Drawings, photographs and precious pieces of history line the walls of the Cowra Regional Art Gallery as it helps to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Cowra Breakout.
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The 75: From Guns to Gardens exhibition will be on display from August 3 till August 18 after it was officially launched last Friday night.
After a moving Welcome to Country by Albert Murray, curator of the exhibition, Roslyn Russell PHD said the display was a further example of the friendship between Cowra and Japan.
"This exhibition commemorates the defining moment of Cowra, one of violence and tragedy that has nevertheless transformed the town's image of itself," she said.
"It is fitting that the objects they are on display in the exhibition are drawn from the organisations that have worked so hard to form these relationships."
She noted some of the rare items on display, including the china that was used by May Weir, who gave Japanese escapees tea and scones and an original work, "A Thousand Stitches of Hope" by Michelle Belgiorno.
Cowra Deputy Mayor, Councillor Judi Smith, said the story of the Breakout was a part of every Cowra resident.
"It represents that journey that all the people of Cowra and the surrounds have been on since that tragic night almost 75 years ago, that has resulted in not only some of the iconic institutions that we love here in Cowra.... none of those things would have been possible without the goodwill of Cowra citizens," Cr Smith said.
"There would be probably few people in this Shires have not been touched in some way by either the tragedy of that Breakout, and there are still people around who remember it... there are also many more people who have been touched in some way by all the relationships that have been formed since then."
