The Pacific War in Relation to Japanese Settlers in Papua and New Guinea

The Pacific War ended the presence of Japanese settlers in Papua and New Guinea. It was a tragedy, as theywere forced to leave when the war began and were never allowed to return. They lost all they had����assets, properties,friends and families. This tragedy was caused by imperial and colonial policies of both Japan and Australia.The Japanese invasion of the South Pacific made the Australian government intern the settlers in Australia. Afterthe war, the Australian government deported them back Japan in order to reinforce their colonial rule in NewGuinea. In these events, the settlers suffered the worst. Their physical losses were never compensated by eitherJapanese or Australian government. Their families were separated. They were too few and too powerless againstgreat nations. In this paper, I shall analyse this case in terms of the development of war-time perceptions towardthem by both Japanese and Australians, which appeared in the maturity of nanshin-ron in Japan and in the developmentof Australian fear of the invasion from the north. I also examine validity of those perceptions in an attemptto present the reality of the settlers so that I can depict comprehensively the relations between the national policies(which were greatly affected by the perceptions) and the fate of the settlers