Australian novel 'Barbed Wire and Cherry Blossoms' has been translated into Japanese to mark the 80th anniversary of Cowra Breakout

Noriko Oka, a former Japanese exchange student who visited Cowra NSW when she was sixteen years old, translated Dr Anita Heiss' Australian novel ' Barbed Wire and Cherry Blossoms.' The Japanese version was made available last month to mark the 80th anniversary of the Cowra Breakout.

The book cover of the Japanese version of 'Barbed Wire and Cherry Blossoms' written by Dr Anita Heiss, and the Japanese translator Noriko Oka Credit: Feature Communications

Which part Ms Oka likes the most in the book? In the audio, Ms Oka also shares her experience as an exchange student in 1970s with us and talks about her connection to Cowra, and a long-established student exchange program between Cowra and Seikei High School in Japan.

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