After lunch, Jack and Edward began a game of backyard cricket, which everyone joined in, including Honey, who snatched the ball more often than anyone. Then the oldies sat in the shade and rested while the younger generation walked down to Mindil Beach for a swim. Poppy was relieved to see that the barbed wire had been rolled away.
Salty and sandy after their afternoon swim, everyone strolled back to the house along the dirt track in pairs and in groups. Jack and Poppy dawdled together at the rear, catching up on three years of news and thoughts.
As they drew closer to the house, the strains of a Vera Lynn record could be heard on the breeze, singing many of her greatest hits from the war years.
‘I love this song,’ Poppy confessed, and began to sing along to the lyrics of ‘As Time Goes By’, swaying to the slow music, eyes closed.
‘You must remember this
A kiss is still a kiss
A sigh is just a sigh
The fundamental things apply
As time goes by.’
‘May I have this dance, Midget?’ asked Jack with mock formality. They danced to the song under the frangipani tree with bare, sandy feet. Jack swung her around and out, and back in again. Then he kissed her. The song and the dance and the kiss seemed to go on forever, and then it was over. With hearts pounding, they joined the others in the garden.
Much later in the afternoon, Cecilia served the plum pudding, made with carefully hoarded sugar, served with mangoes from the tree and vanilla ice cream.
‘Ice cream always makes me think of the Americans,’ joked Jack. ‘Their favourite breakfast food!’
‘Thank goodness for the Americans,’ said Phoebe. ‘If we’d left it to the British we’d be speaking Japanese now.’
‘No,’ Edward disagreed. ‘The Poms were right beside us at Singapore, and over seventy thousand British soldiers were taken prisoner with us. They made mistakes, but they didn’t abandon us.’
‘Children, no arguing on Christmas Day,’ Cecilia pretended to scold. ‘All right, let’s change the subject. The war is over, we have a whole new future ahead of us – what are you all going to do with it?’
Everyone thought for a moment.
‘I’m going to rebuild our surgery here in Darwin, alongside my beautiful wife, and never leave her again,’ Mark declared. ‘What do you think, darling?’
‘I second that,’ Cecilia agreed, squeezing his arm.
‘I’m going to find a beautiful wife and take her to Alexandra Downs,’ said Jack’s brother Danny. ‘It’s time Mum and Dad had a rest from all that hard work.’
Everyone laughed and raised their glasses in a toast. Cecilia glanced at her eldest daughter, a small furrow of concern between her brows. A wave of sorrow passed over Phoebe’s face, but she shook it off and smiled brightly.
‘I’ve been offered a job as matron of a small private hospital in Brisbane,’ confided Phoebe. ‘It’s offering good money for a nurse, and it will be easy after the work I’ve been doing.’
‘Oh, well done, Phoebe,’ Cecilia said. ‘That’s a huge achievement.’
Phoebe twisted a gold ring she wore on her left hand, and turned to Jack.
‘I’m going back to Alexandra Downs as well, and working out what it is I really want to do,’ said Jack. ‘I think it will be nice to have a rest for a while. Then I might follow Danny’s lead.’ He flashed a shy smile at Poppy.
‘Well, now might be the time to make an announcement,’ said Bryony. ‘I’m engaged to be married. I met a lovely man in Queensland called Joe, and we are saving up to buy a house and get settled. We worked together at Ascot and he asked me to marry him just before I left Brisbane.’
There were loud cries of congratulation and more chinking of glasses.
‘Why didn’t you tell us, Bryony?’ asked Poppy, thumping her on the shoulder.
‘You didn’t ask till just now!’
Phoebe stood and hugged her sister. ‘I’m so happy for you.’
‘I don’t know what I’m going to do,’ Edward admitted. ‘Not much good for anything with this leg.’
‘You are going to stay home for a little while and rest,’ his mother assured him. ‘You’ve been through a lot, and you need to heal. You’ll be sick of recuperating soon enough, and then you’ll be raring to start a new project.’
‘And what about you, Poppy?’ asked Mark.
Poppy thought carefully, tucking a stray curl behind her ear. She glanced at Jack, then looked away, biting her lip.
‘I’m going back to Sydney to apply to university,’ announced Poppy. ‘I’m going to study English literature, but I’d like to do teaching as well. It seems to me that good teachers can make a big difference in the world, just like our headmistress, Miss Royston.’
Cecilia nodded, encouraging her to continue.
‘When the war came, I didn’t want to leave Darwin. But being forced to go actually gave me an opportunity I might not otherwise have had – to get a good education. One day I’d like to come back to Darwin and teach. It seems a crime that there is no high school here, nowhere that children can learn. I’d like to change that.’
Poppy paused and looked around the table.
‘Go back to Sydney?’ asked Bryony. ‘Go to university? I thought you couldn’t wait to come back here.’
Poppy raised her chin defiantly.
‘You’ll make a wonderful teacher, Poppy,’ said Jack.
‘I think it’s a fine idea,’ agreed Cecilia. ‘You’ll be the first woman in our family to get a university degree. Now that would make me very proud.’
Mark raised his glass once more. ‘To my beautiful family, who fill me with delight,’ he said, his voice filled with emotion. ‘And to the best Christmas for many a long year.’
‘Merry Christmas!’ shouted everyone.
Epilogue – 8 April 2012
‘So, did you go to Sydney to study at university?’ asked Chloe.
Nanna was silent for a few moments, lost in her reverie. ‘Yes, I did Honours,’ Nanna sighed. ‘And I did become a teacher, and helped to get a high school started in Darwin.’
‘But what about Jack?’ asked Chloe. ‘Couldn’t you see he was in love with you?’
Nanna laughed, putting her teacup down on the table beside her. ‘Oh, yes – but I didn’t realise it for a while. Not until he came back to Sydney to study engineering at university. For a while I thought he was in love with Maude.’
Chloe shook her head in disbelief. ‘Nanna, for someone so clever, you really were a bit thick.’
Nanna smiled. ‘Well, in those days people weren’t quite as forthright as they are now. Plus, things were more complicated.’
Chloe couldn’t believe that things were more complicated in the 1940s than they were now. She had always imagined life was much simpler in the past.
‘You see, married women often weren’t allowed to work back then,’ Nanna explained. ‘If you were a teacher, you were expected to resign as soon as you married. Thankfully, it did eventually change, but I knew teachers who had to pretend they weren’t married just so they could keep working in a career they loved. I certainly wasn’t prepared to give up my career just as soon as I’d discovered what it was!’
‘So Grandad came to Sydney, too?’ asked Chloe.
‘He followed me within a month,’ Nanna said. ‘We started to go out, but we were both studying very hard. Then I graduated and started teaching at a country school, so we only saw each other occasionally.
‘When I was twenty-four, Jack asked me to marry him,’ said Nanna. ‘He wrote Will you marry me? in foot-high letters in the sand at Manly. We kept the engagement a secret, and were married a year later. Phoebe, Bryony and Maude were my bridesmaids.’
Nanna waved at an old black-and-white photo on the sideboard of
her wedding day. She wore a billowy white silk dress with a lace veil on her dark, curly hair. The bridesmaids all glowed with youth and happiness.
‘That sounds romantic,’ said Chloe with a smile. ‘And then you lived happily ever after . . .’
Nanna looked seriously at Chloe. ‘Life always has its ups and downs, Chloe, but yes, on the whole, life was very good to us,’ she agreed. ‘It’s like the old saying – you have to decide if your cup is half-full or half-empty.’
Chloe nodded. Her mother had often reminded her that things seemed much better if you thought of your cup as being half full.
‘As you know, your poor aunt Phoebe never married – her heart was broken when her fiancé was killed,’ continued Nanna. ‘Bryony married Joe, and it was only years later that we discovered they had both worked for Central Bureau Intelligence for General MacArthur during the war, decoding intercepted Japanese air traffic. I never realised she had such an important role.
‘Bryony said it was very stressful – a simple mistake, a typo, might mean death for the men in the field. Many of the women cracked under the pressure and had nervous breakdowns. I think Bryony found it very lonely and traumatic, not being able to talk about what she was doing.’
Nanna stared out the window at the autumn sky as though gazing through the mists of time.
‘Apparently the Japanese didn’t realise that the Allies had cracked their codes, and so the Central Bureau was able to decipher many of the Japanese radio messages. Bryony and Joe had to sign confidentiality agreements, promising they wouldn’t talk about their work for years afterwards.’
Nanna picked up the box that had held the letters and bundles of photos. She fished around among the objects in the bottom of the box.
‘Look, here are your grandfather’s war medals,’ said Nanna, showing Chloe a collection of service medals. ‘And here it is – I haven’t seen it for years.’
Nanna held up a fine gold chain with a silvery-golden teardrop pearl.
‘Your pearl!’ cried Chloe with delight. ‘The one Mrs Murata gave you?’
‘Yes.’ Nanna smiled. ‘The angel’s tear. I’d forgotten all about it until today. Here, Chloe – I want you to have it.’
Chloe’s face lit up with excitement. ‘Really? I’d love it.’
Nanna fastened the chain around her neck and kissed Chloe’s cheek.
‘Remember, the pearl is the jewel of good fortune, wisdom, healing and protection, just like Mrs Murata told me all those years ago,’ Nanna said. ‘It can’t stop bad things happening to you, of course, but perhaps it will remind you that you have the strength deep inside you to deal with whatever happens.’
Chloe’s heart swelled with pride and excitement. ‘Whatever happened to Shinju and Mrs Murata?’ she asked, stroking the pearl with her fingertips.
Nanna frowned. ‘Many of the Japanese internees were sent to Japan after the war, even those who had been born in Australia. But the Muratas stayed. They were eventually released but had a very hard time here after the war. Japanese children were often beaten up at school or had stones thrown at them.
‘They moved back to Darwin in the 1950s. I saw them there when I was teaching. Mrs Murata was overjoyed because I gave her back her great-grandmother’s tea set that I had buried under our house. I still write to Shinju every Christmas.’
‘And of course Maude is still one of your best friends,’ said Chloe.
‘Yes,’ replied Nanna with a warm smile. ‘Her friendship has been one of the great joys of my life.’
Chloe thought about her own friends – would she still be close with any of them in seventy years?
As though she could read her thoughts, Nanna smiled and took Chloe’s hand. ‘A good friendship is something you should cherish and protect. You’ll make many friends in your life. Some will come and go, and others will stay with you for a lifetime. But a good friendship is worth fighting for.’
Chloe thought about everything that had happened at school recently. How could she fight for her friendship with Brianna? Could she go and ask her what had gone wrong? Had she unintentionally done or said something that caused the rift? Did she have the strength to face her friends and solve the problem?
Chloe squeezed Nanna’s hand in return.
The front door opened and Chloe’s grandfather came in, carrying a large bunch of white roses. ‘Here you go, Midget, I brought you some roses. Oh! Hello, Chloe . . . How’s my beautiful girl?’
‘Great, thanks Grandad,’ replied Chloe, standing up to kiss his rough cheek. ‘Nanna’s been telling me about her life during the war. She told me a wonderful story of friendship and sisters, grief and love, and about growing up . . . I’ll never forget it.’
Her grandfather placed the roses on the sideboard and cupped Chloe’s cheek with his hand.
‘You know, Chloe, you remind me so much of your grandmother when she was a girl – strong, determined, clever and brave – and the prettiest girl I knew.’
Chloe grinned, her heart warmed. ‘Thanks, Grandad. I think that’s the best compliment anyone’s ever given me.’
‘And how’s school going?’ he asked.
‘Oh, it has its ups and downs, but nothing I can’t work out,’ Chloe said, stroking the pearl around her neck.
‘That’s my girl,’ said Poppy. She took up Chloe’s hand and turned it over to read her palm, like a gypsy fortune teller, tracing the lifeline with her forefinger. ‘You will face the tough times with strength and courage, and you will face the happy times with joy and love. You will grow up into a beautiful young woman, with the world at your feet.’
‘And meet a handsome young man?’ joked Chloe.
‘And fall truly, madly, deeply in love.’
Author’s Note
In the 1940s, many Australians regularly used disparaging terms to describe people of other races and cultures, particularly those belonging to the enemy nationalities. Many of these terms are now considered racist. I have used some of these terms in dialogue, not with the intent to offend any readers but to provide a reflection of attitudes prevalent during the Second World War.
Fast Facts about Australia and the Second World War
• John Curtin became Australia’s prime minister on 3 October 1941, leading a Labor government. He was Australia’s leader for the duration of the war, dying six weeks before the Japanese surrender.
• Australia declared war on Japan on 8 December 1941 after the surprise bombing of Pearl Harbor. At Pearl Harbor, more than 2400 people were killed and a further 1280 were injured.
• Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, approximately 2000 women and children were evacuated from Darwin by ship, road and air between 19 December 1941 and 15 February 1942. All Aboriginal women and children were evacuated to camps further south, such as those near Katherine. Approximately 500 part-Aboriginal women and children were evacuated to the southern states. Only sixty-three white women remained in Darwin, mostly employed in essential services. There were also about thirty-five part-Aboriginal girls from Bathurst Island who were in transit on the day of the attack, waiting for evacuation.
• There were more than ninety-seven bombing raids on Australia by the Japanese. Darwin and its surrounds were bombed on sixty-four occasions. Other Australian targets included Broome, Townsville, Mossman, Katherine, Wyndham, Port Hedland, Derby and Horn Island.
• The first and most devastating Japanese attack on Darwin was at 9:58 am on 19 February 1942, followed by a second attack later that day. In the first two raids, more than 243 people were killed and almost 400 wounded, eight ships sank and most of the civil and military facilities destroyed.
• There were more bombs dropped on Darwin on 19 February 1942 than were dropped on Pearl Harbor. Two hundred and forty-two Japanese aircraft were involved in the attack – the same force that at
tacked Pearl Harbor several weeks before.
• Approximately 540,000 Australians served in the military during the Second World War, out of a population of about seven million, and approximately 40,000 Australians died.
• About 22,000 Australians were taken as prisoners-of war-by the Japanese – of these approximately thirty-four per cent died of starvation, disease and cruelty. This compares to the 8000 Australians taken prisoner by the Germans, where the death rate was only three per cent.
• The Second World War profoundly changed women’s role in Australian society. Prior to this, most married women didn’t work in paid employment. During the war, women were encouraged to work to free up men for active service. Approximately 66,500 women served in the armed forces.
• A higher percentage of the Australian population was in the military forces than in either the US or UK. When Japan entered the war in December 1941, all men between eighteen and thirty-five (and single men up to forty-five) were called up. Depending on medical fitness and skills, these men were then allocated to the militia or to essential war work.
• Many teenagers from as young as fifteen or sixteen, both boys and girls, lied about their age to join the war effort. They were supposed to be at least eighteen to join the armed services or the women’s auxiliary services.
• Rationing was introduced for many items during the war, becoming progressively stricter as the war went on. For example, petrol rationing was introduced in 1940, clothing and food in late 1942, and butter in 1943. Paper rationing meant no new textbooks and no wastage of paper.
• Almost one million US troops passed through Australia during the war. About 7000 Australian women married American servicemen and went to the US as war brides.
• While the Japanese air raids on Australia were destructive and killed hundreds of people, the bombing of Australia was nowhere near as devastating as that in Europe. For example, during the German bombing raids over the UK, 18,000 British civilians were killed during the first five months of 1941, with a further 21,000 people injured.
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