Travels in Atomic Sunshine: Australia and the Occupation of Japan Contributor(s): Gerster, Robin (Author) |
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ISBN: 1950354032 ISBN-13: 9781950354030 Publisher: Scribe Us OUR PRICE: $18.00 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: October 2019 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - History | Australia & New Zealand - General - History | Asia - Japan |
Dewey: 952.044 |
Physical Information: 1.1" H x 6" W x 9.1" (1.10 lbs) 352 pages |
Themes: - Cultural Region - Australian - Cultural Region - Asian - Cultural Region - Japanese - Cultural Region - Oceania |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: A vivid, salutary study of Australia's little-known participation in the post-war occupation of Japan. In February 1946, the Australians of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force (BCOF) moved into western Japan to "demilitarize and democratize" the atom-bombed backwater of Hiroshima Prefecture. For over six years, up to 20,000 Australian servicemen, including their wives and children, participated in an historic experiment in nation-rebuilding dominated by the United States and the occupation's supreme commander, General MacArthur. It was to be a watershed in Australian military history and international relations. BCOF was one of the last collective armed gestures of a moribund empire. The Chifley government wanted to make Australia's independent presence felt in post-war Asia-Pacific affairs, yet the venture heralded the nation's enmeshment in American geopolitics. This was the forerunner of today's peacekeeping missions and engagements in contentious US-led military occupations. Yet the occupation of Japan was also a compelling human experience. It was a cultural reconnaissance--the first time a large number of Australians were able to explore in depth an Asian society and country. It was an unprecedented domestic encounter between peoples with apparently incompatible traditions and temperaments. Many relished exercising power over a despised former enemy, and basked in the "atomic sunshine" of American Japan. But numerous Australians developed an intimacy with the old enemy, which put them at odds with the "Jap" haters back home, and became the trailblazers of a new era of bilateral friendship. |
Contributor Bio(s): Gerster, Robin: - Robin Gerster is a professor in the School of Languages, Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics at Monash University. He is the author of several books, including the award-winning study Big-noting: the heroic theme in Australian war writing (1987); the travel book Legless in Ginza: orientating Japan (1999); the critical anthologies Hotel Asia (1995) and On the Warpath (2004), and Pacific Exposures: photography and the Australia-Japan relationship (2018), co-authored with Melissa Miles. |