Eighty years ago, Australia and Japan faced off across a seemingly unbreachable divide. But time, good sense, and an improved appreciation, of not just our differences, but our similarities have healed those old wounds.

There was a moving ceremony last week in our Australian parliament commemorating the Bangka Island Massacre that took place 80 years ago on February the 16th. The pure evil on display on that despicable day only ever saw the light of day because one brave nurse managed to play dead, survive and live to tell the tale. Yes, we have come a long way since then but we must never forget the past. It should be common knowledge to all what happened, but it’s safe to say that’s far from the truth. If you’ve never heard of it, google it. Be forewarned though, it’s dark.

Even the Australian authorities kept the worst details from their own public as it was thought the truth would be too devastating to the families of the victims. We are still left wondering, how is it possible for humans to be so depraved and heartless? Under what conditions do these horrors arise? It needs to be thoroughly studied, examined and understood. Not from any sense of the need to bash or play the victim, just a solemn understanding of where we have been and where we are going now,

Lest we forget.

You will not read about the massacre of captured Japanese soldiers by Australian/American forces either.

War sucks...lest we forget.

BTW I was born in Darwin and played in the underground mini railways used to transport munitions.

My school play area often turned up 303 shells from the war.

My deceased Japanese father in law said it best one sake fueled evening talk...."No more effing war ".

He was a kid during the occupation post defeat and he remembers some old Aussie slang and some english.."give me chocolate ".

I am reading a "History of the World " and it seems Europe was/has been forever at war among itself, most wars concern access to wealth via disputed trade routes, overseas colonies and the like.

Lest we forget but we never learn

Its true that we never learn. Maybe if the stories got told we would. Maybe we can’t handle them? It’s just too confronting.

Comparing who’s side was the most deprived on the scale of evil is indeed a grim job, but there are certain incidents that scream at you from the past. Certain things that once you hear they will never leave you.

Dan Carlin does an incredible good job with his momentous ‘Supernova of the East’ podcast series. If you haven’t heard it yet, that’ll knock your socks off mate. Theres probably 20 hours worth of gripping historical narrative. What a horrendous war it was.

War is the worst state humanity can achieve. Each generation seems to be involved in a war at some point but now that visual and audio recordings have been made since WWI the history can be taught and the horrors seen where prior it was written words that could be imagined as heroic or an adventure.

If we were all on the same side there would still be arguments but not wars. Will that ever happen?

Many hope so but the reality always seems to disappoint. That should not stop us from trying.

Let bygones be bygones. In the present, Scott Morrison has more pressing concerns regarding the new bully on the block, China.

In the present, Scott Morrison has more pressing concerns regarding the new bully on the block, China.

Scott Morrison is an absolute warmongering moron, as well as America's minion. When there are serious bushfires ravaging the country, you do NOT go on holiday to Hawaii if you are PM. His ratings have plummeted.

His ratings have plummeted.

It was amazing Morrison got re-elected last time, when the party numbers were in the dumpster after Turnbull.

I wonder if they'll survive this one. The Liberals have survived in the past.

No, what happened will never be truly forgiven!

Pukey2@ tell us how it is mate! You sound like you know all about Australian culture.

Wars have always been started by politicians & fought by the phlebs - it’ll be the same next time too.

Short memories !

Ricky Kaminski13Feb. 20  09:20 am JST

There was a moving ceremony last week in our Australian parliament commemorating the Bangka Island Massacre that took place 80 years ago on February the 16th.

You are correct. There are many events that occur in war that are not pursued by governments for the sake of healing of international relations. It goes both ways my friend.

"Testimony of an Australian officer Allan Clifton, an Australian officer who acted as interpreter and criminal investigator wrote

I stood beside a bed in hospital. On it lay a girl, unconscious, her long, black hair in wild tumult on the pillow. A doctor and two nurses were working to revive her. An hour before she had been raped by twenty soldiers. We found her where they had left her, on a piece of waste land. The hospital was in Hiroshima. The girl was Japanese. The soldiers were Australians.

https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/Rape_during_the_occupation_of_Japan#Testimony_of_an_Australian_officer

And just so you don't think I'm holier than thou, my late uncle who served on Guadalcanal at the age of 19 told me how the Marines would remove the skulls off dead Japanese soldiers as souvenirs, and steal gold fillings. And I won't even bother to get into what US occupation forces did. As victors we constantly talk about all the atrocities commited by the Japanese military and ignore the things we did. War really brings out the worst in human beings. What was that saying...let he who is without sin cast the first stone.....

OssanAmerica: "And just so you don't think I'm holier than thou, my late uncle who served on Guadalcanal at the age of 19 told me how the Marines would remove the skulls off dead Japanese soldiers as souvenirs, and steal gold fillings. And I won't even bother to get into what US occupation forces did."

Well, we know one thing for sure, you NEVER bother to get into Japanese atrocities, and if the testimony of the Australian regarding the young Japanese girl in the hospital that had been raped had been a Korean sex slave, you'd be calling her a "well-paid and willing prostitute" (your words).

"War really brings out the worst in human beings."

Agreed, but don't pretend you think that's the case for all sides or that you even mention Japanese atrocities beyond saying others like to talk about it "while we ignore the things we did". Heck, no doubt history deniers think the bombing of Australia in this case was "self defense", same as the attack on Pearl Harbor, and like saying the rape and murder of MILLIONS across Asia, "taught them how to take baths, and gave them modern education"... if they happened at all, right?

@smithjapan,

No truer words spoken.

I couldn't agree with you more.

Ricky:

tell us how it is mate! You sound like you know all about Australian culture.

Not really. I get a lot of my info from reading a wide variety of sources (excluding Sky News Australia), and more importantly, speaking with my Australian friends and those living in Australia. Many are absolutely sick and tired of his stance on climate change and the environment.

The bush fires were nearly a year ago matey.

Not really. I get a lot of my info from reading a wide variety of sources (excluding Sky News Australia), and more importantly, speaking with my Australian friends and those living in Australia. Many are absolutely sick and tired of his stance on climate change and the environment.

Many, meaning the idiot left are, but they are not in power thank god. Aussies are till a pragmatic lot with a keen eye on what’s happening on the ground real time both locally and geo politically. Nation of immigrants. We watch the dissolving of system in places like Canada and America and are glad we are not there, yet! Work in progress.

Mission always stays the same, respect while being respectable. If you guys can make peace with Australia, then things are going well for everyone. We still hope China will come around. there’s always hope that we can all sit around that big circular table and spin the good stuff around.