Molong - Central New South Wales - Australian Holidays

<%@LANGUAGE="JAVASCRIPT" CODEPAGE="1252"%> Molong - Central New South Wales - Australian Holidays

In early October, the spring blossoms transform the Garden and it becomes the focus of Sakura Matsuri, Cowra's annual Japanese Cherry Blossom festival. Besides enjoying the myriad of blossoms, visitors can join the Garden's Japanese guests and see demonstrations of Japanese arts and crafts including Ikebana, Bonsai, Calligraphy, Pottery and Origami, observe the tea ceremony and listen to a recital of the Shakuhachi flute. The martial arts of Kendo and Karate are demonstrated, there is kite flying and Japanese food can be sampled.

Visitors can extend their cultural experience by sampling a Japanese soup or hot dish in the airconditioned Chabana Restaurant or on the terrace.

Also served: Devonshire teas with local cherry jam, Cowra's own Alfresco pates and gourmet meats, soups, local asparagus in season, open sandwiches, fresh salads and hot dishes.

Group breakfasts, lunches and dinners can be booked in advance.

Cowra's Japanese Connection.
Cowra's involvement with the Japanese began during World War 11 when the Australian Government built a prisoner-of-war camp on the outskirts of the town. It originally housed Germans and Italians, but when war spread into the Pacific region, Japanese, Formosan, Javanese and Korean prisoners were also accommodated at the camp.

The Cowra Breakout
Before dawn on August 5,1944, over 1000 of the Japanese prisoners staged a breakout that was to go into the history books as the biggest military mass escape of all time. Tragically, it left 231 Japanese and four Australians dead.
The Japanese who died in that breakout were buried in Cowra; members of the local R.S.L. Subbranch took it upon themselves to look after their graves. From that first humanitarian gesture grew the desire to understand more about the culture and lifestyles of a people who had been an enemy.

The Japanese War Cemetery.
In 1962, Japanese Embassy officials, impressed with the attention paid to the graves of their war dead, approached the Cowra Council to discuss the possibility of one cemetery for all Japanese who had died on Australian soil during the war years and for that cemetery to be located in Cowra. And so, in 1964, a Japanese War Cemetery, designed by Shigeru Yura, was built. It now contains the remains of all Japanese nationals who died in the Cowra breakout, the attack on Darwin and the Australian internment and POW camps.

The World Peace Bell
Australia's replica of the World Peace Bell was placed in Cowra because of the efforts of the local people to foster peace and international understanding, not only with the Japanese but all nations. It stands in Civic Square off Kendal Street.

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