Barbed Wire and Cherry Blossoms (27 page)

Two weeks after Japan's surrender, there is a dance at Erambie. Music is blaring out freely as John Smith is too busy with official business in town with his friend the mayor. Some of the Blacks who are married to white people and have moved off the mission have arrived at the party as well. Everyone is happy, kids are running wild and there's damper and rabbit stew aplenty. Kevin is chatting to all the pretty women who aren't spoken for.

No one has noticed that Mary is not there, and thankfully no one sees her walking down the yard and into the shelter. Even though people are aware Banjo's family are hiding Hiroshi, Mary is conscious of what people will think about her spending so much time with him. She knows the Cowra rumour mill and she doesn't want to be the main focus of gossip. It's not the first time she has dared to see Hiroshi in daylight, but she doesn't want to startle him. Life is about to change and she is desperate.

As she moves the sheet of corrugated iron across roughly, almost carelessly, Hiroshi panics, not knowing what to expect. As soon as Mary descends, however, he is holding her. He is as scared as she is – hearing all the noise above but not knowing what's going on.

‘The troops will be coming home soon. They are celebrating here and in the town,' she says breathlessly. ‘What's going to happen to us?' She breaks down in tears and sobs into his chest.

Hiroshi holds her close but doesn't have the answers. He is not in a position to make any promises to the woman he loves, as much as he wants to. He is not in a position to ask for anything more, given all that he has already received. He cannot do anything but wait to see what fate holds for him.

18 S
EPTEMBER
1945: C
OWRA
B
OYS
R
ELEASED
: R
EG
W
ENHAM
F
LYING
B
ACK

The town is celebrating again as newspapers report that Sergeant Reg Wenham, son of Mr and Mrs Wenham of Cowra, will be among the thirty-four released Australian prisoners soon to arrive at Rose Bay in Sydney. Mrs C R Bayliss of Liverpool Street has received a wire to say her husband, Lieutenant Clive Bayliss, who was captured in Borneo early in the war, is alive and well and returning to Cowra.

‘I wonder if we will hear the truth about what happened to Australian POWs,' Banjo says. ‘And if any of our men had the same experience as Hiroshi, being protected.'

‘I don't know, Banjo, but the war is over, people are coming home, we need to make a decision,' Joan says, conscious every day that there is a person trapped in their yard. Since meeting Hiroshi, she has felt even more uncomfortable about the long days, weeks, months he has been forced to hide, even though they have all done their best to keep him nourished and comfortable.

‘Not yet,' Banjo warns. ‘Let's be sure we know what's going to happen to him, and what's going to happen to
us
.' No one has talked about the consequences of them hiding Hiroshi. ‘You know we're going to be punished for this, don't you?'

Banjo looks at Joan, worried. ‘It's not like life isn't punishment enough here, but I still think we did the right thing. You know that I thought that if the fella was trying to escape the camp, then he didn't want to be there. That he wanted to be out.'

‘I know, love, and yes, we did the right thing, but you understand that Mary is in love, don't you? This is not going to end well for our girl.' Joan is at her husband's side and gestures for him to get out of his seat before locking her arms around his neck. ‘You were right,' she says, looking into his eyes. ‘You did the right thing. We all did the right thing. We just need to work out how this is going to end for him, and for us.' She doesn't say
And for Mary,
but she is a mother and has been watching her daughter's moods and knows that when
Hiroshi leaves there will be a hole in her daughter's heart that will take a long time to fill.

R
ETENTION OF
POW C
AMP
: C
HAMBER OF
C
OMMERCE TO
S
UPPORT
L
OCAL
C
OUNCIL

Discussion is hot in the Williams' hut on 25 September with the news that the Cowra Chamber of Commerce is talking about the post-war possibilities for the prisoner of war camp on the outskirts of the town. Mary has taken to reading the paper out loud again as she needs to be part of the yarns concerning Hiroshi's future – and her own. Her mother is keeping a watchful eye on her, as she is showing true signs of being lovesick: she is eating less and is much more distracted.

‘“At last week's meeting of the Chamber it was decided to support the Municipal Council in any plans it had for the retention of the camp area. Mr Donaldson said that the people of Cowra should consider a proposal whereby the camp buildings could be retained for peacetime activities. An up-to-date hospital has been erected in the area, and the whole property was serviced with electric light, water and sewerage. It would make an ideal camp for convalescent soldiers or the training of youth for farm work, he concluded.”'

‘I wouldn't mind living up there,' Sid says. ‘Seems more ideal than this place.'

‘Electricity, water and sewerage,' Banjo says, ‘wouldn't that be a nice change to our lives too?'

Kevin is not so calm though, and slams his fist on the table. ‘How many times do
I
have to remind people that those prisoners lived better than
we
do?
They
had a bloody hospital service! A hospital! We can barely get treated in the public one in town.' He storms out.

Banjo gets up and watches his brother walk over to the railway gates. He hopes there's not a boxing match on, because Kevin is ripe for a fight.

‘Let's go for a walk,' he says to the other men, and they follow him out the door.

There's mirris and goothas and lots of noise as the three men walk and roll cigarettes.

‘We need to tell King Billie about Hiroshi. We're in a good position to do that now,' Banjo says, then takes a long drag on his cigarette.

‘We can't,' Sid says. ‘We don't have any say in this place, King Billie won't take any mercy on us.' He starts to panic when he sees they are walking in the direction of the Smiths' house.

Sid is not the only one panicking: Fred has been getting an earful from Marj for weeks now. And for his part in the ‘town secret' he has had to tell her every single secret he has ever had, just to keep her happy and to stop her telling King Billie or anyone off the mission about Hiroshi. In exchange, Marj has demonstrated incredible restraint in her gossiping, which has surprised both herself and her husband – and everyone else, for that matter.

‘We're going to tell King Billie that we found Hiroshi hiding,' Banjo says matter-of-factly. ‘We'll tell him we found him this morning and kept him a prisoner.' Banjo has thought about how to approach the problem a lot but this is the first time he's said anything. ‘We don't have to tell him that he's been here all that time. I
know
that will make him wild. I'm not stupid!'

‘Why do we have to tell him at all? Why don't we just let the man walk back into town and get on with going back?' Fred asks.

‘Yes, yes, that's a much better idea,' Sid says enthusiastically. ‘It takes any responsibility from us at all. Let's just let him out and point him in the direction of town and make him promise he won't say anything at all.'

Banjo screws his face up at how simple the others think the situation will be to end. ‘Because we want him to stay here until they send him home. We've fed and sheltered him for over a year, he is one of our community even if no one knows him. Anyway, where's he going to stay if we send him off? Back with all the other soldiers, who already think he is dead? If he wanted to be back there he would've left of his own accord before, don't you think?'

‘Banjo's right,' Fred says. ‘He's stayed put because he wanted to be here. We can't just chuck him out now. We've looked after him this long, we can look after him a little while more.'

The three men turn left and keep walking with five mirris trailing behind them, sniffing each other, and rolling in the dust.

‘But since when can we tell white people what they should do? We can't tell King Billie not to put us in and he isn't going to be happy about this.' Sid is shaking his head. ‘Nup, I reckon he'll get the cops straight away.'

‘Sid's right, Banjo,' Fred says, ‘we're lucky if our own mob listen to us. And you know what happens if we disagree: straight up to the railway gates.' Fred points in the direction of the homemade boxing arena. ‘You think King Billie will wanna fight this one out? He's white, don't forget, Banjo, and he's the boss of us.'

Sid stops in his tracks and three mirris sit at his feet and start scratching. He gently moves them away with his foot. ‘
He
makes the rules, Banjo.
He
tells
us
what to do, not the other way around. The
Manager
tells us what to do to make sure everyone lives by the rules. He's going to be furious that we've harboured a POW as it is, let alone asking him to then protect
us
from punishment.'

The three men have walked around their huts a few times, smoking cigarettes and making it look like they are just having some exercise. Banjo's bad leg is starting to ache.

‘I don't know why we just can't wait a little while longer,' Sid says.

‘Because that fella needs to go home. He's been sad and lonely down there. I think we owe it to him to get him out as soon as we can. And now's the time.' Banjo is certain. ‘Follow me,' he orders and turns towards his own hut. ‘We need to plan what we're going to say. It needs to be foolproof.'

B
anjo knocks on the door. Sid and Fred wait behind him, ready to follow his lead. Banjo hopes that being calm and rational will save them and Hiroshi from any more drama and, importantly, from ending up in the lockup. He knows, however, that everyday pleasantries go nowhere with King Billie.

John Smith opens the door in his long johns.

‘Oh dear,' Sid mutters, thinking they've got here too early and that's going to make him even grumpier.

‘What d'ya want, Banjo?' King Billie asks bluntly, then nods to Fred and Sid. ‘Men,' he offers.

‘We need to talk to you about something,' Banjo says, trying to keep the conversation as low key as possible.
The less drama the better
.

‘Who's done what now?' King Billie asks, always assuming the worst has happened or is in the process of happening.

Banjo laughs nervously. ‘No one's done anything,' he says, ‘but we've found something that might interest you. We found something that could make you a bit famous.'

Smith's ego takes over and his disposition shifts to one of hospitality. ‘Right, well I guess you should come in then,' he says, inviting the men into his home for the first time.

Mary is in the Smiths' kitchen washing dishes and going about her normal morning duties. She has no idea what her father has planned, or even that he is there. The men are hoping that whatever it is, it doesn't end them all up in jailhouse.

‘Well? What have you found and what's this idea you have?' King Billie pushes the few strands of hair he has over his balding head from left to right. He knows that if he can be famous he can also get out of Erambie. ‘What's going to make me famous?'

Banjo starts confidently. ‘You know that breakout from the camp last year, with all the Japanese soldiers climbing over the fences? You know how some of them ran for miles and miles in all directions and there were stories of some of the escapees being seen at the hospital and around on farms? And of course there was Mrs Weir and the scones, we all heard about that, you would've heard about that too, Mr Smith?'