POWs honoured at moving service

HUNDREDS gathered for the 75th anniversary commemoration marking the completion of the Australian work on Hellfire Pass and the Thai-Burma Railway at the Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial last week.

Minister for Veterans Affairs, Darren Chester, said in his speech,” It was a very moving service and it was terrific to see so many people come to Ballarat and pay their respects to the prisoners of war, but to have four of the surviving members here just made it extra special for everyone.

“If you weren’t there you couldn’t possibly understand what they had been through, but to have them here and to be able to thank them for their service, personally, it was quite moving.”

After more than a year in captivity, weakened by starvation, often Ill after a gruelling journey to the railway, and brutalised by violent guards, the prisoners were ordered to move one and a half square metre of earth per shift, once they exposed the rock this soon increased to two square metres and then to three.

Having exposed the rock they began drilling, with one man holding a metal tap another driving it in with a sledge hammer. Most of the work was done this way.

Digger, Colin Hamley, who was one of the four honoured during the event said, “The reception here today is truly overwhelming the way people have treated us and honoured us, it really is, I mean we are only people.

“We went off to war the same as anybody else, we were sent, today is our day and it is the biggest I have ever had.”

Asked whether he had any forgive and forget for the mistreatment he had as a prisoner of war Mr Hamley’s response was mixed.

“No, I will never forgive them for what they did to us but I will tell you this, I went to Japan six years ago as a guest with a group and to try and reconcile between Australia and Japan on things which accrued during the war, I found that Japan is quite a different country now and to say I have forgiven them I realise that the people are not the same people now that they were,” he said.

“I can’t forgive for what happened up there, I mean I lost brother and I have always treated it as murder rather than anything else, I was very bitter for many years, my wife Vallerie and myself live in Melbourne, we come to Ballarat every year in February for the wonderful memorial service at this war memorial at the Gardens. It’s just wonderful and it is only just over an hour to travel here.”