Day 96: 6/4/13
Today I was off- no work until Monday- if even then!
My first job today was to print the form that I need to fill out to make sure I get paid when I start back teaching. They printed it out here at the reception. I think they are supposed to charge but they have it to me for nothing! I'll fill it out over the next few days and then post it.
I decided to visit the Shrine of Remembrance today. It's a memorial in honour of those that fought in the First World War. It was built in 1934 to give the families of those that died a place to go to, to remember their loved ones. I got there at 2, just when there was a guided tour starting- good timing!! First we were shown a whole wall of medals that soldiers would have gotten. There are two Victoria Cross medals which are the highest honour you can get in the army. One of them was from an Irish soldier from Fermanagh who retired to Australia after the war. We were brought into another area then where the Changi flag was hung. It was a British flag that had been hanging on a building in Japan. When the Japanese soldiers took over, a British soldier took it down and kept it with him when thy were sent to the prisoner of war camp in Changi. To keep it from the Japanese they hid it in the infectious diseases section of the camp! It was signed by lots of different soldiers and medical staff over a period of a few years.
We were brought in to the crypt then which doesn't have any bodies! In there there's a statue of a father and son. I don't think they are actually real people, but are in honour of the fathers and sons that would have fought in the two wars. There's 21 years between the two world wars so more than likely many fathers and sons fought in them, which I had never really thought about before. In the crypt also, each regiment of infantry, navy, horses, ships, etc in which the Australian and New Zealand Army Corp fought are all listed. At the bottom of each plaque it says 'Lest We Forget' which is sort of the slogan of the Shrine and of Anzac Day. Also in the room the flags for each regiment are hanging. It seems all regiments in all countries hang their flag in a sacred place when the war is over. The flag is never replaced or mended, just left to go into tatters. The idea is that as the men of that regiment have died and he people that remembered them have died, the flag will have gone too.
After that we went into the sanctuary. This is a square room with a grave like structure in the centre with a stone saying- Greater Love Hath No Man. It's a phrase from the bible about there being no greater love than dying for your brother. This sanctuary is here te ceremonies are held. The ceiling is really high and in a square dome type structure. Around the walls there are 12 stone carvings of images from the war- infantry, tanks, rifles, navy, air corp, horses and camels, etc. On the roof there is a little hatch and the sun shines through that hatch at 11am on the 11th day of the 11th month, lighting up the word Love on the stone- as a ceasefire was called at 11am on the 11/11 in 1918. It's amazing that they can have it built that way, but then again us Celts managed to do it in Newgrange about 3000 BC or something!!
Around the sanctuary there is an Ambulatory which contains books with the names of all the people that fought in World War 1. They are listed alphabetically and not according to rank- they are all equal. The guide had said if we knew anyone and wanted to find their name he would open the books on that page, but nobody did. At that time there were 4 million people living in Australia and 300,000 signed up to the army- all volunteers. It was one of the biggest volunteer armies in the world. 60,000 of them were killed. I don't think that many of the wounded were brought home either so it was a huge loss to the country.
On the balcony around the shrine there is a really good view of Melbourne- fed square, Flinders station, etc. the shrine itself is in sort of a Greek style with big stone colums. There is writing on it about it being holy ground and all men should know it, or something! There are some monuments in the gardens as well remembering different sections of the army and things.
ANZAC Day (Australia and New Zealand Army Corp) is on the 25th of April and on that day soldiers march to the shrine of remembrance. There are still soldiers in the army fighting in Afghanistan so I don't think Anzac Day is all about the World Wars, but I could be wrong. The song The band played Waltzing Matilda talks about sitting watching people march by in April which is Anzac Day.
After the shrine I went back into the Visitor Centre as I had missed what was in there because of the tour starting as soon as I got there. There was information in there about World War 2, not so much about the soldiers going off to fight, but what was going on in Australia at the time. They had internment camps for people from Germany, Italy, Japan or any country associated with them. There were lots of people living in Australia from these countries. When the war started they had to declare themselves at their local police station as enemy aliens. After a while they were just all put into camps. The British also sent people they had captured in different countries to camps in Australia. Many people were living perfectly good lives here in Australia and just because they were originally from Germany, etc they were put in a camp for 5/6 years. The war ended in 1945 but the last of the people weren't freed from the camps until Jan 1947, as they had to decide what to do with them. Most were sent to the countries they were supposedly associated with although some had never even been there. For example, there were people from Indonesia and other parts of Asia, shipped off to Japan. Some people were let stay but as they had being living with people from their own countries in the camps, some of them couldn't even speak English. There were some soldiers Taft had been captured in the camps- there were reports of illegal newspapers being printed reporting on the German side of the war and of radios being made so they could hear the updates. There were women and children sent to camps too if they were descendant from enemy countries. Some children were born into the camps. Most of the children were kept at boarding school type places. There were some reports of people visiting Australia and then being stuck here. The Vienna boys choir were on a World Tour and in Australia when war broke out. The choir master was interned in a camp and the boys were kept in a boarding school and not allowed to go home.
There was another story about a Japanese man who had lived in Australia for years and worked in Melbourne Univeristy. He was married to an Australian girl who had British parents and very much considered herself British. At the start of the war they both had to declare themselves as aliens because of him being Japanese, although he was never involved in anything to do with the Japanese army and even helped the Australians with translations from Japanese. Eventually he was put in a camp. She petitioned for him to be released but he was kept in there for 5 years. In the meantime she died and I'm nearly sure he was sent to Japan upon his release. Neither of them had anything to do with any army- it's awful to think about how many people were just put away into camps. You hear so much about the Nazis and he concentration camps- you don't often hear this side of it. Although it does seem like the camps were relatively pleasant and there wasn't any abuse or torture, but they still weren't allowed outside the wires. If you heard about the camps from the German point of view, perhaps you would hear about violence?!?
A lot of the men were sent to camps where they had to work on farms and pick fruit, etc. Most of the men were off at war so they used the men from the camps to help with the work in their absence. It's quite like what they make us do now to get our 2d year visa!! The men weren't supposed to fraternise with the women but many did (it was mostly Italian men out on the farms- I wonder if that made any difference!!) and some ended up married to or having children with the Australian women.
It was very interesting to find out all the information. The stuff about the camps in World War 2 was a side to the war that I wasn't familiar with at all. The World War 1 memorial stuff is interesting too because it amazes me how proud they are of fighting for 'freedom'. We must be really selfish in Ireland as we only fought for our own freedom, not that of any other country!! The fact that they are so proud of fighting for the British army is interesting too. It's something I don't understand! 1916 was a big thing in Ireland and was at the same one as World War 1- which is probably why we did so well!! But I don't think Irish people today remember those from 1916 as reverently as the Australians do those from World War 1. Maybe it's just because there was so many of them- I don't know.
From there I walked to the Southbank area which has lots of cafes and restaurants along the river. It's where the nice Irish pub is but I didn't go back there today. I had some food and just as I sat down at a table a man arrived with a piano and played lots of songs- Elton John type stuff. He was really good! I walked around a bit and there was a guy doing an escapist performance. He was tied up in chains, in a straight jacket and in a bag. He managed to get out- with a good but of work!! On the way bag over the bridge there was an Elmo type character playing the bag pipes! He looked like Elmo, but he was blue- whos that?!? I thought at first he was just pretending- but the finger work was all right so if he was pretending he was doing a good job!
After that I went back to the hostel. I Skyped home an was talking to Mam, Dad, Shell, Shaun and Noreen. They are all getting ready for the months mind mass that is taking place this evening. It seems like a very quick month to me.
The Aintree Grand National is on aswell today- I will be awaiting my winnings!!
After that I saved all the photos from my iPhone and camera to the computer and to a memory stick. I hadn't done it in a while so there was a good few things to upload. Hopefully tomorrow il leave time to put some of them on the blog.