Distorting the truth of Kokoda
Peter Ryan; 19/4/08
As another Anzac Day approaches, we will hear again and again the name of an obscure village in the mountains of Papua New Guinea: Kokoda. And as the Anzac Cove and the Gallipoli of 1915 recede further behind the mists of time and legend, Kokoda may come more to be the emotional focus of Australia’s military heart. The story of Kokoda can well bear that heavy weight. But it is extraordinary that so few Australians seem to have even a broadly accurate perception of what actually happened on the Kokoda Track between July and November 1942, and of what those events mean. Kokoda’s smallness is the first reality one must grasp when relating it to the huge scale of the Pacific war. This does not demean it or cut it down to size; it heightens the distinction. It is not at all silly to compare Kokoda with the classical heroism of Leonidas and his 300 Spartans, who defended the pass at Thermopylae in 480BC; nor with the gallant 600 who, in 1854, made immortal the Charge of the Light Brigade.
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,23560919-31477,00.html?from=public_rss