Cowra is a town with an interesting and very sad war time history. It was home to a prisoner of war camp during the second world war, which housed indonesian, italian and japanese soldiers. The italian soldiers were seperated between northern italians and southern italians as they did not get along. The italian prisoners were allowed to leave the camp during the day and work on local farms. One even missed round up to go back to the camp as he had fallen asleep. On waking he walked back to the prison and knocked at the gate to be let back in.
Due to very different cultural beliefs the Japanese soldiers remained defient and faught to remain honorable and so were not able to leave the prison. On August 5 1944 a breakout occured by the Japanese soldiers. 334 escaped and were recaptured, 231 killed and 108 injured. 4 Australian soldiers killed and 4 injured.
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