The Cowra Breakout Episode Rating Graph

Corporal Stan Davidson (Alan David Lee) is still recovering from his war injury when he’s posted to the prisoner of war (POW) camp at Cowra. He assumes he’ll be guarding Italian prisoners. The camp has a relaxed feel about it and Italian POWs march past him singing on their way to work. Major Horden explains to Stan that the camp is run according to the Geneva Convention, the list of rules drawn up by the international community to govern the way prisoners of war are to be treated. It comes as a huge shock to Stan to discover that the camp also holds Japanese POWs and that he’s been assigned to guard them.

At the Cowra POW camp, another 100 Japanese prisoners have arrived and pour scorn on their compatriots for having accepted their prison status without a fight to the death for the honour of their Emperor and their families. They stage a revolt and the young Lieutenant McDonald (Andrew Lloyde) is about to open fire on the prisoners when Major Hordern (Simon Chilvers) intervenes and is able to disarm the situation so that the 15 defiant Japanese soldiers are undermined and brought under control. The clip ends on the Japanese leader in the camp, Komatsu (Kazuhiri Muroyama), clearly disturbed by the rebellion.

Stan has been placed in charge of security in the Japanese compound. His friend, Hayashi (Junichi Ishada) begs him to try to reverse the order to move some of the prisoners to another location. Stan desperately tries to understand what Hayashi seems to be saying – that a Japanese soldier should do everything in his power to be killed rather than bring shame on his family by being held in captivity. When Stan asks Hayashi what he will do, he replies simply, 'I am Japanese’.