Peter Tinley AM Japanese Embassy Speech

On Tuesday 13 October 2026, RSL Australia National President Peter Tinley AM accepted the Japanese Foreign Minister’s Commendation at the Embassy of Japan in Canberra, recognising the organisation’s longstanding contribution to reconciliation and strengthening relations between Australia and Japan via its Grassroots Exchange Program, which began in 1997. Read more about the Commendation here.

Read Peter Tinley AM’s acceptance speech in full below.

The Hon Peter Tinley AM, National President, RSL Australia

Ambassador Suzuki, Assistant Minister Khalil, Air Marshal Chappell, Excellencies, Members of Parliament, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.

On behalf of the Returned & Services League of Australia, thank you.

It is a profound honour to accept the Foreign Minister’s Commendation. I accept it on behalf of every veteran, every family and every RSL member who has been part of the Grassroots Exchange Program. This recognition means a great deal.

Reconciliation is one of the hardest things two nations can attempt. It can’t be signed into existence. It is built by people who choose, one at a time, to face the past without being ruled by it.

Around 22,000 Australians were taken prisoner by Japanese forces in the Second World War. More than 8,000 did not come home. To invite the survivors and their families, back to Japan, and for them to accept, took courage on both sides.

Since the Grassroots Exchange Program began in 1997, some 140 former prisoners of war, their descendants and RSL representatives have made that journey as guests of the Government of Japan. Each carried a family story with them. Each came home with a new chapter.

Those who have travelled speak of the experience with deep warmth and gratitude, and for many it has been profoundly moving.

To the Government and people of Japan: you did not ask our veterans to forget. You listened. You welcomed them with openness and kindness, and gave them the chance to honour their fallen comrades.

That same spirit of healing was seen here in Australia. In August 1944, Japanese prisoners broke out of the camp at Cowra, and more than 230 lives were lost. In the years that followed, locals cared for the graves of those fallen Japanese soldiers.

Today, Cowra is home to Australia’s only Japanese war cemetery, and tranquil Japanese gardens now stand close to where that tragedy unfolded. It shows how healing can grow from even the darkest moments, and I am glad to welcome friends from Cowra here this evening.

In this 50th anniversary year of Australia and Japan signing the Basic Treaty of Friendship and Co-operation, the Grassroots Program reaches its conclusion. The Ambassador has called it a dignified and honourable end, and we receive it in that spirit.

The Program may end, but what it built will not. It is part of the reason Australia and Japan stand together today as Special Strategic Partners.

Ambassador, on behalf of the RSL and every family who made this journey, thank you. We are truly grateful for this honour, and for the friendship that stands behind it.

We will always remember what was suffered. Thanks to this Program, we will also remember what was healed.

Dōmo arigatō gozaimashita.

Thank you.