, and, as mentioned earlier in this book, had strangely never spoken about their experiences, in many cases not even to their own families. Hank believed that the time had come for them to finally tell their stories, and he was absolutely right. Even after so many years, some wept as they recalled what had happened to them under the brutal Japanese POW regime. Curiously, some even felt ashamed that they had been prisoners of war, rather than ‘proper soldiers’.
This, even though most of them had fought brief but gallant actions in Timor, Ambon, Java and most effectively in the brief Malayan campaign leading to the fall of Singapore in February 1942. Continued army service was unlikely to have provided the challenges, dangers and privations they endured for the following three and a half years. Yet it took a while for them to realise the quiet heroism of their captivity. Perhaps the radio series, Australians Under Nippon, first broadcast in 1984, helped not only to let fellow Australians know what they had been through, but triggered more books and memoirs from veterans in following years. And in 1998, the Australian prime minister celebrated Anzac Day at Hellfire Pass on the Thai–Burma Railway.
When I interviewed Sir Edward ‘Weary’ Dunlop in the early 1980s, one of the legendary doctors on the Thai–Burma Railway, he had this to say:
It’s quite surprising, the achievement of prisoners of war all over the country—they’ve done well in all sorts of occupations and activities. And unhappily of course there are men who were damaged psychologically, who went on the booze or smoked themselves to death. I think my major worry has been that the years have found out a lot of them that started off pretty well. They bounded back into civilian life, they didn’t want pensions, they didn’t want to be cushioned, but they were very tired men and they came home exhausted in the evenings. They didn’t go back to tennis, bowls and golf, they put on weight and got a bit flabby. So I think that heart disease and the diseases which overtake the middle-aged and the elderly have taken a lot of them off before their time.
There are certainly parallels with the tropical experiences of the Australian prisoners of war of the Japanese with the Militia and AIF soldiers who fought in the jungles of Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Islands. Certainly the scourge of malaria, dysentery and sometimes an inadequate diet of tinned bully beef and hard tack biscuits would have been understood by the POWs, even if they would have welcomed bully beef and biscuits as manna from heaven.
I regret not knowing the authors featured in Straight Shooters as well as I got to know so many of the ex–prisoners of war of the Japanese in the early 1980s. I have met one, Joe Dawson, a veteran of the Kokoda Track who lived near me on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, author of Kokoda Survivor, and corresponded with another, Clarry McCulloch, a fellow Tasmanian, who sent me a copy of his memoir, Some Call It Luck, in 2005. He wrote in the flyleaf, ‘To Tim, thanks for your sense of humour—from one Taswegian to another’.
Of course I wrote to thank him, but at that stage had not thought of writing a book which would feature his colourful account among others. Had we met, we could have swapped some shared experiences. He began his training at Brighton camp, north of Hobart, in June 1940 in the same army huts that I slept in as a fourteen-year-old member of my school’s army cadet corps (nearly freezing off my developing testicles in a Tasmanian winter in 1951), and again in 1957 as a national serviceman (at least that basic training session was in the short Tasmanian summer). On both occasions we drilled with World War I–vintage .303 Lee Enfield rifles that Clarry doubtless trained with in Brighton camp also and later used as a fighting soldier in the Middle East.
Clarry McCulloch did the full tour. After fighting in the Syrian Campaign, he was to return to Australia with his battalion on the troopship (and former cruise liner) Orcades, after which he would have doubtless fought in Papa New Guinea or the
South Pacific Islands against the invading Japanese. Instead he drew the short straw, and was offloaded in Java to help the Dutch prop up their fading colonial empire, and after a short action spent the rest of the war as a POW of the Japanese in Java, and later on the Thai–Burma Railway.
I still have the letter Clarry McCulloch wrote to me in 2005, which began:
Dear Tim,
Although I had to sign the ‘Dangerous Goods’ declaration on the front of this package, I think the contents are unlikely to damage your health. They may promote a quiet chuckle here and there, if so I will be well satisfied as I think that your view of life is much akin to mine.
He finished his letter: ‘Anyway, at my age, I have realised that perhaps we should look at life as it really is. One gigantic joke!’
I think you would have enjoyed Donald Trump’s election as president of the United States, Clarry. Sorry you didn’t live to see it.
As I said in the introduction to Larrrikins in Khaki, this book is not in any sense a conventional military history and not intended to be. But in delving into the memoirs of the blythe spirits who published their own books, I hope I have at least illustrated the sterling qualities of the Australian fighting soldier—hard to discipline, generous to their comrades, irreverent and, above all, telling it as they saw it, warts and all.
It has been a privilege to share their stories.
Tim Bowden, 2019
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First, profound thanks to the eleven authors of the books quoted in Larrikins in Khaki who sadly cannot know of the republishing of key parts of their memoirs because they are all dead. They are: Ivan Blazely, Joe Dawson, Ken Clift, Colin Finkemeyer, Norm Fuller, Bob Holt, Clarry McCulloch, Peter Medcalf, Roy Sibson, Ken Joyce and Bill Spencer. The remarkable books written by these men were collected by both my friend Professor Hank Nelson and me over the years, when we worked on aspects of the experiences of Australian prisoners of war of the Japanese in World War II.
I regret it has not been possible, in all cases, to contact the families or descendants of the authors due to the passing of time. As I have quoted extensively from their work, I only hope that relatives of the above authors will be forbearing under the circumstances, and pleased that the stories of these remarkable soldiers will now be read by a wider and younger audience. Identification of many soldiers referred to was made further hazardous by the nicknames used by those who wished to hide the identity of particularly hated NCOs and incompetent officers. In many cases nicknames were conferred on much-loved comrades in arms.
I thank my publisher at Allen & Unwin, Rebecca Kaiser, for supporting this project, and military historian Professor Peter Stanley for agreeing to run his experienced eye over the manuscript. Historian Dr Mark Johnston gave invaluable insights and guidance of the role of Australians in the Pacific War. Also Rebecca Kaiser for her careful and painstaking work in honing my prose and picking up the instances where I have used the same adjective either in the same sentence, or in the following one, which is one of my besetting sins.
John Holmes, author of Smiles of Fortune—A memoir of the war against Japan, sent me a signed copy of his book when it was published by Kangaroo Press in 2001. The cover photo, also used in Larrikins in Khaki, is reproduced courtesy of the Australian War Memorial, negative number 013857. It depicts three cheerful wounded Australians serving with 55/53rd Battalion, making their way out of the front line to a first-aid station in Papua.
My wife Ros has once again been tolerant of losing me to my computer and study for a large percentage of our shared life, and I am grateful.
NOTES
Chapter 1 Joining up
Bob Holt, all quotes from From Ingleburn to Aitape: The trials and tribulations of a four figure man.
Ken Clift, all quotes from The Saga of a Sig: The wartime memories of six years’ service in the Second AIF.
Joe Dawson, all quotes from Kokoda Survivor, Sergeant Joe Dawson.
Bill Young, all quotes from Return to a Dark Age.
Chapter 2 Very basic training
Colin Finkemeyer, all quotes from It Happened to Us: Mark II
Clarry McCulloch, all quotes from Some Call It Luck: The war story of Clarry McCulloch.
Ivan Blazely, all quotes from Boots and All.
Bob Holt, all quotes from From Ingleburn to Aitape.
Roy Sibson, all quotes from My Life as I Saw It Boots ’n’ All.
Joe Dawson, all quotes from Kokoda Survivor.
Chapter 3 Sailing to war
Bob Holt, all quotes from From Ingleburn to Aitape.
Ken Clift, all quotes from The Saga of a Sig.
Clarry McCulloch, all quotes from Some Call It Luck.
Ivan Blazely, all quotes from Boots and All.
Chapter 4 Desert Diggers prepare for war
Ivan Blazely, all quotes from Boots and All.
Bob Holt, all quotes from From Ingleburn to Aitape.
Clarry McCulloch, all quotes from Some Call It Luck.
Ken Clift, all quotes from The Saga of a Sig.
Chapter 5 High jinks in Egypt
Bob Holt, all quotes from From Ingleburn to Aitape.
Ken Clift, all quotes from The Saga of a Sig.
Chapter 6 Fighting in the desert
Bob Holt, all quotes from From Ingleburn to Aitape.
Ken Clift, all quotes from The Saga of a Sig.
Chapter 7 Ill-fated Greek adventure
Bob Holt, all quotes from From Ingleburn to Aitape.
Ken Clift, all quotes from The Saga of a Sig.
Chapter 8 Out of the frying pan into the fire
Bob Holt, all quotes from From Ingleburn to Aitape.
Ken Clift, all quotes from The Saga of a Sig.
Chapter 9 The Allied invasion of Lebanon and Syria
Ivan Blazely, all quotes from Boots and All.
Clarry McCulloch, all quotes from Some Call It Luck.
Bob Holt, all quotes from From Ingleburn to Aitape.
Chapter 10 The tide turns
Ivan Blazely, all quotes from Boots and All.
Chapter 11 Return to Australia
John Bowden, all quotes from Tim Bowden, The Way My Father Tells It: The story of an Australian life.
Ivan Blazely, all quotes from Boots and All.
Bob Holt, all quotes from From Ingleburn to Aitape.
Ken Clift, all quotes from The Saga of a Sig.
Chapter 12 Prisoners of war of the Japanese
Clarry McCullough, all quotes from Some Call It Luck.
Stan Arneil, all quotes from Tim Bowden and Hank Nelson, Prisoners of War: Australians Under Nippon, ABC Radio documentary series.
Cliff Moss, all quotes from Prisoners of War.
Clarrie Thornton, all quotes from Prisoners of War.
Ray Steele, all quotes from Prisoners of War.
Jack Sloan, all quotes from Prisoners of War.
Tom Morris, all quotes from Prisoners of War.
Frank Robinson, all quotes from Prisoners of War.
Dick Ryan, all quotes from Prisoners of War.
Ben Hackney, all quotes from Prisoners of War.
Don Moore, all quotes from Prisoners of War.
Frank Christie, all quotes from Prisoners of War.
‘Snow’ Peat, all quotes from Prisoners of War.
Tom Dowling, all quotes from Prisoners of War.
‘Prawn’ Hennebery, all quotes from Colin Finkemeyer, It Happened to Us.
Adrian Curlewis, all quotes from Prisoners of War.
George McNeilly, all quotes from Prisoners of War.
Russell Braddon, all quotes from Prisoners of War.
Chapter 13 The railway of death
Jim Richardson, all quotes from Prisoners of War.
Geoff O’Connor, all quotes from Prisoners of War.
Dr Kevin Fagan, all quotes from Prisoners of War.
Stan Arneil, all quotes from Prisoners of War.
Don Moore, all quotes from Prisoners of War.
&nb
sp; Hugh Clarke, all quotes from Prisoners of War.
Donald Stuart, all quotes from Prisoners of War.
Arthur Bancroft, all quotes from Prisoners of War.
Ray Parkin, all quotes from Prisoners of War.
Adrian Curlewis, all quotes from Prisoners of War.
Dr Rowley Richards, all quotes from Prisoners of War.
Clarry McCulloch, all quotes from Some Call It Luck.
Colin Finkemeyer, all quotes from It Happened to Us.
Bob Grant, all quotes from Prisoners of War.
Dave Buxton, all quotes from Prisoners of War.
Chapter 14 Service at home
Ivan Blazely, all quotes from Boots and All.
Bob Holt, all quotes from From Ingleburn to Aitape.
Chapter 15 The saga of the flying footsloggers
Norm Fuller, all quotes from The Flying Footsloggers: Unofficial history of Australia’s World War paratroopers.
Chapter 16 The Kokoda Track and the bloody beachheads
Joe Dawson, all quotes from Kokoda Survivor.
Ralph Honner, in Peter Brune, Ralph Honner: Kokoda hero.
William Slim, Defeat into Victory.
Robert Eichelberger, in James Brien, The Bloody Beachheads: The battles of Gona, Buna and Sanananda, November 1942–January 1943.
Seiichi Uchiyama, in Brien, The Bloody Beachheads.
James Brien, The Bloody Beachheads.
Chapter 17 The battle for New Guinea
Henry ‘Jo’ Gullet, all quotes from Not as a Duty Only: An infantryman’s war.
Roy Sibson, all quotes from My Life as I Saw It Boots ’n’ All.
Chapter 18 An unnecessary campaign
Bob Holt, all quotes from From Ingleburn to Aitape.
Chapter 19 Savagery in Bougainville
Peter Medcalf, War in the Shadows: Bougainville 1944–45.
Chapter 20 Bloody Borneo—Tarakan and Balikpapan