Repatriated from Home as Enemy Aliens: Forgotten Lived Experiences of Japanese-Australians during the Second World War

ABSTRACT In contemporary Australian society, where nationhood has been built upon Western values, non-Caucasian people, including those with a Japanese background, have largely been treated as “others”. This attitude was particularly evident during the Second World War. When Japan joined the war in December 1941, some 97 per cent of civilians with a Japanese background living in Australia, including those who were born in Australia, were interned, and the vast majority of them were shipped to Japan after the war, even though they had no real connection to Japan. Based on my archival research, I argue that some of these “Japanese” who were thought to be others were, in fact, Australians, with strong loyalty to Australia. Official documents do not necessarily determine people's nationality, but instead a sense of belonging such as how they relate to a given society.