Ah, those unruly Irish! Fancy causing such a fuss at an
Anzac Day march. And so soon after the Great War had ended, and so many Aussies
and Kiwis had lost their lives on the beaches and in the trenches of Gallipoli.
But as we settle down tomorrow to commemorate their
sacrifices, we should also recall one of the golden lessons of the Gallipoli
campaign.
The Gallipoli invasion was an example of Australians and New
Zealanders fighting other people’s wars. Some 36,000 Australians, mostly young
men in their twenties, lost their lives. More than 80 per cent of New Zealand
troops there lost their lives.
But for what did these brave young men fight and die for?
Even in 1920, many Australians regarded this war as being
fought for King and Empire. In a recent book review published in The Canberra
Times, Frank O’Shea writes about Irish returned soldiers causing major
controversy when they marched in 1920 under the Australian flag, not the Union
Jack.
In doing so, they effectively declared that they had fought
for Australia rather than
for Britain … the Irish in
Australia
were Australians as well as Irish, whereas the loyalists were British first and
Australian second.
Aboriginal servicemen didn’t have any such luck. To this
day, visitors to Australia’s
War Memorial in Canberra
will not find too many traces of Aboriginal involvement in Anzac battles.
Thousands of indigenous Australians fought overseas, with
many hundreds giving the ultimate sacrifice to defend their nation. Yet the
dead were buried in unmarked graves whilst the survivors were not eligible for
returned servicemen land grants or even membership of Returned Services League
(RSL) clubs.
Until recently, Aboriginal ex-servicemen were forced to
march at the back of Anzac Day parades organised by the RSL. As the National
Indigenous Times newspaper editorialised on Anzac Day in 2005:
“So blackfellas were good enough to fight alongside
white Australia,
but that’s where the newfound equality ended. How could this happen in a nation
that defines itself by the noble digger? The technical answer is because
Aboriginal people weren’t considered Australian citizens until the referendum
of 1967, so they didn’t qualify for all the benefits that comes with being an
Aussie.”
So until 40 years ago, indigenous Australians were certainly
fighting the wars of a country that didn’t recognise them as its own. What
difference exists between this and fighting for a foreign power?
No doubt Aboriginal troops fighting the Japanese in Singapore and Malaya
in World War II would have come across another set of brown-skinned soldiers
subjected to racial discrimination by their military commanders. Recently I
visited a cemetery in suburban Brisbane.
I came across a well-preserved grave of a young man named Allah Ditta (which
literally means God’s gift), who served in the 16th Punjab
regiment and did not live to see his 25th birthday.
Ditta was one of any number of Indian soldiers who fought
the Japanese at Malaya and Singapore
during World War II. Following the fall of Singapore, many of these Indian
troops were taken to the notorious PoW camp in Changi.
These soldiers were fighting as part of an army defending
possessions, then current and former, of a colonial power. This was not a war
to defend India.
Melbourne
author Neelam Maharaj’s 2007 historical novel Surviving Heroes tells the story
of Ramesh Kapur, an Indian officer in the British Army. Ramesh and his fellow
Indians were encouraged by Mahatma Gandhi to join the British war effort.
Yet Indian troops were subjected to racial discrimination
and humiliation by their British commanders. The Japanese knew this, and they
sponsored the highly respected Indian National Congress dissident Subhash
Chandra Bose to raise the Indian National Army (INA) from among Indian
prisoners of war. Of course, patriotism combined with war can make scoundrels
of even the most loyal. Indian prisoners joining this army to fight the British
with Japanese help knew they’d be regarded as traitors to Gandhi’s non-violent
struggle.
At the same time, they witnessed Japanese brutality against
British, Chinese and Malay soldiers and civilians slaughtered in cold blood. Joining the victors against the enemy at home must
have been tempting.
At the very least, it would have been seen as the fastest
route for Indian troops to join their loved ones back home.
But when the tide of war turned, the Indian National Army
was abandoned by fleeing Japanese forces and charged with treason by the
British. Its leader, Bose, died mysteriously in a plane crash during the dying
days of the war.
Some years after the war, Indians did receive an
independence of sorts. The partition of the country into two states saw
violence that led to at least one million lives being lost.
Not much is gained in the long run by fighting other
people’s wars. The former conservative government of John
Howard took Australia to a
war in Iraq
based on lies. Now Australia
again finds itself embroiled in the Afghanistan conflict that allegedly
defeated the Taleban seven years ago.
Mr Rudd has warned Australians of an inevitable rise in
casualties. Now terrorists have two reasons to keep Australia in their sights.
Wisely, New
Zealand has by and large removed itself from
grinding the military axes of others.
It seems you have learned vital lessons after losing some
7400 young men on the sands and foothills of Gallipoli. I hope you will
remember them.
Source:
www.nzherald.co.nz/section/466/story.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10505855