Some 1,500 Australians died as a result of that invasion, including more than a thousand on the prison ship Montevideo Maru, which was transferring them from Rabaul to Hainan, the large island off south China.
The sinking of the Montevideo Maru – torpedoed by a US submarine off the coast of the Philippines – remains Australia’s greatest disaster at sea. One in eight of Australian prisoners of the Japanese died in the eleven minutes it took the ship to sink.
It is still not fully known who died on the ship and who might lie in an unmarked grave in the jungle around Rabaul. The roll of the men who were on the ship, brought back to Australia after World War II, disappeared.
The war was over, people were getting their lives back together, the men of Rabaul were gone, the relatives were left to grieve alone.
During the war they went for years without knowing what had happened to their men and, after the war, they felt that their great personal tragedy had gone unrecognised. They came to believe, quite simply, that their nation didn’t care.
No memorial, no recognition, no regret. Until June this year.
At any given time, Jackson Wells offers pro bono services to as many as four or five organisations that, in the normal course of events, cannot afford to pay for public relations advice.
When, early last year, a relative of two of the men who died on the Montevideo Maru related to us how bereft many people still felt and asked whether there was anything we could do to help. We said we’d try.
I had been in Rabaul in 1970 as a journalist, and had a vague awareness of the story of the ship. I knew Harold Page, then Administrator of New Guinea and brother of an Australian prime minister, Earle Page, was aboard. Also Syd Beazley, Kim Beazley’s missionary uncle. And Tom Garrett, a planter, who was Peter Garrett’s grandfather.
Thousands of Australians had been affected and we felt a compelling case existed for greater official recognition. So we established a small committee, which was to become the Rabaul and Montevideo Maru Society, and began the hunt for relatives.
Without funds, the hunt was conducted by word of mouth and through media stories. We started a monthly newsletter, distributed mainly by email, to maintain contact with the relatives once they had been ‘found’.
Within a few months we had identified some hundreds of people who had relatives on the ship and who wanted to share in the process of instating this issue to a position of prominence in the country for which 1,500 people had given their lives.
It was decided that the first step in achieving this must be to better understand the story of the Fall of Rabaul and the sinking of the Montevideo Maru. This would enable a submission to be prepared for the Commonwealth Government, through the Minister for Veterans’ Affair, telling the factual story and canvassing the continuing hurt of relatives. The submission would also make recommendations about how the Government might address the issue of greater recognition.
With the help of Emeritus Professor Hank Nelson, and in consultation with score of relatives, the document was prepared and handed to then Veteran’s Affairs Minister, Alan Griffin, in November 2009. One of its key recommendations was that a memorial be constructed at the Australian War Memorial.
One of the recommendations it did not make was to pursue an underwater search for the Montevideo Maru – both because the coordinates of where it sank had been recorded - indicating its position within a 2 km radius - and because the cost of a dedicated search would be prohibitive.
With many people indicating that they felt a memorial in the national capital would be the most tangible way of recognising the sacrifice of their relatives, it became clear that the Society required a formal structure and the solidity of incorporation.
With pro bono assistance from ACT lawyer Bernard Collaery and Sydney accountants Page Harrison, this was done. Kim Beazley was appointed Patron (to be replaced by Peter Garrett after he was appointed Ambassador to the USA) and I was appointed President. We were supported by a ten-member committee.
The Council of the Australian War Memorial agreed the memorial could be built in its grounds. But it was realised that the Society needed to raise substantial funds ($400,000 is an indicative figure) which would take some time. Meanwhile, the veterans of the New Guinea Islands campaign and many of the closest relatives of the men who died were in their eighties and nineties. We saw the need to gain national recognition that would come sooner than a memorial could be afforded and built.
I approached Veterans’ Affairs’ Minister Alan Griffin with a proposal that Parliament should meet and, on behalf of the nation, resolve its regret and gratitude for the sacrifices that had been made in the New Guinea Islands and on the Montevideo Maru. To my delight, Mr Griffin agreed immediately – and set the wheels in motion for both the raising of a Matter of Public Importance and the passing of a resolution along the lines requested.
So it was on Monday 21 June this year, 350 relatives packed the public galleries of the House of Representatives to hear Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Alan Griffin, Opposition spokeswoman Louise Markus and Independent MP Bob Katter speak.
Later, in committee and in the Senate, a comprehensive resolution of recognition and regret was passed. And Minister Griffin hosted a Parliamentary function for the relatives and parliamentarians. When he spoke, he said the Government was granting $100,000 as seed funding for the memorial.
There is still a long way to go to build a memorial. The members of the Society themselves have now provided another $50,000 for the task. Corporate fund raising lies ahead. A daunting prospect for a group of aged people.
But Jackson Wells is in harness with them all the way. It is a marvellous project of great national importance. By 2012, the seventieth anniversary of the tragic events of 1942, we want to see that memorial built in Canberra.
If you can help, please let us know.
