Warriors’ memories live on
The last two remaining members of the Torres Strait Light Infantry Battalion will step back in time to reflect on the bravery of their comrades.
THE last two remaining members of the Torres Strait Light Infantry Battalion will step back in time today to reflect on the bravery of their comrades 75 years ago.
Mebai Warusam, a private in the Battalion’s Pioneer Coy, is 95 and living on Saibai Island in the Torres Strait. Awaite Mau, a private in D Coy, is 93 and lives at Bamaga on the tip of Cape York Peninsula.
Today, both will be guests of honour in an emotional 75th anniversary of the Torres Strait Light Infantry Battalion, which brought pride and unity to a disadvantaged group of Australians who defended their homes from the Japanese in World War II.
Mebai and Awaite will join hundreds of Torres Strait Islanders marching in memory of their fathers and grandfathers.
Also there will be Tarni Young, whose father was an officer in the battalion and whose parents had the only wartime wedding on Thursday Island. Her mother was an army nurse.
Joining the commemoration of the only indigenous battalion in Australia’s history will be Chief of Army Lieutenant General Angus Campbell, 1 RAR band, MPs, veterans and local leaders.
Horn Island historian Vanessa Seekee, who is secretary of the organising committee, says battalion members drew upon a long tradition as warriors when they came together from 14 islands to fight a common enemy.
“Their warrior ethos was essential to each island group’s survival, but Japan’s entry into World War II changed everything. A common enemy threatened Australia and the Torres Strait lay in the path of any invasion from the north.
“For the Torres Strait Islanders, World War II gave birth to a unity they had never known before.”
In 1943, 830 Islanders enlisted in the Torres Strait Light Infantry Battalion, almost the entire male population of the Torres Strait.
In proportion to population, no community in Australia contributed more to the World War II effort.
Fit and strong, they trained in the jungle of Prince of Wales Island, provided invaluable maritime knowledge to the Allies and fought against the Japanese in New Guinea, while dodging air raids and hundreds of Japanese bombs at home. The equal of their non-indigenous counterparts, an intelligence report said: They look fine and savage in uniform. They are as keen as mustard and can give us lessons in drilling and marching. I would rather fight with them than against them.
But they were paid only o one-third the wage of their w white counterparts, leading to a two-day strike in December 1943.
This prompted the army to raise pay rates to two-thirds of the non-indigenous soldier’s wage. In the 1980s, the islander soldiers finally received full back-pay for their war service.
The two-day commemoration on Thursday Island includes a joint exhibition with Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance at the Gab Titui Culture Centre. Today starts with a dawn service at Green Hill Fort and breakfast, followed by a parade down Douglas St, a ceremony in Anzac Park, traditional dancing and music from 1 RAR.