John Forrest (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I feel very humbled to follow the member for Kingsford Smith on this very sombre indulgence, but I feel obliged to make a contribution as well. It is a statement in honour of the unveiling of the memorial commemorating the sinking of the Montevideo Maru. This was a very significant incident in Australia's very sad World War II history. There have been many thousands of Australian families impacted by this and similar events.

My family was no exception, although as I will reveal, the circumstances were slightly different from those of the member for Kingsford Smith. However, this is a very personal contribution. My story in regard to this matter rests with the six Forrest brothers, who enlisted in the armed forces in 1940 out of Mildura. The first was Private Sapper Hughie Forrest, who served from 1940 to 1945 in the Middle East and Java with the 6th Division. He was captured as a POW by the Japanese in 1942.

The second Forrest brother was Private Charlie Forrest, who served with the 7th Battalion A-Company. There was Private Eric Forrest, who served with the 31st Australian Work Company. There was Private Jack Forrest, who served with the 6th Division from 1941 to 1944 in the Middle East and Java, and was captured by the Japanese on 7 March 1942. There was Private Herb Forrest, who served with the 6th Division from 1940 to 1944; he saw active service in the Middle East, Greece and Crete, and found himself in Java, before being captured by the Japanese in 1942. Then there was Corporal Ernest Forrest, who served with the 9th Division from 1940 to 1945 in the Middle East. He found himself in Tobruk and El Alamein, and latterly the islands. This was Ern Forrest, my late father.

Four of these brothers returned; two did not. Those who did return were maimed and harmed. I remember Uncle Hughie, who was captured by the Japanese and interned in Changi. He lived out the remainder of his years as a quiet and very taciturn man as a result. They never talked about their war service. I recall my own father saying, 'I hope you will be spared from it, son.' But the real story here is that Uncle Herb and Uncle Jack were lost in an incident similar to the sinking of the Montevideo Maru.

It is interesting to note Australia's war history in this period. In late 1940, a year after the start of World War II, the Australians had almost no defences in Rabaul, which was then the headquarters of the Australian administration of the territory of Papua New Guinea. However, by 1942 there were some 1,200 troops deployed in Rabaul and 20,000 spread throughout the wider area. On 20 January 1942, the Japanese attacked Rabaul, and it fell. The Japanese captured more than 1,000 Allied servicemen, three of the Forrest brothers included.

On 22 June 1942, 1,053 men—845 who were Australian prisoners of war, and a further 208 civilian internees—were loaded onto the Montevideo Maru, as the member for Kingsford Smith has told us. It was a Japanese ship headed to Japan. The submarine USS Sturgeon mistook her for a troop- and armament-carrying vessel; they torpedoed it, with the tragic loss of 1,053 Australians.

On 1 July 2012, I was pleased to see the unveiling of a sculpture at the Australian War Memorial to mark the 70th anniversary of this horrendous event, to honour the men for their service and their sacrifice. This is a very fitting thing to do and has my support, given the size of this tragedy. But there were many more POW ships that suffered a fate similar to that of the Montevideo Maru. In March 1944, 7,000 British and Australian POWs were assembled in Thailand. Nine hundred were chosen and eventually moved to Singapore for transportation to Japan. Two of the six Forrest brothers, Uncle Herb and Uncle Jack, were allegedly among this group. That was what my father's family were advised, but there has never been real certainty about this.

On the morning of 4 September 1944, when the POWs reached the docks, they were confronted by two freighters: the Rakuyo Maru was to primarily carry the Australians, and the larger, American built, Kachidoki Maru was allocated to transport the British. The ships also carried a cargo of rubber. The senior Allied POW officers protested loudly that the ships carried no Red Cross markings to distinguish them from carrying POWs. The officers knew that to sail under these conditions would be suicide. Remember, this is after the sinking of the Montevideo Maru.

This, sadly, proved to be true. The ships sailed north and were met by other vessels from Manila. As the ships proceeded north to Japan they passed through an area known to American submariners as Convoy College. This consisted of five US submarines. At 5.22 am on 12 September 1944 the USS Sealion opened fire on the Rakuyo Maru with three deadly torpedoes and another tragedy ensued.

Mr Don Wall has recorded what he could of the sinking of the Montevideo Maru in his book. I have a copy of it. It is entitled Heroes of the Sea. It records the tragedy of the sinking of the Rakuyo Maru and is a series of testimony from survivors. He describes how the Japanese raced to the lifeboats but refused access to the POWs, beating them away with sticks. The prisoners were left to fend for themselves as another series of explosions lit up the night sky as torpedoes slammed into the accompanying tanker Nankai Maru. By 5.30 pm those POWs fit enough to leave the boat were all in the water, coated in oil from the tanker, and the Rakuyo Maru languished for some time before plunging to the ocean floor. Two Japanese frigates and a merchant ship steamed towards the stranded men but refused to rescue any Allied survivors, collecting only Japanese soldiers. It is reported that groups of POWs were fired upon by machine guns.

By 14 September, after survivors had spent several days in the water, the US submarines retraced their course and rescued 92 Australians and 60 British prisoners, leaving a death toll of 1,403 lost at sea.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives

Sitting suspended from 12:12 to 12:25

The death toll of 1,403 lost at sea from both the Rakuyo Maru and the Kachidoki Maru is up there with the sinking of the Montevideo Maru. Sadly my uncles, Private Herbert Forrest and Private Jack Forrest, were not among the survivors and were presumed dead. This is a tragic story and it highlights the absolute absurdity of war when you can be destroyed by the friendly fire of your allies. The outcome badly affected my father. He lived the remainder of his life with a very jaundiced view of Americans. His attitude to Americans was, frankly, nearly as bad as his view of the Japanese. He also claimed that it shortened the life of my grandmother, who I never knew.

In this period of insanity, owing to the very poor state of military intelligence, there were more than a dozen sinkings of Japanese POW and hospital ships in similar circumstances as the Montevideo Maruand the Rakuyo Maru. The member for Kingsford Smith made mention of earlier resolutions in the chamber which prompted me back in 2010 to ask the Minister for Defence Personnel a question on notice. My question was basically directed towards the veracity of the list Australian families relied on to indicate their loved ones were on any of these boats. They had to rely on the names being provided by the Japanese. The minister kindly responded to me very positively, and he said in reference to the Montevideo Maru:

There have been challenges to the accuracy of this roll with suggestions that some people shown on the roll were killed in Rabaul and did not embark. These challenges are based on survivors of captivity in Rabaul who were interviewed after the war.

The minister goes on to say:

The exact number may never be known. Numbers of prisoners died on Japanese ships of disease, malnutrition and bad treatment on ships that were not sunk.

This was the issue that tormented my own family—they just did not know what had happened to Uncle Herb and Uncle Jack. Were they murdered in the jungle or were they, as directed by the Japanese, actually on the Rakuyo Maru? In response to my question the minister went on:

… after the loss of the Montevideo Marufollowed the Rokyu (or Rakuyo) Maru. No Japanese roll has ever been found, so it is not known exactly who was on board.

I am making these remarks because I am mindful that there are many thousands of families, like the family of the member for Kingsford-Smith and my own family, who have lived for nearly seven decades with the uncertainty of what happened to their loved ones. There were 13 children in my father's family. Today, only one remains—Uncle Eric, who is 88 years of age and living in Mildura in failing health. I say to Uncle Eric: this debate in this chamber today is for you. We hope it assuages some of the pain endured by your family over the years. In a symbolic way that is extended to many other thousands of families.

Cynthia Schmidt lives on the Gold Coast—she is a constituent of the member for Moncrieff.

She lost her father on the Montevideo Maru. We joined forces by accident, and she has been of enormous help to me in my own search for closure and certainty in regards to this matter.

Whilst I applaud this recognition of the tragic sinking of the Montevideo Maru, I believe the memorial should include recognition of all the sinkings that occurred so that future generations will be aware of the absolute insanity of war and appreciate the pain and suffering it leaves behind, and so that they might be spurred on to do all they can, in their own individual efforts, to avoid events of this scale ever being repeated.

Whilst we will never know the final answer, we want to assure all those thousands of families that we share in their pain and we want to do what we can to assist them with closure. Lest we forget.

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