What should we remember on Remembrance Day?

You hear a lot of stories when you spend the week selling badges for Remembrance Day, but none more touching than one I heard today from an Eritrean refugee.  He was very keen to buy a badge from me, which I found intriguing, as he was only a recent arrival. Why did buying a badge mean so much to him?

His answer was simple: without the soldiers who fought for us, he said, Australia wouldn't be the country it was, and he wouldn't have wanted to come here.  

Of course, Eritrea is but one of the scores of places that have been scarred by civil war in the last 20 or so years. It is a reminder there are many countries where soldiers are a source of fear, not comfort.  These are countries where the military commits atrocities on civilians instead of protecting them.

But fighting for others often comes at a terrible toll. By the 11th of November 1918, 61,530 Australians had died in the course of the First World War. Another 39,652 would die in the Second World War. The total of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for Australia is now 102,824.

So what should we remember on Remembrance Day?

Another of the stories I heard was told to me by the grandson of one of those who died. In December, 1943 a Sydney policeman, Spencer Walklate, made the fateful decision to join the Army and defend his country.  

Walklate, a popular St George prop forward and a surf lifesaver, was soon chosen to serve in the elite Z Special Unit. These men went behind enemy lines to gather vital intelligence, or to run incredibly brave guerrilla campaigns against the Japanese occupiers.

Walklate was one of eight men sent to Muschu Island on the northern coast of New Guinea in April 1945 to scout for the presence of Japanese coastal guns which could jeopardise the planned invasion of Wewak. The mission was a disaster. Their boats foundered before they got to the shore, and their radio was wrecked. The Japanese soon became aware of the presence of the Australians, and the entire garrison on the island began a deadly hunt for the men.

Spencer Walklate was one of those who was captured. Japanese records show that he was brutally tortured for six hours but refused to give his captors any information. He refused to betray his mates.  

Eventually the Japanese tired of his bravery so he and his comrade, Ron Eagleton, were callously killed. They weren't accorded a military burial; instead their bodies were discarded in a Japanese medical dump. There they were to lie for 68 years before their bodies were discovered and identified.

A search of his file at the National Archives of Australia reveals his photo at the bottom of a page which records him as missing in action.

Walklate's grandson, Todd Walklate, related this to me with humble and matter-of-fact pride.  His was not a story of bravado, but of sacrifice.  It is a story Todd and his family will never forget.  In fact, there were there at Bomana Cemetery when his grandfather was finally accorded the respect he had long deserved.

There are 102,823 other Australian tales just like this. Some are recalled to this day, while others have passed into the mists of time.

Every Remembrance Day we pause to remember their sacrifice.  Unlike on ANZAC Day, we do not recall the bravery of the past but the sacrifice.  The men and women whom we recognise on Friday gave their tomorrows for our today.  Let us never forget.