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Image: Cowra POW Camp, 1 July 1944. Japanese POWs practising baseball near their quarters several weeks before the Cowra Breakout. The photograph was taken for the Allied Far Eastern Liaison Office, with the intention of using it in propaganda leaflets to be dropped over Japanese-held islands and Japan itself.
More than 1,000 Japanese men were interned at the 12th Australian Prisoner of War and Internees Camp in Cowra, New South Wales, Australia. About half of them were merchant navy POWs. In the early hours of August 5, 1944, they attempted to escape from the camp. It was the biggest mass escape in World War II and one of the bloodiest in history. The escapees clambered over dead bodies and barbed wire. For many of the Japanese, it was a suicide mission and a final chance to regain lost honour. During the event, 234 Japanese prisoners died and 108 were wounded, and 3 Australian guards were killed. An officer was stabbed and killed during the subsequent hunt for escapees. About two-thirds of the Japanese prisoners in Camp B remained within the confines of the camp, alive or dead. Over 300 men were recaptured in the 9 days after the escape.
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History Daily With Francis Chappell Black 