John Dunlop

Today we remember Sir Edward ‘Weary’ Dunlop, the legendary and courageous doctor of the Japanese prisoner of war camps. But according to his son John, Weary considered himself no more courageous than the next man.

John Dunlop audio file (MP4 23.92 MB)

John Dunlop audio script

75th Anniversary of the End of the Second World War

Audio actuality

“Fellow Citizens, the War is over” — (The Hon J B Chifley, Prime Minister of Australia)

On the 75th Anniversary of the End of the Second World War, Australia remembers Edward ‘Weary’ Dunlop, the legendary and courageous doctor of the Japanese prisoner of war camps.

But according to his son John, Weary considered himself no more courageous than the next man.

John Dunlop

He really never wanted to be remembered as someone noted for his wartime deeds. There were humorous and sad sides to the story. Perhaps the saddest of all of these that I heard, was told to me by one of the ex-POWs. And he said, "we slithered up this track with these two gigantic baskets of eggs. He said, "my buddy just couldn't continue on with his bare feet spiked by bamboo and looking like rotten tomatoes. And I could see he had cholera. Then I carried him on my back, up the hill until I got to the bamboo ladder." And he said, "as I carried him down the ladder, I could feel the fluid just running out of him and down my back."

And I remember saying to him, "Jesus, that must've been a horrible experience." And he looked away into the sky and he said, "When the war finished I was still a teenager. I faked my age. These are typical stories that all the men could tell, and I don't think my father’s are really any different."

Saturday, August 15 marks the 75th Anniversary of the End of the Second World War. Let’s pay our respects to that amazing generation of Australians.