Barbed Wire and Cherry Blossoms by Anita Heiss Read Free Book Online

very skinny but he has muscles. She thinks there is something attractiveabout him, although she is not sure what. She’s really only ever looked at the local Aboriginal boys, and never had a boyfriend, but tonight she notices what Hiroshi looks like.
    â€˜How old are you?’ he asks, trying not to look her in the eye.
    â€˜I am seventeen.’
    Hiroshi thinks Mary looks much younger than her years – she is slim and small like his sister.
    â€˜Do you have brothers and sisters?’
    â€˜I have two sisters, they are young like you.’ Hiroshi stops there, refraining from telling Mary that because he is a prisoner it will affect his sisters: they may not be able to marry, they may be ostracised in their jobs, they will be made to feel ashamed of him. That thought is unbearable, but too personal to share with a stranger.
    â€˜I have three sisters and one brother and lots and lots of cousins.’ Mary laughs but Hiroshi doesn’t know it’s because everyone at Erambie has a big family.
    â€˜I am Japanese,’ he says with pride. ‘Yamato.’
    She giggles a little because she knows he is Japanese but doesn’t know what Yamato means. She says it back to him, hoping she’s pronouncing it properly. ‘Yah-mah-toe.’
    â€˜Yes.’ Hiroshi relaxes his shoulders at the sound of Mary’s voice. It is soft and gentle and brings peace to his troubled mind. It is a voice that makes him feel safe and warm inside. But it is awkward, unusual for him, a Japanese man to be talking to a Westerner and a woman, in such close promiximity and about his personal life. But war makes a man desperate and he is just a man, and there have been no femalevoices for so long. No women to talk to, to look at, to smell, to share anything of life with. He becomes suddenly aware of how much he misses female company and the comfort it brings. Masao has been his only close companion since he’s been in Cowra, and now he could be dead. Masao, his loyal confidant in the camp, was true to the meaning of his name – righteous – and Hiroshi knows his friend would do what was morally right and commit suicide.
    â€˜What is Yah-mah-toe?’
    â€˜Yamato are the main people in my country. We are the people who come from Japan, not like other peoples who have settled there in many regions of my country,’ Hiroshi says with pride. Although he is ashamed of being a prisoner of war, he will always be proud to be Yamato. ‘The Koreans and the Taiwanese in my country are sometimes called Japanese but they are not Yamato. There were Koreans in the camp too, Mary. Here, in Cowra, and I think maybe the guards might have thought they were Japanese too. Some people think we look the same and so they say we are all one people.’
    â€˜Ah, I see,’ Mary says, but she doesn’t really understand and she walks towards the lantern. ‘I will see you tomorrow,’ she says, ‘with more food.’
    â€˜I will see you tomorrow,’ Hiroshi repeats, already counting down the hours and minutes to more contact with the outside world. With Mary and her food. Maybe tomorrow he will ask for the newspaper, but right now he is grateful for the girl who is simply being kind to him.

    8 A UGUST 1944: P RISONERS E SCAPE FROM C AMP
    A number of prisoners of war escaped from the internment camp at Cowra at an early hour on Saturday morning. The district is being thoroughly patrolled by members of the military and police forces.
    Individuals may attempt to secure assistance and evade capture. Any person approached for help in this way should immediately inform the military or police authorities.
    Mary reads the Cowra Guardian spread out on the large oval dining table she is supposed to be polishing. Mr Smith is out and Mrs Smith is having a lie down – she has a headache. Mary assumes it’s from having to live with Mr Smith, because he’d give anyone a headache. She keeps