Barbed Wire and Cherry Blossoms (25 page)

‘Joan! Joan! Open the door!' Marj bangs her chunky fists on the thin door to the Williams' hut. ‘Open it, Joan, we need to talk.'

Mary has left for the day and Joan is trying to sort the kids out before she heads up to the church to start work. She opens the door.

‘I know about him!' Marj declares.

‘Who?'

‘The Jap.
I know
.'

Joan grabs Marj's arm and pulls her inside. ‘Shh, someone will hear you.'

Marj pulls free from Joan's clutch. Her face is blood red with anger. ‘Don't shh me, Joan Williams, and don't you ever grab me like that again.'

‘I'm sorry.' Joan rubs Marj's arm, panicking.

Marj stares at Joan and presses her lips together in an unforgiving way.

‘You know your mouth looks like a cat's bum when you do that, Marj.'

Marj's mouth softens, taking the harshness out of her eyes and face. They both know it's not the first time she's been told that.

‘Why can't I ever stay angry with you, Joanie?' Marj sits down at the kitchen table and Joan is relieved. ‘But I
will
stay angry with Fred, that's for sure. He didn't tell me about the Jap you've been hiding and I don't know why. He only cracked under pressure last night after I saw Mary and knew something was up.'

Joan wonders who else has seen Mary out at night and who else Marj has told.

‘I mean, I can keep a secret as good as the next person,' Marj says, so believably that she almost fools herself as well
as Joan. ‘I think he only told me last night because the war is over. Pretty much, anyway.' Marj is looking around the small hut. ‘So, where is this fella? Is he, you know . . .' Marj stops momentarily, tilting her head to the left and nodding.

Joan has no idea what Marj is referring to. ‘Is he what?'

‘You know,' Marj says, then lowers her voice, ‘yellow?'

‘Oh, for goodness' sake.' His skin colour is not anything she even took notice of when she met him for the first time. ‘If
you
know, then who else knows?'

‘Well . . .' Marj pauses, ‘I haven't really told anyone.'

‘Good!' Joan says but she isn't convinced.

‘I may have mentioned it in passing to Ivy, in fact, I think I heard her and Sid having a few words on my way here too.'

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.'

I
n 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 J
UNE
1945: J
APAN
E
XPECTING
I
NVASION
: P
REPARING
H
OME
G
UARD

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:
‘A
BO
. B
OBBY-SOXERS SAID
“
WOO WOO
”: C
OWRA
C
ROONER IN THE
N
EWS
'
.

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.