Becoming the Occupier: Power Reversals in the Asia-Pacific War and in Australian-Occupied Japan

Résumé fourni par la source

Australia makes an interesting case when it comes to colonisation, war, and reversals of power. After Japan’s defeat in the Asia-Pacific War, Australia provided a military force as part of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force (BCOF) for the Allied occupation. Participating in the force were two groups that experienced a distinct shift in power dynamics: Australian former POWs of the Japanese, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. Utilising archival sources, newspaper articles, interviews and memoirs, this article seeks to understand how individuals navigated these shifting roles, one from the incarcerated to the occupier, the other from the colonised to the occupier and back to the colonised. In doing so, the article reveals examples of human resilience and empathy, and the complex interplay between race, power, identity, and labour in the mid-twentieth century from multiple sides of the power divide.

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