From March 15th to 17th, the Cowra Festival of International Understanding was held in Cowra, a town 320 kilometres west of Sydney. The festival has been held annually since 1965, and is a community event that features a different guest nation every year. At the event, there areparades, shows and other performances related to the guest nation for visitors to enjoy, and through the festival, visitors develop understanding of the guest nation’s culture and tradition. This year’s guest nation was Japan, and it was the second time that Japan was featured in the festival since 1966. CLAIR Sydney ran a booth to promote Japanese Local governments, especially Joetsu City in Niigata Prefecture, which has a friendship relation with Cowra Shire Council.
In Cowra, there is a site where a prisoner of war camp site stood during World War II. A tragic incident, the Cowra Breakout, occurred on August 5 in 1944, and 231 Japanese prisoners of war and four Australian soldiers were killed in this incident.
The cemetery for the casualties of the Cowra Breakout had been neglected for some time after the war until it was restored with the assistance of the Cowra Returned and Services League. This initial restoration by the Cowra Returned and Services League, together with the cooperation of the Embassy of Japan, the Cowra Shire Council and the Australian Government since, has ensured the proper maintenance of the graves and the cemetery. The City of Cowra is now a symbol of the friendship between Japan and Australia.
This year will mark the 75th anniversary of the Cowra Breakout. There was a prisoner of war camp site in Joetsu City, and similar to Cowra, the prisoner of war camp site in Joetsu also had a sad history where many prisoners of war died.
CLAIR Sydney will continue to support the friendship between Cowra and Joetsu City, and through the similar sad history shared between the two cities, they hope to work together to contribute to world peace.
