WW2 mystery solved off Sydney

[Dinty]

G'day All, The last missing Japanese midget submarine that participated in the fateful attack in Sydney Harbour, has been found and confirmed by the RAN, it is lying off Sydneys Nothern beaches, more information for locals on Sunday night 1930hrs AESDST (daylight saving). I'm still waiting to see the documentary on the float plane that was found off the Central Coast about 2 1/2 years ago, it was the plane from the mother submarine I-121, anyway we might get to see it one day, meanwhile a debat has started whether or not to disturb the wreck site, cheers Dennis
PS the programme is 60 minutes

[oztankboy]

Hmm they will dig up the mummy's... raise the Marry Rose so I feel "why not" and treat the remains with respect and send them to their love ones for a traditional internment.

Its common practice with downed WW2 aircraft found in the islands... so why treat a sunken vessel any different?

And the Japanese also gained the salvage rights some time after the war on the sunken vesels in Darwin Harbour and there would of been remains in those ships too.

Just my 2 bobs worth

[JackM]

Many sailors died on board the sunken ships in Darwin Harbour - some 80 odd went down with the USS Peary alone.

It was of interest to me when I was posted there in 91/92 that the Japs were allowed salvage rights after the War, to the vessels they sunk in the harbour, yet we proclaimed the I- 124 ( a Jap sub wreck just off Darwin) a war grave and it is protected as such.

Jack

[Tony Smith]

Cowra, NSW has the ONLY Japanese War Cemetary in the world outside of Japan. The thousands of other Japanese War dead in the the Pacific theatre were usually cremated with ceremony by the Japs and remembered with a shrine, or buried in unmarked graves. After the Cowra Breakout (where 1104 Jap POWs staged a mass escape from the POW camp. Four Aust guards were killed, while 231 POWs were killed in the escape, the roundup, or committed suicide), the burials were reported to the Japanese Govt and the bodies were buried with dignity. The Japanese contended that the prisoners must have been interned civillians, as no Imperial Japanese Soldier would live with the shame of being captured. Proper notification to families was difficult as many Japs would list false names to avoid the shameful news reaching their families. It was not until 1964 that the Japanese Government overcame the cultural, social and official attitude to POWs, which was one of disgrace and embarrassment, to recognise the site as an Official War Cemetary.

The four sailors bodies recovered from the Sydney Harbour mini sub raid were also treated with dignity. Those bodies were cremated and the ashes returned to the Japanese families. As warriors who had fallen in the line of duty, they were feted in Japan as mini-gods. The Japanese Government was impressed with the dignity and honour with which the sailors were treated.

[Col Tigwell]

Shame they did not treat our men with dignity, compassion and respect.

Col

[Mike Kelly]

The media machine here in OZ have gone into their usual frenzy of overdrive over this . But , why are the Japanese getting all of the cudos and publicity ? They were the attackers in this case . I even saw the brother of one of the Japanese crew being interviewed on TV .

Have the newspapers and TV shows here ever wanted to know anything of the views of the relatives of the 20 odd Australian sailors who were killed as a result of the attack . Has anyone bothered to ask them anything ...... no .

Some no-nonsense balanced reporting would be welcome . Sorry , I forgot , this is the politically correct age we live in .

Mike