St John's Cathedral, Brisbane and the Anzac Legend

It continues to be the Australian Defence Force’s main training centre for warfare in environmentally stressful combat zones, but with Tully in North Queensland now the home of specialised instruction in jungle combat. Following its surrender in 1945, Japan like Germany embraced democracy and renounced militarism, vowing never again to wage war as an aggressor. Over the past 73 years Japan and Australia have become friends, forging a close defence and security relationship in the face of new strategic uncertainties in the Indo-Pacific region. In 2014 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe addressed the Australian Parliament in Canberra and, on behalf of his people, expressed deep regret for the loss of Australian lives in the war with Japan, and reiterated his nation’s pledge to work for peace. However, the huge losses suffered by both nations across the Pacific theatre and in the mountains and along the coastlines of today’s Papua-New Guinea will never be forgotten. In 1943, after the Japanese were defeated at Gona and Buna, the bodies of Mavis Parkinson and Sister May Hayman were recovered and re-interred at the Anglican Mission in Sangara. In 1948 a school for boys was established at Sangara named in honour of the murdered Anglican missionaries who became known as the ‘New Guinea Martyrs.’ The school was subsequently moved to Popondetta following a volcanic eruption of nearby Mount Lamington in 1951. Today it has 700 students.

Japanese soldiers surrender on the island of Bougainville, New Guinea, 1945.

State Library of Queensland

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