Japan’s POW apology may shed light on Montevideo Maru mystery

It’s taken almost seven decades but yesterday Japan’s Foreign Minister, Seiji Maehara, finally apologised to a small group of former WWII prisoners of war in Tokyo for their treatment at his country’s hands while they were in captivity.

The long-awaited mea-culpa will give some measure of closure to the dwindling band of surviving veterans who endured and it heightens the prospect of securing Japanese Government assistance in finally solving the 69-year-old mystery of who was aboard the Montevideo Maru, which had its holds chock full of Australian Diggers from Lark Force and civilians when it was unwittingly sunk by an American submarine in 1942.

The Australian POWs who received the apology showed superhuman forgiveness in accepting it. One Thai-Burma Railway survivor, Harold Ramsey, 89, said he believed the apology was “sincere”. Prior to meeting the Japanese Foreign Minister, Mr Ramsey had said: “If you go through life full of hate, the only person you hurt is yourself.”

At the meeting, Mr Maehara also said that Japan would return to Australia historical records of former Australian POWs held by Japan during World War II. Ironically, these records – believed to be an extensive set of index cards - were originally offered to Australia by the Japanese Government in 1953. The Australian Government of the day chose not to take up the offer, saying it did not believe that they would not contain any new information.

On the contrary the Rabaul and Montevideo Maru Society has been asking the Australian Government to intercede with the Japanese Government to seek access to the records because it believes it may unlock the mystery of the fate of the POWs and civilians who perished on the Montevideo Maru.

Australian War Memorial Wins Funding Battle

The Federal Government has bowed to community pressure and committed to an additional $8 million a year funding boost for the Australian War Memorial.

The decision follows a year-long public campaign by AWM supporters, including Council Chairman, General Peter Cosgrove, who last month said the hallowed institution faced “inexorable decline” and would be forced to close one day a week, cut staff numbers and reduce Anzac Day commemorations.

Prime Minister Gillard announced the funding increase today. It included a one-off payment of $1.7m for the redevelopment of the memorial's WWI galleries and would be in addition to the memorial's regular annual funding of around $38m.

Ms Gillard conceded that the AWM had been forced to dip into capital reserves to pay for daily running costs.

"The new funding will ensure the memorial can adequately respond to increased demands for these events as well as supporting general inquiries, multimedia and educational programs, research centre services and professional historical advice," she said.

AWM director, Steve Gower, only found out about the additional funding this morning. He said it would prevent staff layoffs and would be applied towards the return of open days, exhibition upgrades and more stands for veterans on Anzac day.

It would also mean that at least 20 AWM staff would now keep their jobs.

"I think everyone's aware that cuts in staff were projected over the next few years. So that won't occur,'' he said. "We can have more public activities, plaque dedication programs for units, more activities in the galleries to attract people we want to engage.”

So, once again it took concerted community pressure and potential public embarrassment before the government faced up to its responsibility to adequately fund one of the nation’s most respected institutions.

PNG's future ... in good hands

The next generation of Papua New Guinea’s leaders is waiting in the wings for its chance to guide its nation into the future: they are smart and keen to take up the challenge and they are brimming full of hope and bright promise.

And they’ll now have the chance to expand and develop their leadership skills and potential, thanks to the generosity of one of New Guinea’s ‘old hands’, the late planter, Coast Watcher and philanthropist, Fred P. Archer, who died in 1977 aged 87.

This week, Australia’s High Commissioner to Papua New Guinea, Mr Ian Kemish AM, announced the 2011 Archer Scholars in Port Moresby - a program that offers six final-year PNG tertiary students an unique year-long intensive leadership program (incorporating private mentoring, community development placements, work experience, tuition and boarding support, resource support, and an exchange program to Australia).

Supported by a grant from the estate of the late Fred Palmer, the scholarships are a joint initiative of the Kokoda Track Foundation (a not-for-profit organisation working in the areas of education, health, community development, and microbusiness in PNG) and the Trust Company (one of Australia’s biggest trustees), which manages Fred Archer’s estate.

The Archer Leadership Scholars Program aims to identify and foster the next generation of PNG leaders.

The Foundation called for applications from final-year students, aged between 18 and 35, who are PNG citizens and of PNG heritage from tertiary institutions across the nation and, in this, the first year of the program, it found a wealth of exciting potential leaders.

A shortlist of 14 candidates underwent an intensive interview process and the following six students emerged as the 2011 Archer Scholars:

• ·       Nellie Hamura (Pacific Adventist University; Master of Arts in Pastoral Ministry; Eastern Highlands)
• ·       Brendan Pulai (University of PNG; Public Policy Management; East Sepik)
• ·       Geoffrey Ulsimbi (University of PNG; Environmental Science & Geography; East Sepik)
• ·       John Pota (University of PNG; Accounting; Manus)
• ·       Richard Faveve (Pacific Adventist University; Secondary Teaching; Central)
• ·       Jimmy Mai (Divine Word; PNG Studies/Community Development; East Sepik)

The Archer Leadership Scholarships represent the Kokoda Track Foundation’s first foray out of the Kokoda catchment area. The Foundation has been running its Fuzzy Wuzzy Angel Scholarship program since it began working in PNG in 2003, offering scholarships to bright students attending primary and secondary schools throughout the Track catchment area. This year the Foundation is supporting 313 students on scholarships.

The Archer Scholars program will allow the recipients to extend their leadership skills as they enter the workforce and take other leadership roles in PNG society. It will honour the memory of Fred Archer, who firmly believed that education was the key to Papua New Guineans’ future success, both individually and as a nation.

The son of a drover, Fred Archer served with the AIF in WWI, before moving to New Guinea in 1923 where he became a very successful planter on Bougainville and New Britain.

When the Japanese invaded the Pacific during the Second World War Fred Archer stayed behind and joined the Coast Watchers, hiding behind enemy lines and reporting on their movements.

After the war he rebuilt his shattered plantations to prosperity and created the Bougainville Company, a highly successful sea freight operation.

After he retired, Fred devoted himself to philanthropic work, providing education opportunities for generations of islanders. He paid school fees, attended graduations, sending many local children to the best available schools.

Shortly before he died, Fred formed his company into a charitable trust to be managed in perpetuity with dividends distributed each year to charities in PNG and Australia. 

The Australian War Memorial ... A Sacred Duty

The Australian War Memorial is under threat and the threat comes from our own Government.

While they have splurged billions over recent years they claim they cannot find $5 million needed to prevent cuts in staff, services and operations and plunging the Memorial into what AWM Council Chairman, General Peter Cosgrove, fears will be an “inexorable decline”.

A Government that can stand idle as our most respected national institution faces this intolerable situation has lost touch with our nation’s spiritual values.

How can a government ask its military forces to fight in Afghanistan - where we have already lost 22 soldiers killed in action and 168 wounded – while undermining the shrine that honours their sacrifices?

When it was founded, after World War I, largely at the behest of WWI historian Charles Bean, its original guidebook said:

“It constitutes not a general museum portraying war, much less one glorifying it, but a memorial conceived, founded and, from first to last, worked for by Australia’s soldiers, sailors and airmen.”

It is the memorial’s spiritual element that sets it apart. First and foremost it is a shrine. It honours the ideals for which those who fell gave their lives.

It must be funded adequately to allow it to not only survive but to thrive so generations into the future will see that we have never lost our connection with those who have selflessly sacrificed their lives and their health for our freedom.

Adrian Appo ... Local Hero

At last some proper recognition for one of our quiet achievers: Adrian Appo, CEO of Ganbina, a highly-successful indigenous employment training agency based in Shepparton Victoria, has been awarded the Order of Australia for services to his people.

Adrian received his award for his long service to indigenous youth in regional Victoria through career planning, employment and training.

He is a visionary leader who takes the long-view on the future of indigenous Australians. He anticipates it will take two generations for Aborigines in Victoria’s Goulburn Valley to gain what he sees as “an equitable stake in the local economy.” But Adrian is determined to set them on the path to that position by helping to end indigenous dependency on welfare.

''It took generations to get to this stage, so it's going to take generations to get out of it,'' Adrian told The Age yesterday. ''Many kids don't have a model to follow in their own families, so kids who go through Ganbina become role models for their siblings.''

Born the seventh of eight children, Adrian overcame early racially-based setbacks. Despite possessing his high school certificate he was initially rejected when he applied to become an apprentice electrician, being told that Aborigines ''can't deal with conceptual ideas''.

Adrian’s Dad intervened to reverse the decision. Adrian successfully became an electrician, then an electronics engineer with the RAAF and a TAFE teacher. Then his passion for advancing his fellow Aborigines took him to Ganbina.

Adrian’s setbacks inspired him to prove the racists wrong by excelling at his work, and assisting other indigenous Australians to gain a career.

Ganbina helps guide indigenous Australians, aged five to 25, into paid work while they are still in school as a method of building career paths. It declines government funding, so that it can set its own training models, which seek alternatives to having its clients employed on the basis of affirmative action.

“Seeing the excitement of family and friends makes it more worth while than the actual award itself,” Adrian said yesterday.