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The Spell Broken
By Peter Brune
Interview by Julie Jansen.
Peter Brune is a big, beefy
moustached man who looms larger than life in
the small, subtly-lit confines of Brisbane's Bellevue Hotel. A primary
school teacher of 24 years from Seaford, Adelaide, Brune is a man who
pulls no punches, says what he means and does what he likes. Throughout
our conversation, he downs 2 beers and fills almost two ashtrays.
Brune came to Brisbane recently to promote his latest work, The Spell
Broken - Exploding the Myth of Japanese Invincibility. As Anzac Day
approaches, he says Generation X needs to understand their country's
past, to move forward in the future. This book, the third in a series,
details the events surrounding the defeat of the Japanese Pacific advance
in Papua New Guinea, over seven months in 1942.
Brune believes yesterday's soldiers are a long-forgotten breed by most
people under 30.
"I think that Australia did have some renaissance men and women - you're
not going to see another generation who studied that many languages, who
were poets, statesmen, scholars. We've lost that breadth," Brune says.
Throughout the book Brune gives vivid accounts of the realities of
defending Australia's coastline from potential invasion by the Japanese.
One story in particular touched his heart - that of Jock Milne, a Private
who sacrificed his life to save many others. In his final hours, Private
Milne struggled to write an account of the war taking place around him, as
his strength was weakened by heavy wounding. Today, Milne's touching
'death script' is an historical artifact at the Australian War Memorial in
Canberra.
Brune describes Milne's final hours thus: "... just before death, his
handwriting took the form of a weak, almost childlike script: 'Should I be
dead when you find me search the surround bush carefully for wounded men.
Jack Allen is somewhere on my left.' ... A search of the grass near
Milne's body found the badly wounded Jack Allen."
One of the few advantages to come out of the second World War for
Australia, Brune says, is multiculturalism. Amid Pauline Hanson and the
race debate, Brune says multiculturalism was essential to the growth of
this nation and giving it strength of character.
Another major turn for Australia was the growth of the women's movement
following the involvement of thousands of Australian women in various
functions related to the Second World War.
"I don't think anyone can seriously study the republican, multiculturalism
or women's movements without looking at (military history), because that's
where it started," Brune said. "Both world wars took women out of the
home, put them in the workplace, and accelerated the women's movement. We
don't link the two."
Surprisingly enough, for someone who has written his third military
historical work and the previous two sold in the many thousands, Brune has
no military experience whatsoever. Brune has never served in the
Australian Armed Forces but is still seen as an authority on military
history. Some would say this is a disadvantage, but the working-class
teacher, who worked as a bartender to support the cost of writing his
previous work, "Those Ragged Bloody Heroes", doesn't believe this to be
true.
"There are two schools of thought," says Brune. "You have an advantage if
you're a soldier, but then I think it's a very healthy thing to be right
out of it. I would argue that 50 years down the track, after the dust has
settled, issues have been raised that people wouldn't raise in the sixties
and seventies."
It comes as no surprise to the reader to find that the book is far more
honest and revealing than what we are told by staid textbooks and
documentaries. Brune says much of the official government account of the
battles of the Australian and Japanese armies in PNG are incomplete - and
after speaking with over 300 surviving army officers and accumulating more
than 500 hours of audio tape, Brune says the personal account is much more
emotional, impassioned and historically accurate.
"I can go back to my own education in the sixties - I can recall learning
about William the Conqueror, and I can recall Captain Cook - I can't ever
recall being taught a thing about Papua, or the Pacific War - our children
won't even miss it. I think it's an inferiority complex, we're
self-effacing about ourselves," Brune says, enthusiasm rising in his
voice.
"The Australian government is not honest about its failures, which should
be acknowledged. History is emotional," Brune said. "Australia has a
childlike ignorance of their past - other countries know their history.
Gallipoli was our birth, and Papua New Guinea was our adolescence. And
like all adolescents, we've made some silly mistakes."
Brune's research for Spell has also uncovered large factual inaccuracies
in the American accounts of Australia's involvement in the defence of the
Pacific in World War Two.
"The people around Australia have never heard of Australia's biggest
failures in the defence of Papua New Guinea," Brune declares emphatically.
"The 2/10th battalion lost about 45 guys during the whole six-month siege
at Tobruk - they lost 350 blokes at Buna in 6 days."
"Americans have lied since the second World War," he continues. "General
MacArthur's biographer said there were Americans on the Kokoda trail,
which is completely false."
Suffice to say, as Anzac Day approaches, Brune would like to see more
education in Australian schools, about our side of the story. Not the one
officially fed to us by those in charge, but the real account that remains
with those that have survived our past.