It might be over for another year, but the people behind Cowra's recent breakout commemorations say they're already planning ahead to the 75th anniversary of the tragedy.
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Cowra Breakout 70th Anniversary committee chairperson Lawrance Ryan commended the work of everyone behind the commemorations that wrapped up this week, and said the committee are hoping to mark the 75th anniversary in a similar way.
"The events were very well supported by locals and visitors, so from my perspective it could not have gone any smoother," Mr Ryan said.
"It all flowed seamlessly, even when we segued the World War I commemorations into the World War II ones at the POW Camp, it's exactly how we planned it to go."
Five days of events marked 70 years since the largest prison escape of the second world war.
Mr Ryan said international visitors to Cowra were blown away by the commemorations and the list of high-profile guests, which included former Japanese POW Teruo Murakami.
"The fact we had Mr Murakami here was fantastic and certainly without his presence a lot of the significance would have been lost," Mr Ryan said.
Over 250 people attended the 2am ceremony that marked the exact time of the breakout 70 years prior.
Mr Ryan said it was so popular they're planning on running it again..
Three flares were fired to mirror the shots fired to warn the camp the Japanese were breaking out all those years ago.
President of the Breakout Association Gordon Rolls fired one of the flares, in memory of his father Alfred, who was one of those on guard that night.
"It's hard to believe that you could get that many people up on a cold night," Mr Ryan said.
"It was emotional for everyone who was there and I can only imagine what it was like for Gordon. To think he stood in the identical spot to where his father stood 70 years ago and did a commemoration of what his father did all that time ago, it must have certainly meant something to him."
This week's commemorations were the culmination of several measures to strengthen the Cowra/Japan relationship this year, with the civilian internment symposium in March and Council's visit to Japan in April
Mr Ryan said there is no overstating how important the story of the breakout is, from both an Australian military and Japanese perspective.
"The BBC had an 11-minute segment on it on their World Today program. I don't think Cowra's featured on the BBC since the real Breakout in 1944," he said.
