Australian, Indonesian and Japanese War Cemeteries

Cowra is home to three War Cemeteries. Established in 1964, Cowra is home to the only Japanese War Cemetery to be retained in Australia. There are 523 graves at the Japanese War Cemetery, containing the remains of the 231 Japanese soldiers who were killed in the 1944 Cowra Breakout and all Japanese Nationals who died on Australian soil during World War II. The Australian section of the War Cemetary is the resting place for four of the Australian Soldiers killed in the Cowra Breakout, as well as other service personnel from Cowra who lost their lives in training or from illness. The Cemetery is beautifully maintained and considered a showpiece for modern military cemeteries. There were 1,200 Indonesian internees held at the Cowra POW Camp during WWII. There were two groups, the first being merchant navy sailors and the second being Nationalists who had been exiled to what is now Irian Jaya (Dutch New Guinea) after they had been involved in the 1926 uprising.