Dianna Edwards and Writing
  • About me
  • Short stories
    • Death in the Desert
    • Secrets
    • Airport Drama
    • Acacia
    • Two Chooks in December
    • A Darned Surprise
    • The Sunset Mermaid
    • Friend or Foe?
    • At Rainbow's End
    • Sisterly Love
    • Good Times to Come
    • Being Famous
    • Something Special for Dinner
    • Walter's Secret
    • The Visitor
  • Children's stories
    • The Red Silk Kite
    • The Singing Tree
    • Beatrice Barnfeather
    • Garth's bath
    • Little Dog Tambo
    • Flowers For a Special Day
  • Non Fiction
    • Letter to a Soldier
    • The Body
    • Autumn Saturday
    • A Year With Billy
    • Lunch
    • Harry's Story
    • 2007 bushfires
    • My Father's Kite
    • Death of a Chook
    • Gentle Heartache
    • Shopping with Sisters
    • When I am Old
    • Matilda
    • Fragments
  • Blog

BLOG

The War Memorial.....70 years

31/7/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture



I am a pacifist, so why did I visit a war memorial?

That I can’t answer but something drew me in.

On August 6 this year it will be 70 years since the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Three days after that day, on August 9, 1945, a bomb landed on Nagasaki, leading to the Japanese surrender on August 15. For Australia this marked the end of the Second World War.

(The official signing of the surrender took place on September 2, 1945).

It was a war that cost Australians an estimated 74 billion dollars  -  and many, many lives.

As this 70th anniversary approaches it is perhaps timely to remember Australia’s – and especially Australia’s Northern Territory’s - part in the conflict.

 

We may think of World War 2 in terms of British and German involvement.  We may also think of Pearl Harbour and Hiroshima. Not many people instantly think of the Northern Territory when the subject of the war is broached, and yet there are at least 800 war sites (air strips, ammunition depots and soldier tent sites) in the N.T.

Troops numbering approximately 250,000 were stationed in the Northern Territory at some stage during the war years.  Many lives were lost; many young men were permanently scarred.

 

A few years ago, I visited the War Memorial at Adelaide River in the Northern Territory. I’m not usually one to visit war memorials, but this one ‘called to me’ when I was holidaying up north. Once walking through the graves, I was not prepared for the wave of grief that swept over me. I found it hard not to fall on my knees and sob as I read the words on the plaques.

The inscription on one memorial headstone told of a young soldier called John who was 21 when he died. He was just a boy. But there were graves of others with ages listed as 18 and 19. There was even a grave for a seaman of just 16 years.

What a truly awful war.  But, then, has any war ever been less than awful?

On the little plaque, under John’s name and army details, are the simple words, “In loving memory of my darling son John.”

How did his mother cope?  Why is his father not mentioned? Did he have sisters and brothers? What about grandparents?  A sweetheart?

How they would have missed him and grieved.

How did John die?

I later searched the Internet for details and found the word “accidental” as the cause of his death. Whatever happened to make his death “accidental”? He died in the May of 1942, right in the middle of hundreds of Japanese bombing raids on Darwin.

Conservative estimates of the numbers killed during that time put the servicemen tally at 432 and the number of civilian “casualties” at 63. That’s almost 500 people. Five hundred!

Was John one of the many caught up in the panic and un-preparedness of the Australian military?  Did he overturn an army vehicle in his haste to reach a position of defence?  A place of refuge?  Did part of one of the many bombed buildings collapse upon him?

It is now suggested that many more were killed in Darwin than those reported.  John was just one, but he was still someone’s son.

If John had lived, he would be over 90 years old now.  Would he have lived that long  -  maybe a great-grandfather?.

But he had no chance for anything like that.

His life was severed at the tender age of 21.  To use the word “waste” is too much of a cliché as well as an understatement.

It made me ask more questions about what happened in Darwin in 1942.  The information I gathered shocked me even more.  I discovered that the government of the day fudged the figures so that people wouldn’t “be alarmed”.  “Don’t worry”, they said, after the first two raids by the Japanese, “only 17 people were killed”. In fact 243 lives were lost in those initial raids. And between 300 and 400 wounded.

The air attack on Darwin continued for nearly two years and the city was bombed 64 times.  Was the government still saying “don’t worry”?

And why are we still making wars?

 

John died in a war that reached Australia 70 years ago. And still people kill others by the hundreds in “just” wars all over the world.

Will we never learn?

John and the other (at least) 494 people who were killed in the attacks on Darwin, paid the unthinkable and ultimate price all those years ago.

Was it worth it?

I have always been outspoken against war. But John’s small bronze plaque affected me almost more than any other anti-war message. 


Will we ever 'give peace a chance'?


 

 

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author notes

    I choose to comment on social issues and write creatively on a variety of subjects -  for a variety of audiences.

    Archives

    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    March 2012

    Categories

    All
    Childhood
    House
    Kindness
    On Death
    Social Comment
    Writing

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • About me
  • Short stories
    • Death in the Desert
    • Secrets
    • Airport Drama
    • Acacia
    • Two Chooks in December
    • A Darned Surprise
    • The Sunset Mermaid
    • Friend or Foe?
    • At Rainbow's End
    • Sisterly Love
    • Good Times to Come
    • Being Famous
    • Something Special for Dinner
    • Walter's Secret
    • The Visitor
  • Children's stories
    • The Red Silk Kite
    • The Singing Tree
    • Beatrice Barnfeather
    • Garth's bath
    • Little Dog Tambo
    • Flowers For a Special Day
  • Non Fiction
    • Letter to a Soldier
    • The Body
    • Autumn Saturday
    • A Year With Billy
    • Lunch
    • Harry's Story
    • 2007 bushfires
    • My Father's Kite
    • Death of a Chook
    • Gentle Heartache
    • Shopping with Sisters
    • When I am Old
    • Matilda
    • Fragments
  • Blog