Lachlan Grant, Australian Soldiers in Asia-Pacific in World War 11, New South Publishing, Sydney 2014. ISBN 9781742231419. Softcover, 276 pages, photos, maps and bibliography. RRP $ 39.99 AUD.

The Menzies Government followed England into the Second World War, committed our Army to travel overseas and thus exposed many Australian servicemen to Asia (and other spheres) for the first time. Then the Curtin Government joined the USA in the Pacific War and exposed additional servicemen to the New Guinea group of islands. What were the short and medium-term effects of this exposure on the servicemen and on Government foreign policy? Lachlan Grant has researched this little-known perspective of the Second World War resulting in a doctoral thesis and later this book.
Having observed early in his book that the Pacific War was “an imperial war, fought between colonial powers over colonized regions”, Grant reviews the attitudes of Australian servicemen to notions of Empire, as revealed in their own writings. As examples of this valuable material, below are several extracts from the New Guinea theatre. All extracts were published during the War in Salt, the Journal of the (then) Army Education Service:

• • one Private asked as the War ended – ‘Could we, who have seen the sacrifice made and the help given by the coloured people of the Pacific, say to those people (who have helped us in the war, at the cost of their own homes and families, to preserve our homes and families from the Japs): “We have a White (Australia) Policy; you can’t come and live with us.”
  • another Private replied – ‘As a remnant of a frontline unit, I would like to claim that units are wholeheartedly behind the White Australia Policy: I was fighting for that in particular.’
  • a Sergeant argued in the middle of that War – ‘We soldiers want to see the Fuzzy Wuzzies receive, during and after the war, democratic education, scientific facilities to solve unhygienic and unsanitary conditions, and freedom from so-called “white” plantation and mine-owners.’
  • another Sergeant agreed and hoped that – ‘Australian policy for the Papuan people would be devoid of racial superiority and would help them achieve better health and education, higher standards of living and democratic independence…Native administration should be trained as the first step towards self-government…Wages and conditions of labour (would be) key points of (Australia’s) whole policy…’
  • one ANGAU Officer defended the existing labour system against charges of exploitation and wrote that taking ‘the idea of equality to its logical conclusion – native self government – was ludicrous at this present stage…’
  • a Signaller argued for democracy for the people of New Guinea – ‘They have proved themselves our equals on numerous occasions and they therefore deserved democratic freedoms.’
  • A Major wrote presciently at War’s end – ‘Australia would remain in administrative charge and would share in the benefits from the island’s increased trading capacity, according to place, and from such a population a fair standing Army could be maintained in order to provide “a trusty shield between Australia and the Pacific.”

Grant faced a challenging task in drawing logical conclusions from the range of experiences by many servicemen, over five years, away from the battle field, in multiple countries – and presenting these in less than four pages. The generalizations in his Conclusion do no justice to the source material or to the reader. Although there are gaps in the selection of source material, it is fair to say overall that the material presented is novel, valuable and relevant. Relevant, that is, to increasing our understanding of what the Australian servicemen experienced and wrote, away from the Asian and New Guinea battle fields, during the Second World War. Whether the reader finds the book’s contents surprising and enlightening or finds some arguments and conclusions less than convincing, these war-time writings of our servicemen will attract and challenge those interested.

by Gregory J. Ivey