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

they’d rather be here than on the warfront, that’s no secret – they’ve got it easy. They make their own grog, they call it grappa, and they sing to the women, but I don’t reckon they’ll ever get any – can’t go past an Australian bloke.’ Fat Bobbo scratches the fat white gut that’s poking through the buttons of his stretched shirt as he speaks, as if he is the most prized possession a woman in Cowra could have. ‘But I don’t care about the Ities at all, they’ll be gone as soon as the war is over, and at least they’re growing fruit and vegetables and are working at the cannery too. They make good use of themselves.’ He sits down. ‘Now, the Japs, on the other hand, are animals, the whole race are terrible people.’
    The other men nod in agreement, but even if they didn’t, no one is brave enough to argue with him because although he’s unfit, everyone knows he can pack a punch and would KO anyone he threw his fist at.
    â€˜There was the bombing of Darwin, Changi, the Thai–Burma Railway, and the Sydney Harbour submarine attack.’
    â€˜They are literally on our doorstep,’ Bill adds. ‘We should be worried!’
    â€˜And think about Pearl Harbor,’ Fat Bobbo continues, looking specifically at Banjo. ‘You know about that, don’t you?’ Fat Bobbo thinks the Blacks are dumb and useless and sighs when Banjo gives no response. ‘The Japs bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941! They killed about two and a half thousand Yanks. It was the worst fucking attack in history.’
    â€˜Where do you get all these details?’ Johnno asks.
    â€˜I listen to the broadcasts on my wireless, it’s a Stromberg Carlson valve radio. It’s top of the line, probably the best wireless in Cowra. I hear the Japanese propaganda and Tokyo Rose too. All the anti-US stuff. So yeah, I listen to the enemy broadcasts – gotta keep one step ahead of those bastards.’
    When no one says anything, Fat Bobbo goes on, preaching confidently. ‘This is shit we need to be on top of, chaps. We need to know about what’s going on in the world. How else are we going to keep ourselves safe from the yellow peril if we aren’t one step ahead of them?
    â€˜The Japanese are the most hated race on earth and we need to fight them now, because they might invade here. They purposely crash their planes into ships. It’s called a Kamikaze attack.’ He does a nosedive with his hands and makes a splash and explosion sound. ‘They’ll do that to our ships just like they did with the Americans, and they’ll start in Darwin.’ Fat Bobbo is almost spitting, he is talking so fast and so passionately. He is a little scary to the other men, who still just listen and watch.
    â€˜We don’t want the yellow peril here. We’re white Australia,’ Fat Bobbo states.
    â€˜But,’ Banjo interrupts, ‘we’re not white.’
    Fat Bobbo doesn’t correct himself, just shrugs his shoulders. ‘I reckon they should have electric fences at the camp and then the bastards can’t escape. Or at least they’d get electrocuted trying to!’ And he laughs his big, fat, belly laugh as if death by electrocution is hilarious.
    Banjo is trying to contain the anger he can feel building up. He doesn’t want to get in an argument with the whitefellas and he doesn’t want to wind up the Blacks, but he’s willing to take the risk. He remembers the sad, gruesome site of the dead Japanese soldiers he saw the morning after the breakout and his own sense of humanity takes over. He wasn’t raised to speak with such hatred, and he doesn’t want to be around it. He wonders how the hearts and minds of some people have been poisoned to such extremes.
    â€˜War is hideous, but we need to remember that soldiers, even the enemy, are human. They are men like you and me who do their best for