Australian Internment Life Stories: Recapturing Salvatore Ragonesi between the Public Record and Family Memories

Since the Archives Act of 1983 Australia's Second World War internees have had access to their wartime files, yet little attention has focused on whether they and their families have consulted these records, or on their responses to them. From the early 2000s historians and archivists began discussing the need for combining private oral testimony with official records as part of a wider discourse on the importance of life stories for deepening knowledge about the past. This article explores the impact of a father's official internment records on his son, through the son's sharing of memories, lived experience and his reactions to official documents, in order to provide a more complete story of his father's internment and life than either the public record or the oral testimony alone can produce. We argue that Sam Ragonesi's oral testimony, especially concerning his encounter with Salvatore Ragonesi's official records, contributes to a greater shared understanding of experiences of war on the home front by integrating social, cultural and family dimensions hidden from Salvatore's public history. In this way intergenerational experiences help both to contest the collective image of internment and create a more complex picture of the War.     

SOUTH ASIA

For nearly a hundred years, to many foreigners “Peking” meant the foreign legation quarter and its colourful western inhabitants. The article gives details of the extraordinary life they led a stone's throw from the Emperor's palace in a city that remained virtually untouched by the modern world. After the Boxer Rising of 1900, the legation quarter became a Treaty Port with its own laws and administration. That status continued through the First World War and beyond. But just as the foreigners were at last beginning to value Peking's uniqueness, the end was in sight. Life changed a lot after the 1937 Japanese invasion of China and, for many, internment followed the attack on Pearl Harbour. But the end came when Treaty port status was abolished for good at the end of the War     

“A Good‐Will Ship”: The Light Cruiser Köln Visits Rabaul (1933)

The concept of loyalty still holds a central space in many histories about New Guinean‐Australian relations, especially during the Second World War, and translates into demands by Australians that New Guineans recognize Australia's political system as “the best”. In this article about the visit of the first German navy cruiser to New Guinea after the First World War, I tell a story not about loyalties, but about contesting colonial claims, namely Australia's insistence on “loyalty”, and Germany's demand for a “return” of her colony. The visit of Köln in 1933 raises questions such as: How did Germans and Australians negotiate living together in the Mandated Territory of New Guinea? How were divisions, grief, tensions, and hostilities after the First World War dealt with? What separated them, what united them, and what role did New Guineans play in this complex relationship?     

A Travesty of British Justice? Appealing against Internment during the Second World War

In late 1940, the Australian government established Aliens Tribunals and Advisory Committees to ensure that local internees could, if they desired, protest against their internment. Most historians argue that this system of appeals was fundamentally flawed. This general explanation has much to commend it. Even so, the widely‐condemned appeals system requires some contextualisation. This article examines the appeal against internment of one man, Henry Brose, but it also seeks to place the appeals system in the broader context of the Australian government's attempt to balance personal liberty and national security over the course of the Second World War. The purpose of such an approach is not to offer a revision so much as a re‐contextualisation of an appeals system that historians have correctly described as flawed. This article demonstrates that the initial appeals system was certainly undermined by a government motivated by concerns for national security rather than personal liberty. But it also argues that the ongoing attempts of the Australian government to improve and overhaul the appeals system, in the midst of prosecuting an extraordinarily complex global war, suggests a more nuanced story than the one — of hapless victims and travesties of British justice — that has traditionally been told.     

Memory and Migration in the Shadow of War: Australia's Greek Immigrants after World War II and the Greek Civil War

Memory and Migration in the Shadow of War: Australia's Greek Immigrants after World War II and the Greek Civil War. By Joy Damousi (Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 2015), pp.274. AU$145.00 (cloth).     

Some recent additions to the library

Richard Calland &; Paul Graham (Eds), IDASA's Democracy Index — Democracy in the Time of Mbeki, Cape Town: Institute for Democracy in South Africa (IDASA), Cape Town, 2005, R150, 252 pages.

Pieter Wolvaardt, A Diplomat's Story: Apartheid and Beyond, 1969–1998, South Africa: Galago Publishing, 2005. ISBN 1–919854–15–0, R225, 336 pages.

Greg Mills, The Security Intersection: The Paradox of Power in an Age of Terror, Johannesburg: Wits University Press, 2005, 321 pages.

Hugh Pope, Sons of the Conquerors. The Rise of the Turkic World, New York: Overlook Duckworth, 2005. ISBN 1–58567–641–1. 413 pages.     

Soviet studies on workers’ movements in the Middle East

Rabochiy klass Afriki (The working class of Africa), edited by I. P. Yastrebova, Moscow, Africa Institute of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, Nauka Press: 1966.

K. A. Guseynov's Rabochiy klass i Profsoyuzi Afriki {The working class and the trade unions of Africa), Moscow, Profizdat: 1969.

B. A. Shabayev's Rabochiy klass strait Magriba (The working class of the Maghrib lands), Moscow, Asia Institute¹ of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, Nauka Press: 1968.

Willard A. Beling's important Modernization and African Labor: a Tunisian Case Study, N.Y., Praeger: 1965).

F. M. Atsamba and L. A. Fridman and titled Rabochiy klass stran Azii i Afriki (The working class in the countries of Asia and Africa), Moscow, Moscow University Press: 1966.

F. M. Atsamba's ‘The workers’ movement in Egypt on the eve of the Second World War, 1929–1939’ (pp. 266–94)

Selskohozyaystvenniye rabochiye v stranah Azii i Afriki (The agricultural workers in the countries of Asia and Africa), edited by G. G. Kotovskiy and I. A. Svanidze, Moscow, Oriental Institute and Africa Institute of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, Nauka Press: 1969.

Rabocheye dvizheniye v Azerbayzhane v godi novogo revolyutsiyonogo podyoma, 1910–1914 (The workers’ movement in Azerbaijan during the revolutionary progress, 1910–1914), Baku, Soviet Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences: 1967.

A. I. Shamide, Rabocheye i profsoyuznoye dvizheniye v Irane posle vtoroy mirovoy voyni, 1946–1953 (The workers’ and trade‐union movement in Iran after the Second World War, 1946–1953), Baku, Soviet Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences: 1965

Z. Z. Abdullayev, Formirovaniye rabochego klassa Irana (The formation of Iran's workers’ class), Baku, Soviet Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences: 1968.

Sh. M. Badi, Rabochiy klass Irana (Iran's workers’ class), Moscow, the Asia Institute of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, Nauka Press: 1965, is a smaller book (130 pages).

M. S. Ivanov, Rabochiy klass sowemennogo Irana (The workers’ class of contemporary Iran), Moscow, Ethnography Institute of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, Nauka Press: 1969.     

Japan Seventy Years after World War II: From a Challenger to a Supporter of the International Order

In advance of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Statement marking the 70th anniversary of the end of the war, the “Advisory Panel on the History of the 20th Century and on Japan's Role and the World Order in the 21st Century” issued its report. The author served as acting chair of the panel which reviewed the history of Japan and the world from the 19th century to World War II through the 70 postwar years. This article looks at Japan's expansionism in the 1930s, wartime conduct, colonial rule, and the end of World War II. As a previous challenger to world order, Japan seeks to share the lessons learned now as a supporter of the international order. This article elucidates ways in which Japan can cooperate with the international community to promote prosperity and peace around the globe.     

More Soviet works on Iran

Richard Frye's The Heritage of Persia, translated as Naslyediye Irana, Moscow, Nauka Press for the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Soviet Academy of Sciences’ History Section, 1972,468 pp.

Nicolas de Khanikoff's Mémoire sur la partie meridionale de I'Asie Centrale (originally published in Paris in 1862), translated as Ekspyeditisya v Khorasan, Moscow, Nauka Press for the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, 1973, 216 pp.

Sadeq Chubak, translated from the Persian as hbrannoye (Selections), Moscow, Khudodzhyestvynennaya Lityeratura Press, 1972,224 pp.

Lityeratura narodov Vostoka (The literature of the Peoples of the East), Moscow, Nauka Press for the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, 1970, 190 pp.

Dzh. Dorri, Pyersidskaya satirichyeskaya proza: traditsiya i novatorstvo (Satirical Persian Prose: Tradition and Innovation), Moscow, Nauka Press for the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, 1977, 216 pp.

Iranskoye Yazikoznaniye: Istoriya, etimologiya, tipologiya (Iranian Linguistics: History, Etymology, Typology), Moscow, Nauka Press for the Institute of Linguistics of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, 1976, 224 pp.

M. D. Milanyan's Gosudarstvyenniy stroy sovryemyennogo Irana (The Governmental Structure of Contemporary Iran), Moscow, Nauka Press for the Institute of Government and Law in the Soviet Academy of Sciences, 1973,128 pp.

Ye. A. Doroshyenko's book, Shiitskoye dukhovyenstvo v sovryemyennom Irane (The Shiite Clergy in Contemporary Iran), Moscow, Nauka Press for the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, 1975,172 pp.

Sh. M. Badi's Gorodskiye sryedniye sloi Irana (The Urban Middle Classes of Iran), Moscow, Nauka Press for the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, 1977,232 pp.

A. Rasadi's Innostranniy kapital v Iraneposlye vtoroy mirovoy voyni (1945–1967 eg.) (Foreign Capital in Iran After the Second World War, 1945–1967), Moscow, Nauka Press for the Institute of World Economy and International Relations, 1973,126 pp.

N. S. Tikhonov's Zapadnogyermanskiy kapital v Iranye (West‐German Capital in Iran), Baku, Elm Press for the Institute of the Peoples of the Near and Middle East of the Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences, 1972, 100 pp.

U. Z. Sharipov's Byudzhyet i byudzhyetnaya sistyema Irana (The Budget and the Budgetary System of Iran), Moscow, Nauka Press for the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, 1976, 156 pp.

Istoriya Irana (The History of Iran) was prepared by the Oriental Faculty of Leningrad State University and published in Moscow, Moscow University Press, 1977, 488 pp.

Iran: ochyerki novyeyshyey istorii (Iran: Essays on Its Recent History), Moscow, Nauka Press for the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, 1976, 470 pp. Edited by A. Z. Arabadzhyan     

Recent Russian works on the republic of Turkey

The British Empire in the Middle East, 1945–1951: Arab Nationalism, The United States and Postwar Imperialism by William Roger Louis, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984, 803pp.

In Defence of British India: Great Britain and the Middle East 1775–1842 by Edward Ingram. London: Frank Cass &; Co., 1984. Pp.xviii + 236, maps. £25.

The Shadow of God and the Hidden Imam: Religion, Political Order and Societal Change in Shi'ite Iran From the Beginning to 1890 by Said Amir Arjomand. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1984. Pp.xi + 356. £23.75.

Tekinalp, Turkish Patriot. 1883–1961, by Jacob M. Landau. Istanbul: Nederlands Historisch‐Archeologisch Instituut, 1984. Pp.IX + 362. Dfl.65.50.

L'Italia in Asia Minore, by Marta Petricioli. Florence: Sansoni Editore, 1983. Pp. 478. Lire 32,000.

Anglo‐Iranian Relations During World War I, by Wm. J. Olson. London: Frank Cass &; Co., 1984. Pp.xii + 305. £25.     

Introduction to “two languages,two souls”

Abstract

Morisaki Kazue is a poet, essayist, and chronicler of the lives and histories of Japan's minorities. One of her recent books, Karayuki-san (Asahi Shimbun, 1976), an oral history of the lives of the prostitutes who followed the Japanese armed forces during World War II, became a widely praised bestseller. The article that follows describes what must be understood as the central experience in Ms. Morisaki's life: her birth and childhood in Korea and the permanent influence this had on the structure of her life and thought.     

Mother's Darlings of the South Pacific: The Children of Indigenous Women and U.S. Servicemen,World War II

Mother's Darlings of the South Pacific: The Children of Indigenous Women and U.S. Servicemen, World War II. Edited by Judith A. Bennett and Angela Wanhalla (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2016), pp.xxiv + 379, US$65.00 (hb).     

The Italian “Fifth Column” in Australia: Fascist Propaganda,Italian-Australians and Internment

This article argues that the widespread internment of Italian-Australian civilians during the Second World War was the product of two overlapping discourses. One was the policy of the Italian Fascist government to consider the Italian diaspora as an extension of Italy. It established an articulated and wide-ranging network that sustained migrant loyalty through cultural and welfare activities as well as by surveillance and threats of retaliation. The other discourse was the widespread belief, reflected in the Commonwealth's security policy, that all Italian-Australians were potential adherents to an enemy “Fifth Column”. Whilst there is substantial evidence that Italian migrants sought to resist both discourses, in particular by naturalizing, the overlap between them facilitated the Commonwealth's decision to intern almost one third of male Italian-Australian civilians. Ultimately, internment caused much suffering: the vast majority of Italian-Australians, to the extent that they believed in Fascist propaganda, did so mainly out of patriotic pride in Italy and not ideological conviction. At the end of the war, Australian authorities found that no Italian-Australian had engaged in espionage or in any serious act of sabotage.     

Transportation of Korean Slave Laborers During World War II: Kanfu Ferries

Japan was more dependent upon ocean shipping than any other major power during World War II, and the sea route had been the only means of transportation between Korea and Japan. The connecting steamers contributed to Japan’s wartime economy by transporting not only raw materials, but also forced laborers and sex slaves between Korea and Japan. More importantly, these connecting steamers were linked to railroads and land routes in Korea and were connected to various systems of transportation, including merchant ships and regular liners outside Japan. In this paper, we examine how Korean laborers and sex slaves were mobilized and transported from Korea to Japan during World War II by focusing on the interdependent relations between railroad-connecting ships and a travel agency.

Language and politics in the Middle East and North Africa: the Soviet version

Ryeshyeniye natsional'nogo‐yazikovoy problemi v. SSSR, The Resolution of the National‐Linguistic Problem in the Soviet Union (Moscow: Political Literature Press, 1982; 224 pp.)

Socialism: Nations and National Relations (Moscow: USSR Academy of Sciences, 1982, Problems of the Contemporary World, No. 104),

Yazikovaya situatsiya v stranakh Azii i Afriki, The Language Situation in the Countries of Asia and Africa (Moscow: Nauka Press, 1967; 192 pp.)

Razvitiye yazikov v stranakh Zarubyedzhnogo Vostoka (poslyevoyenniy pyeriod), The Development of Language in the East Beyond the [Soviet] Borders: The Post‐War Period (Moscow: Nauka Press, 1983:208 pp.)

Kul'tura ipolitika v stranakh Azii i Afriki, Culture and Politics in the Countries of Asia and Africa (Moscow: Nauka Press, 1986; 336 pp.).

Gilbert Grandguillaume's Arabisation et politique linguistique au Maghreb (Paris: Maisonneuve et Larose, 1983).

Yazik v politikye i idyeologii strait Zarubyedznogo Vostoka, Language in the Politics and Ideology of the Countries of the East Beyond the [Soviet] Borders (Moscow: Nauka, 1986; 197 pp.).     

Hidden Horrors: Japanese War Crimes in World War II,by Tanaka Yuki

Abstract

In Hidden Horrors Tanaka Yuki undertakes the ambitious project of trying to show the connections among the many examples of Japanese war crimes during World War II, specifically, the maltreatment and killing of prisoners of war, the abuse and rape of women, cannibalism by Japanese soldiers, biological warfare experiments, and civilian massacres. But rather than examine the most infamous examples of these war crimes, he focuses on little-known incidents that occurred in Borneo, Indonesia, and New Guinea. Tanaka's detailed narratives show that these incidents, although smaller in scale, were equally horrific and, in his analysis, manifestations of a broad systemic problem rather than isolated cases of madness.     

Tempest in a Textbook: A Report on the New Middle-School History Textbook in Japan

How does a middle-school history textbook go about promoting nationalistic pride in adolescent Japanese? Trying to reconcile this goal with the sorry examples of Japan's military exploits before and during World War II has created considerable domestic and international concern, not to mention highly emotional protests. This report presents some of the provocative contents, strategies of presentation, and political repercussions of the “new history textbook,” approved by Japan's Ministry of Education and Science in 2001 for use in public and private middle schools nationwide. Sponsored and authored by the Japan Society for History Textbook Reform (Atarashii Rekishi Kyōkasho o Tsukuru Kai), the textbook's problematic rendition of history has produced an uproar over the government's screening and approval process, renewed concern about an upsurge of nationalistic activity in Japan, and adversely affected Japan's relations with China and South Korea.     

Ameyuki-San No Uta: Yamada Waka No Satsuki Naru Shōgai

Abstract

Yamada Waka was a leader in Japan's feminist movement during the 1920s and 1930s. The wife of a well-known professor, she had access to the most progressive social and intellectual circles in Tokyo at the time . While Japan moved through the post–World War I decades with an upsurge of democratic thought and then a slow march toward the militarism that was to result in World War II, Yamada labored to raise the consciousness of Japanese women about their potential to contribute to the building of a better world and about the narrow roles society had decreed for them. She published a number of books, lectured widely in Japan and the United States, and opened a half-way house for the rehabilitation of prostitutes.     

Some Soviet works in Arabic

Nahnu wa‐'1‐'Arab 1988, We and the Arabs, 1988 (Moscow: Progress Press, 1988; 220 pp.).

Z. Gafurov, is entitled, ‘Problems of War and Peace and Contemporary Revolutionary Democracy’ (pp.21–40);

Vladimir Mikhaylov's Irhabiyyu al‐Mosad, The Terrorists of the Mossad (Moscow: Progress Press, 1987; 174 pp. Also published in Russian).

G.I. Mirskiy's al‐Jaysh wa’ 1‐mujtama'wa‐’ 1‐siyasa fi al‐buldan al‐namiya, Army, Society and Politics in the Developing Countries (Moscow: Progress Press, 1987; 228 pp.).

al‐'Alaqat al‐Sofyetiyya al‐Libiyya, Soviet‐Libyan Relations (Moscow: Progress Press, 1986; 213 pp.)

A. Shvyedov and V. Rumyantsiyev, also published in Russian in the same year. Its eight chapters are arranged chronologically, ending with a list of events, 1917–86 (pp.203–12),

Buhuth Sofyetiyya jadida fi al‐adab al‐'Arabi, New Soviet Studies in Arabic Literature (Moscow: Progress Press, 1986; 215 pp.)

Institute of Ethnography in the Soviet Academy of Sciences, entitled ’Alam al‐Badw, The World of the Bedouins (or: Nomads) (Moscow: Social Sciences Press, 1986; 213 pp. Soviet Ethnographic Studies, 2).

Idiyulujiyat al‐dimuqratiyya al‐thawriyya al‐Ifriqiyya, The Ideology of African Revolutionary Democracy (Moscow: Social Sciences Press, 1983; 140 pp.).

al‐lttihad al‐Sofyeti wa‐Ifriqiyya, The Soviet Union and Africa (Moscow: Social Sciences Press, 1983; 160 pp.).

Shamal Ifriqiyya: al‐tatawwur al‐mu'asir, North Arfrica: Contemporary Development (Moscow: Social Sciences Press, 1987; 192 pp.)

Al‐Qadiyya al‐Filastiniyya: al‐'udwan wa‐'l‐muqawama wa‐subul al‐ taswiya, The Palestinian Problem: Aggression, Resistance and Ways of Settlement (Moscow: Social Sciences Press, 1983; 230 pp. = Soviet Orientalism, 3)

Vladimir Belyakov, a newspaperman and radio commentator. Writing on ‘The Soviet Union and the Palestinian Revolution’ (pp.215–28),

Buldan al‐Sharq: al‐siyasa wa‐'1‐idiyulujiya, Countries of the East: Politics and Ideology (Moscow: Social Sciences Press, 1985; 220 pp. = Soviet Orientalism, 4)

Abhath jadida li‐'l‐musta'ribin al‐Sofyet, New Studies by Soviet Arabists have been published so far in three volumes.⁸ The first (Moscow: Social Sciences Press, 1986; 261 pp.= Soviet Orientalism, 5)

Aleksiy Vasil'yev's Misr wa‐'l‐Misriyyin, Egypt and the Egyptians (Moscow: Progress Press, 1989; 387 pp.).     

No solid ground: Max Aub’s roots and routes

While Max Aub’s unique and prolific body of work has been the subject of numerous studies and monographs, his work remains undervalued in transnational contexts. An analysis of two of his plays, San Juan (1943) and El rapto de Europa (1946), and a collection of poems, Diario de Djelfa (1944), makes it possible to rethink the ways in which aesthetic projects, produced either during World War II or shortly afterwards, reveal a geography of the war’s forced displacements, in which the Spanish Civil War, European colonialism in North Africa, and its enduring postcolonial remainders become the most important landmarks. While the present analysis centers on Aub’s routes between Spain, France, Algeria, and, finally, Mexico, a persistent yearning for roots, for a sense of belonging, or, to use one of his characters’ words, for “solid ground” haunts his writing. The interplay between roots and routes therefore makes it possible to consider Aub’s work in a postcolonial context and within a transnational memory.