Cowra breakout
E312697
The Cowra breakout was a mass escape attempt by Japanese prisoners of war from a camp near Cowra, New South Wales, Australia, in August 1944, and is considered one of the largest prison escapes of World War II.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Cowra breakout canonical | 7 |
| The Cowra Breakout | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T2933349 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Cowra breakout Context triple: [Cowra, event, Cowra breakout]
-
A.
Breaker Morant
Breaker Morant is a 1980 Australian war drama film that examines the court-martial of three Australian soldiers during the Second Boer War, exploring themes of military justice and moral ambiguity.
-
B.
Red Bird uprising
The Red Bird uprising was a brief 1827 Native American resistance led by the Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) leader Red Bird against United States encroachment in what is now Wisconsin.
-
C.
City of Broken Hill
The City of Broken Hill is a remote mining-based local government area in far western New South Wales, Australia, centered on the historic outback city of Broken Hill.
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D.
Cummeragunja walk-off
The Cummeragunja walk-off was a landmark 1939 protest in which Yorta Yorta people left the Cummeragunja Mission in New South Wales to resist oppressive government control and demand better living conditions and rights.
-
E.
Biddle brothers prison escape
The Biddle brothers prison escape was a sensational 1902 jailbreak in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in which two convicted murderers were aided by the warden’s wife, inspiring later books and films.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Cowra breakout Target entity description: The Cowra breakout was a mass escape attempt by Japanese prisoners of war from a camp near Cowra, New South Wales, Australia, in August 1944, and is considered one of the largest prison escapes of World War II.
-
A.
Breaker Morant
Breaker Morant is a 1980 Australian war drama film that examines the court-martial of three Australian soldiers during the Second Boer War, exploring themes of military justice and moral ambiguity.
-
B.
Red Bird uprising
The Red Bird uprising was a brief 1827 Native American resistance led by the Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) leader Red Bird against United States encroachment in what is now Wisconsin.
-
C.
City of Broken Hill
The City of Broken Hill is a remote mining-based local government area in far western New South Wales, Australia, centered on the historic outback city of Broken Hill.
-
D.
Cummeragunja walk-off
The Cummeragunja walk-off was a landmark 1939 protest in which Yorta Yorta people left the Cummeragunja Mission in New South Wales to resist oppressive government control and demand better living conditions and rights.
-
E.
Biddle brothers prison escape
The Biddle brothers prison escape was a sensational 1902 jailbreak in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in which two convicted murderers were aided by the warden’s wife, inspiring later books and films.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
World War II event
ⓘ
military incident ⓘ prison escape ⓘ |
| aftermath |
inquiry held by Australian authorities
ⓘ
most escapees recaptured within 10 days ⓘ |
| category |
1944 in Australia
ⓘ
Japanese prisoners of war in World War II ⓘ Military history of Australia during World War II ⓘ Prisoner-of-war escapes ⓘ |
| causeOfDeathForManyPrisoners | suicide or being shot while escaping ⓘ |
| commemoratedBy | annual remembrance ceremonies in Cowra ⓘ |
| conflict | World War II ⓘ |
| continent | Australia ⓘ |
| country | Australia ⓘ |
| date | 1944-08-05 ⓘ |
| fatalities |
4 Australian soldiers
ⓘ
over 230 Japanese prisoners ⓘ |
| involved |
Australian Army
ⓘ
Australian military police ⓘ Japanese prisoners of war ⓘ |
| legalOutcome | no Australian personnel found at fault in official inquiry ⓘ |
| location |
Cowra
ⓘ
Cowra Prisoner of War Camp Site ⓘ
surface form:
Cowra Prisoner of War Camp
New South Wales ⓘ |
| memorial |
Cowra Japanese Garden and Cultural Centre
ⓘ
Cowra Japanese War Cemetery ⓘ
surface form:
Japanese War Cemetery Cowra
|
| methodOfEscape |
cutting through barbed wire
ⓘ
mass rush from compounds ⓘ |
| month | August 1944 ⓘ |
| numberOfEscapees | about 1100 ⓘ |
| numberOfPrisonersInCamp | about 4000 ⓘ |
| partOf | World War II ⓘ |
| POWCampType | prisoner of war camp ⓘ |
| POWNationality | Japanese ⓘ |
| reasonForBreakout |
desire to die honourably rather than remain prisoners
ⓘ
refusal of Japanese prisoners to accept separation of NCOs and other ranks ⓘ |
| relatedWork |
The Cowra Breakout (1984 miniseries)
ⓘ
various historical studies and books on POWs in Australia ⓘ |
| result | escape attempt largely unsuccessful ⓘ |
| significance |
major event in Australia–Japan postwar reconciliation
ⓘ
one of the largest prison escapes of World War II ⓘ |
| weaponsUsedByGuards |
machine guns
ⓘ
rifles ⓘ |
| weaponsUsedByPrisoners |
baseball bats
ⓘ
clubs ⓘ improvised weapons ⓘ knives ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Cowra breakout Description of subject: The Cowra breakout was a mass escape attempt by Japanese prisoners of war from a camp near Cowra, New South Wales, Australia, in August 1944, and is considered one of the largest prison escapes of World War II.
Referenced by (8)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
The Cowra Breakout