BRENDAN NELSON'S AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL PUBLISHES A FALSE AND SHAMEFUL DISTORTION OF KOKODA

Under director Brendan Nelson, the Australian War Memorial published the book "Kokoda beyond the Legend" in 2017. The book contains chapters that without any historical justification falsely diminish the magnificent Kokoda achievement in 1942 and falsely smear Australia's Kokoda heroes as lesser fighters than the Japanese they defeated on the Kokoda Track.

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Left: The book "Kokoda beyond the Legend" was published by the Australian War Memorial in 2017 to mark the 75th anniversary of the Kokoda fighting; RIGHT: Australian War Memorial director Brendan Nelson; Below: The Australian War Memorial in Canberra.

The book "Kokoda beyond the Legend" was published despite my prior warnings that the book would contain a false denial of the strategic importance of Kokoda as a part of the Commonwealth of Australia in 1942 and subject Australia's Kokoda heroes to vile and untrue smears. I believe that deliberate publication by the AWM of a Kokoda “treatment” that falsely demeans the magnificent Kokoda achievement and falsely denigrates our Kokoda heroes has brought shame on our national war memorial and fairly earns this treatment the description fake history.

Kokoda is an iconic part of Australia's military history, and I believe that many Australians will resent Kokoda being tarnished falsely by the Australian War Memorial under Brendan Nelson. A detailed REVIEW AND EXPOSURE of the shameful historical distortions contained in several chapters of this treatment of Kokoda may cause some Australians to feel that there has been a collapse of historical scholarship at the Australian War Memorial under director Brendan Nelson. Nelson has received nine documents from me relating to these Kokoda issues between April 2017 and September 2018. He has not challenged my views, he has simply ignored all of those nine communications, which included written invitations from me to defend false and insulting claims in his book's treatment of Kokoda. This churlishness on the part of a director of Australia's national war memorial should not cut it with those Australians who still revere the men who fought, bled, suffered, and died on the Kokoda Track defending soil that was part of Australia in 1942 to stop the Japanese capturing the strategically vital Port Moresby that was also part of Australia in 1942. 

This discourteous treatment of correspondence may appear very strange in a director of Australia's national war memorial; but perhaps an examination of Brendan Nelson's working and private life can provide clues to what some might view as inappropriate churlishness and arrogance in a director. Brendan Nelson insists on calling himself "Dr" Nelson but I could find no evidence that he had achieved a PhD from rigorous academic study, and he has not practised medicine since 1996. If Wikipedia is correct, controversy has been associated with much of Nelson's working life. His leadership of the federal Liberal Party and federal Opposition lasted only ten months before he was removed. He has been married three times. After reading the account of his life in Wikipedia, I have been wondering what might have persuaded anyone that a politician whose life has been marked by controversy was qualified to be director of the nation's war memorial. Rumours were circulating in 2018 that Brendan Nelson might be considered for appointment as Governor-General following Sir Peter Cosgrove, but after Nelson's very controversial attitude to Kokoda received public airing in 2017 and 2018, I suspect that those Australians who view Kokoda as a magnificent and heroic achievement that blocked an invasion of a part of Australia by Japanese troops in 1942 would have been relieved to hear that the prestigious appointment would go to the governor of New South Wales General David Hurley.

Whichever government may hold office in Canberra after the May 2019 election, I hope that action will be taken to restore the function of the Australian War Memorial to that of a memorial and not a publisher of false history that demeans a great achievement like Kokoda and smears falsely the men who fought, bled, suffered, and died on the Kokoda Track. Having created massive public controversy between 2002 and 2005*, the Military History Section of the Australian War Memorial was significantly cleansed between 2005 and 2008. However, the publication of "Kokoda beyond the Legend" shows that cleansing was inadequate. The Military History Section needs another cleansing of trendy Marxist postmodernism that encourages scepticism towards a nation's great military achievements. * That controversy is addressed on this website.

The Council of the Australian War Memorial cannot escape criticism for the appalling denigration of Kokoda and Australia's Kokoda heroes in "Kokoda beyond the Legend". The Council is responsible for "...the conduct and control of the affairs of the Memorial", and it appears to have done nothing since the departure of Dr Peter Stanley in 2006 to restore genuine historical scholarship to the national war memorial. The membership of the Council needs to be reviewed after May 2019, and any identified time-servers replaced by people who really care about Australia's military history and respect the sacrifices made by Australians in war. AND SEE BELOW!


GOOD NEWS - BRENDAN NELSON DEPARTED AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL AT END OF 2019

Many Australians, and especially many war veterans who were disgusted by the Australian War Memorial's publication of "Kokoda beyond the Legend" in 2017, with several chapters containing false denials of the strategic importance of Kokoda as a part of the Commonwealth of Australia in 1942 and subjecting Australia's Kokoda heroes to vile and untrue smears, would probably have been delighted to learn that Director Brendan Nelson left the Australian War Memorial at the end of 2019.


ALL DIRECTORS AND COUNCIL MEMBERS OF THE AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL SHOULD BE TOLD VERY BLUNTLY BY THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT THAT IGNITING CONTROVERSY BY PUBLISHING FALSE AND INSULTING TREATMENTS OF AUSTRALIA'S MILITARY HISTORY IS NOT PART OFTHEIR ROLE

JKB small

James Kenneth Bowen, BA; LLB (University of Queensland) *
Pacific War historian and convener Battle for Australia and Pacific War historical societies
* Concise CV 

The Australian War Memorial belongs to the people of Australia and not to the Memorial's Council, its directors, or its staff historians, who appear either to relish igniting wholly unjustified public controversy over Australia's war history or to lack any concern about that controversy. This happened from 2002 to 2005 until Australia's political leaders at that time intervened publicly. The Australian War Memorial is sacred ground; not a university campus. It should not be used as a platform from which its staff can express or publish offensive, insulting, and strongly challenged personal views that lack sound historical foundation and diminish the achievements and sacrifices of those who died defending Australia from Japanese military aggression at places that included Sydney, Darwin, Broome, Rabaul, Timor, Ambon, Coral Sea, Kokoda, Milne Bay, the Beachheads, Wau, and Guadalcanal.

Memorial historian Dr Karl James played a major role in publishing the controversial chapters in "Kokoda beyond the Legend". His role is developed in my published Amazon review of that book, and I believe that I have demonstrated in that review that Karl James is not qualified to write Kokoda history.


Does chairman of the Australian War Memorial council Kerry Stokes find the Memorial’s publication of a false treatment of Kokoda history too difficult for him to resolve?

Kerry Stokes, AC - Business tycoon, chairman of the television Seven Network, and chairman of the Council of the Australian War Memorial.

Mr Kerry Stokes was apprised by email dated 7 February 2019 of my criticisms of three chapters of the Australian War Memorial book “Kokoda beyond the Legend” after almost two years of failure by Memorial director Brendan Nelson to respond to nine attempts by me to achieve a response from him. View his extraordinary response.

AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL - BRENDAN NELSON - KOKODA SHAME