A Japanese prisoner of war from a POW camp around Cowra, Australia, was shot and his body laid outside the fence shortly after he escaped with a blanket of barbed wire covering him. Suddenly a Japanese bugler sounded. The sentry fired a warning shot. Japanese POWs began to break through the barbed wire from the north, west, and south sides in groups, shouting "Banzai". More patrols opened fire. The Japanese POWs escaped by flying across the wire with the help of blankets. The Japanese became the most humiliating act of extermination of POW status. The escaped Japanese threw themselves under the train and many hanged themselves. Rather than be captured, some Japanese begged to be shot.
On Friday, August 4, 1944, in response to a tip-off that the Japanese were discussing a major escape, all Japanese POWs were notified that they were to be transferred to the Hay POW camp. at about 2:00 a.m. on Saturday, August 5, 1944, a Japanese POW, a prisoner, shouted to the gates of the camp, "You are not allowed to leave! Shortly thereafter, an unauthorized bugle call was heard. Armed with knives and improvised clubs, the Japanese prisoners rushed from their huts and began to break through the wire fence. The sentry opened fire, but hundreds of prisoners escaped into the open Australian compound, while the rest opened fire on the camp buildings.
By August 1944, during the Pacific War, there were about 2,223 Japanese prisoners of war in Australia, including about 544 merchant seamen. About 1,104 of them were being held at Camp B of No. 12 POW camp near Cowra in the central western part of New South Wales. On the night of the Cowra breakout, when the Japanese prisoners made their grand escape, three Australian soldiers were killed and three more wounded. Over the next nine days, some 334 Japanese prisoners were rearrested. In all, some 234 Japanese prisoners were killed and 108 wounded.
