The Pacific War in Papua New Guinea : study on Japanese occupation, formation of historical perceptions, and social changes caused by the war

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People in Papua New Guinea (hereafter abbreviated as PNG) had witnessed a fierce battle between the Japanese forces and the Allied forces during the Pacific War, and the damages to them were tremendous. However, studies on the Pacific War in PNG has so far concentrated on the military history focusing upon analyses of operations and battles, and little attention has been paid to the studies on occupation policies and historical perceptions on the war. In our project, we have produced fruits in our research on historical perceptions of Japanese, Papua New Guineans and Australians, and on the occupation polices of both Japanese and the Allied forces.1.Historical perceptionsWe researched written materials and newspaper articles and conducted interviews to analyse the Japanese perception, and exemplified that the Japanese have a strong sense that they were the sufferers and take a little interest in war's affects on Papua New Guineans. As it has been generally accepted, we reaffirmed that … More the Australian perceptions have been based on the fact that Australians fought in PNG to protect Australia rather than protecting the Papua New Guineans. The results from interviews in most of the areas that had been affected by the occupation and battles demonstrated that there exist both positive and negative perceptions against the Japanese and the Allied forces.2.Occupation policiesWe have conducted extensive research on military documents of the War History Office of Defense Agency in Japan, the Australian War Memorials and the Offices of Australian Archives as well as interviewing Japanese veterans and Papua New Guineans. The research showed that the Japanese forces oppressed the local people by exacting food and enlisting laborers in many cases as the war deteriorated, and similarly the Australian forces severely pressured the local life by recruiting numerous locals. Both occupation polices were primarily aimed at utilizing the locals for the war efforts.3.Other research resultsIn relation to the main theme of our project, we studied the Indonesians and Indian laborers in the Japanese Army, Japanese military nurses, colloquial expressions of Australian troops, and Australian civilian POWs. The studies of those subjects shed a light on multifaceted aspects of the war and made our project more comprehensive. Less