Barbed Wire and Cherry Blossoms

by Anita Heiss

  Before Joan has a chance to respond there’s a knock on the door and both Ivy and Sid walk in, closely followed by Banjo and Fred. As they enter, Marj starts up again, making a racket, asking who had the right to do what, without telling her or anyone else, and that people will be gossiping and she hates gossip. No one is surprised that Marj is talking about herself.

  Then Kevin arrives with a swagger that says he’s got it all under control. ‘Calm down, Marj, you’re making more noise than the spruikers at the sale yards,’ he says while he rolls a cigarette.

  ‘I’m telling the police, there’s probably a reward,’ Marj says, having found her anger again now that the men have arrived. ‘This is not something that we should be doing. You are harbouring a criminal. And Lord knows why!’

  As Marj moves to leave the hut, Joan sees Mary walk in through the back door and head into the front of the house with some mending from the Smiths for her mother to do. As she gets to the front room Mary sees her father blocking the doorway so Marj can’t leave through the front. The air is thick with tension. Fred and Banjo have never come to blows but Fred knows he needs to stand up for his woman. It’s what any decent man would do, and any man who valued his life would most definitely do.

  ‘Banjo, don’t,’ Fred says, trying to defuse a situation that has quickly deteriorated and thrown the hut into chaos with Ivy, Sid, Joan, Mary, Banjo, Fred and Marj all huddled around the doorway and talking over each other.

  Banjo is a talk man, but Marj isn’t afraid of him and moves right up to his face. Fred panics because he fears he may have to finish what Marj starts and he is not a fighter.

  ‘Step back, Marj, we’ve got this under control. We know what we’re doing, we’re saving lives – lives like yours and mine, lives that matter.’ Banjo doesn’t like having stern words with a woman, but they haven’t come this far to have everything ruined because Marj can’t keep her mouth shut.

  Marj doesn’t move. ‘Get out of my way, Banjo Williams, there might be a reward for this yellow man.’

  Banjo stays where he is and so does Marj. It’s a Wiradjuri stand-off as the two eyeball each other. Mary is getting teary. Then Kevin speaks.

  ‘There’s only one way to solve this,’ he says. ‘Like we always do. Up at the railway gates.’ Everyone at Erambie knows that a quick round of boxing away from the mission near the railway tracks where the police can’t touch them is the best way to resolve local disputes.

  ‘Kevin!’ Joan exclaims, mortified. ‘We are not boxing over this. Banjo Williams, you are not fighting.’ Before the brothers can argue about their proposed fight, Claude is at the door.

  ‘Come quickly,’ he says, trying to see past Banjo. ‘There’s a fight up at the railway tracks. There’s supposed to be a Jap here on the mission and they’re fighting over who should hand him in. They reckon there’s a reward.’

  Everyone turns to face Marj, knowing she’s the one who let the secret out.

  ‘Looks like someone’s beaten us to it,’ Kevin says.

  Joan is relieved that neither of the Williams brothers will have to fight and holds her own children back from the older people heading towards the makeshift boxing ring.

  When they arrive, there is a big circle drawn in the dirt with dozens of people around the edges. On one side are those who don’t want to hide the Japanese soldier, and on the other side are those who do. It’s the type of fight that could’ve happened back when Hiroshi first arrived. Fights up at the railway tracks mark the end of a dispute, and everyone adheres to the outcome, as hard as that may be for some families. Today’s fight is no different.

  Both men have their shirts off and fists are raised high. Only a few punches are thrown before one fella is knocked to the ground for the count. The crowd count in unison: 3, 2, 1. And then there are cheers about the win rather than the issue which not everyone has become aware of.

  The winner is a Murray, who has boxing blood in his veins. He helps the other fella get off the ground and when his opponent is standing upright again, shakes hands with him and then walks over to Banjo.

  ‘So, I won,’ he puffs. ‘No one will put him or your family in. But I need you to tell me why. I only fought against it cos I don’t really have much time for that fella. I don’t really have a proper reason.’

  ‘His government has been fighting our government,’ Banjo answers quickly. ‘Our government doesn’t even recognise our people even when they go to war to fight for them. I am at war with this government too. That makes us on the same side as the Japanese.’ Banjo still believes in his words with the same passion he felt the first time he said them to Sid, Fred and Kevin the morning they found Hiroshi.

  ‘Right, it’s good that I won then,’ the Murray fella says and he turns around and announces to everyone who has been listening to the whole conversation, ‘No one is to say anything to anyone about the Jap until Banjo says so. I won and you all know the rules up here.’ The crowd nods but doesn’t move just yet. All eyes are on Marj who is agitated.

  ‘No one,’ the winner repeats in her direction. ‘We will stick together on this. You know the whites love it when we argue, let’s not give them that. Let’s wait till it’s safe for this fella to come out and we can give him a proper welcome and send off back home.’

  16

  In early June, Mary reads to her parents from the paper about the issue of immigration. ‘“Immigration will be a big thing after the war, and at present federal ministers are almost unanimous that only white immigrants will be invited within Australia’s gates to settle and raise families of future Australians.”’

  She panics, knowing that Australians think of the Japanese as yellow and that will mean that even when Hiroshi is free, he won’t be able to stay.

  ‘I heard some fellas talking about it at the cannery,’ Fred says. ‘It’s called the White Australia Policy and they reckon it started with the Chinese diggers near Lambing Flat – that’s not far from here, you know.’ They all nod. ‘It was a long time ago, but you know, people round these parts have long memories. Apparently, the miners don’t want people who aren’t white taking their jobs, and that must mean us as well. Not that they’d give us the jobs anyway. Or they’d expect us to work for less and then when we do, the whitefellas hate us even more.’

  ‘There’s a test people have to do as well,’ he continues, shaking his head. ‘You have to write in English and if you don’t pass, well, you can’t come in. As far as I can tell, most whitefellas like this policy.’

  ‘Well, when you’ve got the prime minister saying that Australia will remain forever an outpost of the British race, what hope have we got?’ Banjo asks.

  ‘I reckon some of those Italians will stay here, marry the women and take the jobs too,’ Kevin says. ‘We can’t have that. It’s bad enough they’ve been here, bludging off our government, waiting until the war is over, but they really must go home now that it is. Surely.’ He looks at the others for acknowledgement and agreement.

  ‘I can’t see many, if any, of them marrying, can you?’ Joan says. ‘Surely they want to go home to their families.’

  Mary is trying not to think about the White Australia Policy and what anyone thinks about soldiers staying and getting married. She is not prepared for Hiroshi to leave. She would marry him in an instant if he asked, and happily keep him here with her. And if they won’t let them stay in Cowra then she’ll run away with him to Japan.

  The idea of living in Japan both excites and scares Mary. She loves the idea of cherry blossom picnics and eating udon noodles, but she knows a lot of Japan has been destroyed by the war. And what about her family? She’s never slept a night away from them. How would she cope? She says a prayer.

  ‘Dear Lord, please make sure that after the war, Hiroshi and I can stay together here in Cowra. He is a good man. And please bless Mum, Dad, Betty, Dottie, Jessie and James. Even bless Aunty Marj and help her not to gossip so much. Amen.’

  8 JUNE 1945: JAPAN EXPECTING INVASION: PREPARING HO
ME GUARD

  Mary reads the headline and her palms start to sweat. Her stomach is churning and she feels nauseous. She almost doesn’t want to read any more, knowing that the end is closer every day.

  ‘Are you all right?’ Joan asks. The colour has drained from her daughter’s face.

  Mary passes the paper to her mother and Joan starts to read the article out loud.

  ‘“An emergency call has gone out from the Japanese Army Headquarters to every man, woman and child in Japan to make a suicide stand in defence of the Empire.”’ Joan sits down and makes the sign of the cross, feeling the same nausea that Mary experienced only minutes before.

  Mary takes back the paper and continues to read: ‘“Japan is expecting an invasion, and booklets issued by army heads tell those in the Peoples’ Volunteer Corps that their training must include preparation for ‘death-defying charges and bodily attacks against tanks’. The people, it says, must cooperate with the army in suicide attacks to kill and wound the invading enemy. Food and medicinal supplies in Japan are reported to be short.”’

  Everyone is silent.

  ‘What does all this mean?’ Mary asks, thinking first and foremost about Hiroshi. ‘I don’t understand.’

  No one really understands the methods of the Japanese but from the article, Banjo has made a decision.

  ‘Sounds like the Japanese have pretty much said the war is over.’

  Mary wants to change the subject quickly and flicks through the paper, anxiously looking for something to alter the mood as well.

  ‘Wow!’ she exclaims with real enthusiasm.

  ‘What is it?’ Joan asks.

  Mary reads the headline: ‘ABO. BOBBY-SOXERS SAID “WOO WOO”: COWRA CROONER IN THE NEWS’.

  There’s immediately excitement in the Williams’ hut as a relation has made it as a singer in the city. Although the headline about Japan has made everyone feel uncomfortable, no one is talking about it because the story of Burrah Williams is too good to let anything ruin the moment. Mary is once again reading the paper to the family, including Uncle Kevin, who has been back for a few days and is enjoying catching up on all the news.

  ‘“Former Erambie Mission resident Merv Burrah Williams is making a name for himself in Sydney. That’s what Hugh Dash, sporting editor, wrote of the Cowra crooner in Friday’s Daily Telegraph,”’ Mary reads, and everyone in the hut is already impressed.

  ‘“All Blacks footballer Merv Williams is something more than just an even-time winger. He’s the Bing Crosby of Sydney’s Aborigines, with a bobby-sox brigade all of his own.”’

  ‘Oh, please, the Black Bing Crosby, I don’t think so.’ Only a few sentences in and Kevin is already commentating. Kevin has always fancied himself as the Black Bing Crosby, and has said so more than once, but the title never got picked up by anyone else. And now to hear about Burrah being called Bing Crosby, he’s feeling left out of the musical limelight that he has always felt should’ve been his.

  Mary waits for her Uncle to finish then continues. ‘“The dusky teenage belles, who black-track him from dance to dance, never swoon. When he croons they stamp their feet and chorus, ‘Woo woo’.”’

  Kevin rolls his eyes and groans with disgust. He mightn’t be known as the Bing Crosby of the region but he’s certainly adored by the ladies, and he knows it.

  ‘Stop it, Kev,’ Joan orders and then gestures for her daughter to read on.

  ‘“Merv is known as the double-breasted blue-bird. He’s as black as a Pelaco shirt advertisement, with a Ronald Colman moustache and a pair of natty sideburns.”’

  ‘He does too,’ Joan says, having seen a couple of movies at the Cowra Theatre that had the English actor in them. ‘That moustache is just like that Colman fella’s. I remember Dawnie saying it used to tickle when Burrah kissed her.’

  That makes Kevin even angrier. Dawnie was another beautiful local woman Kevin just couldn’t snag years ago, and now it is too late. She married a fella and moved off the mission. There always seemed to be other men who got to marry the women Kevin couldn’t win.

  ‘“He’s also a number one pin-up boy at La Perouse –”’ And before Mary can read any further, Kevin is up and walking to the door.

  ‘Pin-up boy? I can’t listen to this any more. I’m going for a walk down to Ryan’s Place.’

  ‘Stop it, Kevin, don’t be so jealous of other people all the time. It’s good one of our own has done well. He works hard and he’s talented at what he does. Come back and sit down.’ Joan is standing behind the chair, waiting for him to return. Banjo sits back and watches his brother do as he is told. Only Joan can make the two Williams brothers behave well. ‘Mary?’ she prompts.

  ‘“Merv is a fugitive from a gumleaf band in Cowra. He played the alto leaf, and found that by corrugating the leaf with the sharp point of a woomera he could achieve a double-stopping effect. That was the finish. His fellow musicians pointed the bone at him and asked for his resignation.”’

  ‘What does pointing the bone mean, Mum?’ Dottie asks, and the other kids look to their mother for an explanation too.

  ‘It’s something that Aboriginal people do when they want to get even with someone else. If someone does something bad, then they can be punished.’ She stops short of saying someone can die because she doesn’t want to go into it in front of little James.

  Meanwhile, Kevin can’t believe that the newspaper has written the phrase or that Burrah would even suggest that. ‘That’s just crazy! As if anyone would point the bone because of music. I can’t believe he told the newspaper that. From what I hear, he was only asked to leave the band.’

  ‘You can’t believe everything that’s in the paper,’ Banjo says. ‘He mightn’t have even said that.’

  Kevin’s not listening to reason. ‘How long is this article anyway, Mary, is it ever going to end?’

  Mary holds the paper up to show the two lengthy columns of text. ‘It’s quite long, Uncle Kevin.’ Mary looks at her mother. ‘At least this is a positive article about Aboriginal people. You’re always saying what they write about us is bad, Mum.’

  Kevin shakes his head. ‘What more could they possibly be saying about him?’

  Mary scans the paper. ‘Well,’ she says slowly, ‘it says he’s sung at dances and on the radio and somewhere called the Tivoli and he has a new band. And that he played with the All Blacks against the La Perouse Warriors last Sunday in Redfern.’

  ‘Good to see he’s keeping the football up too,’ Joan says, trying to deflect the music side of things.

  Mary starts to chuckle.

  ‘What?’ Kevin asks, as if the whole article is an attempt to annoy him personally.

  ‘The paper says that Uncle Burrah thinks Frank Sinatra’s singing is just organised asthma.’

  ‘That does it!’ Kevin pushes his chair back in a rage and storms out of the hut. Joan and Banjo look at each other and roll their eyes.

  ‘Mum, Dad!’ Mary is breathless when she runs into the hut, distressed, and with tears running down her cheeks. She almost collapses at the table as she throws the newspaper down and starts to cough. Her mother passes her a glass of water, and her father stands protectively over her.

  Mary wipes her nose, coughs again, sips the water and takes a deep breath. It’s 7 August 1945 and the headline on the front page of the newspaper has rocked her.

  FIRST ATOMIC BOMB DROPPED ON JAPAN. 2000 TIMES BLAST OF TEN-TON BOMB

  The article has been written in Washington, which Mrs Smith told Mary is in America. Mary doesn’t know what an atomic bomb is but she knows it’s severe if it’s two thousand times stronger than a normal bomb. She knows that this bomb will have caused enormous damage and it has been dropped in Japan. Although she doesn’t know how far the bomb site is from Hiroshi’s hometown, she knows the news will devastate him.

  Her mother picks the newspaper up. ‘Oh dear,’ she says, making the sign of the cross. ‘Banjo, you better get the others here.’

  Banjo is out the door and b
ack in the time it has taken her to boil the kettle and make six mugs of tea. Mary has composed herself and wants to read the article when they are all seated and silent.

  ‘“The US dropped the first atomic bomb, the most devastating weapon the world has ever known, on the Japanese city of Hiroshima today.”’ Tears start to form and Mary doesn’t know if she can get through the entire story, but she knows she must try, it’s her duty and a sign of her commitment to Hiroshi.

  ‘“This bomb has two thousand times the blast of the largest bomb previously used, the RAF ten-ton bomb. Experts say that three atomic bombs could cause as much damage as all the bombs dropped on Japan in the past six weeks.”’ Mary is shocked because she hasn’t read about the other bombs, they must have been reported on days she didn’t get the paper from the Smiths’. But it also means that Hiroshi doesn’t know about the other bombs either. All she can think about is whether his family are safe.

  ‘ “Since the bomb was dropped, Hiroshima, a port and arms centre, has been completely cloaked in an impenetrable cloud of smoke and dust. President Truman warns the Japanese, ‘We are now prepared to completely obliterate every productive enterprise Japan has above the ground in any city, and sea and land forces will follow up this attack in such numbers and power as the Japanese have never seen.’ ”’ Mary gasps, putting her hand over her mouth. She is torn about showing Hiroshi the paper. She wants him to know what’s going on, and she wants to understand why, if the war in Europe is over, the US and Japan are still at war. Maybe Hiroshi will be able to explain it to her.

  Sid has given Joan some leftover potatoes for Mary to take to Hiroshi and as she hands them over with some damper and a jar of water, Hiroshi can see that Mary is shaken. He holds her briefly and she pulls back and hands him the article.

  ‘There’s been a bomb. An atomic bomb. Lots of . . .’ She starts to cry and steps back while Hiroshi reads the article.