Repatriating the Japanese from New Caledonia, 1941–46

This paper considers the negotiations for the repatriation of the Japanese residents of New Caledonia who were transferred to Australia for internment after the outbreak of the Asia-Pacific theatre of World War II. It shows that whilst the Japanese residents’ place of origin was New Caledonia, it was deemed instead to be Japan, and they were repatriated to Japan either as part of the Anglo–Japanese civilian exchange of September 1942 or after the cessation of hostilities. The paper also shows that the Australian government had security concerns regarding the Japanese before and during the war but was willing to repatriate the Japanese to New Caledonia after the war should the New Caledonian authorities have been willing to accept them back. The New Caledonian authorities’ decision not to accept the Japanese back in New Caledonia resulted in their repatriation to Japan even though some expressed the wish to return to New Caledonia.     

试析志贺重昂的《今日之日本》

《今日之日本》是日本明治二十年代国粹主义代表人物志贺重昂在明治19(1886)年的南洋巡航中用英文所写下的一篇向西方世界展示明治维新后日本文明开化状况的文章。在这篇文章里,志贺重昂期望通过展现明治维新后日本文明开化之状况,向西方世界表明明治维新后日本通过“文明开化”、“殖产兴业”已经发展为一个同西方国家一样的近代文明国家、国民国家,以取得西方国家对日本近代文明国家身份之认同,进而谋求在西方列强势力不断向亚洲、太平洋地区扩张的情况下,维护与追求日本的独立和发展。     

An Exemplary Leader?: New Zealand and Decolonization of the Cook Islands and Niue

ABSTRACT

New Zealand is proud of its decolonization record: Prime Minister Peter Fraser’s role in developing provisions for non-self-governing territories in the United Nations; New Zealand’s support for the 1960 declaration on colonialism; its leadership on decolonization in the Pacific; the innovative decolonization solution of self-government in free association with New Zealand adopted by the Cook Islands in 1965, and similar arrangement by Niue in 1974. This record is ascribed to a New Zealand belief in self-determination. Closer examination shows many officials, ministers and parliamentarians were opposed to self-government for the Cook Islands, and concerns lingered about Niue. The arrangements reached reflected New Zealand’s reluctance to let go. Yet self-government was granted, in the context of a reassuring New Zealand view of itself as the centre of the South Pacific region. With new competition for influence in the region, it is important that New Zealand does not seek to constrain the Cook Islands’ and Niue’s self-government and potential future self-determination.     

Fears and aspirations

Very little study has been done of the role of US Intelligence in the South Pacific command in the Second World War. Collection of information on the civilian population concentrated mainly on settlers, sojourners and migrant labour, but military personnel also come under scrutiny. US intelligence collecting was at its most intense in New Caledonia, a major base for the US forces and a country rated as highly strategic by the Allies, especially in the early phases of the war with Japan. Because of the Vichy‐Free French divide from 1940 on, the US was especially wary of possible subversion of the war effort there, but its purview also took in the Asiatic and Melanesian population though the latter, as in the Southwest command, were not considered a major threat. Even so, the magnitude and detail of the intelligence carried out suggests that post‐war political considerations were never far from the US government's wider concerns and aspirations.     

The Varying Role of Vertebrae in Pacific Fishbone Analysis: Comparing Tropical Versus Temperate Midden Assemblages

Archaeologists working in the tropical Pacific have demonstrated the feasibility and value of including fish vertebrae in midden analyses, and recent New Zealand studies draw similar conclusions. This work provides an illustrated guide to the identification of vertebrae from key New Zealand fish taxa and shows the effects of including vertebrae on a large fishbone assemblage from southern New Zealand. We note major differences between New Zealand and tropical Pacific assemblages resulting from the inclusion of vertebrae. Unlike the Indo‐Pacific taxa of the tropical Pacific, no New Zealand species have been shown to be sensitive to the inclusion of vertebrae. In both places, including vertebrae results in changes in relative abundance and rank order; but in New Zealand, this is a function of processing practices, not fishing behaviours. This work serves to highlight changes in the Polynesian fishing adaption following the colonisation of New Zealand. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Global Flea Market: Migration,Remittances and the Informal Economy in Tonga

Some common assumptions about the form and use of migrants' remittances in the South Pacific are examined and questioned in the light of information from a micro-economic study of one group of remittance recipients in the flea market of Nuku'alofa, the capital of the Kingdom of Tonga. The findings of this study suggest that economic analysis and policy recommendations based on the existing macro-economic data on recorded remittances and other economic aggregates should be treated with caution. The unrecorded inflows of remittances in kind and the associated spread of the domestic informal sector have had some important implications for the functioning of Tonga's economy. There is some evidence to suggest that the growth of informal, international trade is fostering other significant changes in the domestic economy. The functioning of remittance-dependent economies such as Tonga is much more complex than existing economic analysis suggests, and involves substantial investment – not just consumption – with the emergence of entrepreneurs and the manipulation of dependence, rather than merely passive receipt of cash and expenditure focused on consumption.     

Licensed Native Interpreter:

Many of the cross-cultural intermediaries who figure in the New Zealand historiography operated in ‘middle ground’ situations. However, in New Zealand as elsewhere in the Pacific, intermediaries also had roles to play in settings where the authority of the colonial state was more or less assured. Working from government records and the 1920 diary of the Pakeha interpreter Ben Keys, this article examines the sorts of cross-cultural expertise involved in negotiating sales and leases of Maori land and probes the relationship between such instrumental uses of knowledge of Maori culture and the ethnographic interests that this work nurtured. For some settlers, Keys included, amateur ethnographic inquiry constituted the active intellectual work of being a New Zealander. By examining the work of an intermediary and amateur ethnographer in an age of automobiles and cinemas, I seek to demonstrate — in a modest, textured way — how the colonization of New Zealand was an ongoing, twentieth-century process in the sphere of economics and law as well as culture and identity.     

International Marriage in Japan: 'Race' and 'Gender' perspectives

Despite an image of ethnic and cultural homogeneity, Japan in fact is host to significant minority populations. A considerable part of these minorities derive from flows of labour migrants from the Asian periphery to Japan-a process dominated by female labour migrants who work mainly in the entertainment and sex-related industries. One social phenomenon resulting from the presence of female labour migrants is the rise in cases of international marriages. With regard to Asian women, in Japan mainly negative images prevail in their representation as entertainers and sex workers. Public discourse has almost exclusively dealt with problems they experience as hostesses and/or prostitutes, and they are hardly ever portrayed as the ordinary wives of Japanese citizens-a role in which they have much in common with Japanese wives. Previous research on the problems occurring in international marriages has mainly concentrated on the 'racial' or 'ethno-cultural' differences between the spouses and has neglected the broader issue of gender inequalities. The latter is, however, of crucial importance, and it is argued by feminists that 'marriage' is often only a disguise for men's acquisition of cheap domestic and sexual services. In this article, I provide a preliminary analysis of international marriage as the result of labour migration by exploring the interconnectedness of patriarchal relations 'at home' and abroad. The situation of Asian women, primarily Filipinas, married to Japanese men, is explored through interview data. The issue of gender is, however, not sufficient when discussing Filipino wives of Japanese men. 'Racial' stereotypes also have to be taken into account as factors which circumscribe the social reality of Asian women in Japan.     

‘Astronaut families’: transnational lives of middle-class Taiwanese married women in Canada

Despite increasing interest in the study of Taiwanese migrants, the underlying concept and methodology remain gender-blind. Invisible from the Census are the women who emigrated with their husbands, leaving behind their adopted country to make a living elsewhere. Most of the ‘astronaut wives’ studied in this research are middle-class women who had careers in Taiwan prior to emigration, but became full-time home-makers upon arrival in Canada, the host country. The major questions raised for this research are: (1) What are the circumstances of migration for Taiwanese families? (2) How do Taiwanese ‘dan qi ma ma’/‘astronaut wives’ cope with the challenges of the new environment? (3) How do they relate to their husbands, children, and the Taiwanese community during the process of adaptation? Thirty women from ‘astronaut’ families were interviewed in Toronto and Vancouver in 2005 and 2006, using a semi-structured questionnaire, ethnographic interviews, and participant observation methods. It was found that migration has not liberated them from the traditional familial roles in Taiwan, but has however enabled them to build new social networks that play an important role in their new lives.     

Missionization in New Zealand and Australia: A Comparison

This paper discusses missionization in New Zealand and Australia during the nineteenth century. Despite sharing aspects of colonial history and a geographical proximity in the South Pacific, the development of missions in both countries was disparate, leading to two very different types of missions, types I have identified as the “household” mission in New Zealand and the “institutional” mission in Australia. In both types common themes can be found, concerned with the “civilizing mission,” domesticity, and gender roles. These two types of missions were replicated in other parts of the globe, such as North America and the Pacific.     

Whatever Happened to Otaheitan Jem?

A diaspora of Polynesian travellers on foreign ships began with the foreign discoverers. Jem, a young Tahitian boy, lived in Sydney for some years before shifting to New Zealand. There he married and became a Māori chief. He helped Revd Samuel Marsden in 1814 and later joined a private ship on a disastrous expedition to get sandalwood from the New Hebrides in 1829–30. About 350 Rotumans, 120 Tongans, 500 Hawaiians and various others, including some Māori, died, mostly from fevers caught at Erromanga. Jem survived and was reported in Tonga in 1832, but whatever happened thereafter?     

China in Fiji: displacing traditional players?

A widely held perception in Oceania is that China has taken the opportunity of Western sanctions against Fiji's military-led regime to expand its influence in Fiji. Observers and media in the region were alarmed by the sudden increase of China's pledged aid to Fiji shortly after the 2006 military takeover. They are concerned that China has a well-calculated strategy of displacing traditional Western players in Fiji, most notably Australia and New Zealand. Such concern is not well founded. While China does have multiple interests, including strategic interests, in Fiji, there is no clear evidence to suggest that China aims to displace the traditional players there. China's growing influence in Fiji is part of China's global rise. Both Australia and New Zealand are committed to Fiji and the South Pacific as a whole. Given its substantial interests in Australia and New Zealand, it is not in China's interest to increase its influence in Fiji at the cost of its relations with these two traditional players.     

Canadian and American Treatment of the Nikkei, 1890–1949: A Comparison

For many Japanese people, the 49th parallel was only a line on a map, yet there were differences for the Japanese residents in the United States and Canada. The two nations had different concepts of citizenship and constitutions but, in what has been called “hemispheric orientalism,” prejudice knew no border. Both countries severely restricted immigration from Japan. In the United States, immigrants, the Issei, were aliens ineligible for citizenship. Thus, states could deny their access to commercial fishing and the right to own or lease land. Because the American constitution bestows full citizenship on the native-born, their American-born children, the Nisei, could vote and acquire land, but experienced discrimination especially in employment. On paper, the Canadian Issei had more civil rights since they could become naturalized but this provided few advantages apart from the rights to own land and to fish commercially. The Canadian Nisei had no more rights than their parents. In British Columbia, where 95 percent of the Japanese lived, they could not vote and provincial laws and customs denied their access to many occupations. During the Second World War, both nations required all the Nikkei to leave the Pacific Coast, incarcerated some, severely restricted the mobility of others, and proposed to “repatriate” many of them to Japan. Drawing mainly on the previous scholarship which has examined specific themes, time periods, or comparisons, this article offers an overview of how between the 1890s and the 1940s the effects of prejudice varied more in detail and timing than in principle even though formal consultation between the two nations was sporadic.     

REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article: A spatial approach to the measurement of support for the separatist movement in Norrhern New South Wales by E. R. Woolmington Central Otapo, by R. G. Lister & R. P. Hargreaves. Atlas of New Zealand Geography, by G. J. R. Linge and R. M. Frazer. Land and Society in New Zealand. Essays in Historical Geography, edited by R. F. Watters Rainfall in rhe Tropical Southwest Pacific by H. C. Brookfield and Doreen Hart The Delimitarion of Urban Boundaries, by G. J. R. Linge.     

Much Lost,Little Gained? Contemporary Trade Agreements in the Pacific Islands

At the close of the 20th century, it was increasingly clear that Pacific Island countries would struggle to remain competitive in international commodity and merchandise trade. As governments worldwide embraced free trade, many Island exporters looked set to be displaced by more efficient producers elsewhere. Island policymakers also faced pressure from more powerful states to renegotiate trading arrangements to bring them into alignment with the rules of the World Trade Organization. This article explains how Pacific Island countries responded to the overlapping challenges of globalization. It considers strategies pursued by Island states in negotiations with the European Union (EU), and with Australia and New Zealand. In both cases, Pacific Islands pressed for agreements that would take account of their unique trading circumstances, and arrangements that would allow more Pacific Islanders to work abroad. After nearly two decades of talks, however, final results proved disappointing. A proposed regional Economic Partnership Agreement with the EU was essentially abandoned, and a regional trade agreement with Australia and New Zealand was concluded without the signature of Fiji or Papua New Guinea – the two largest Pacific Island economies. Ultimately, contemporary trade agreements in the Pacific achieved little to ameliorate the competitive disadvantages Pacific Island states face participating in international trade.     

《倭名类聚抄》所引《兼名苑》考

中日交流在隋唐时期达到鼎盛,其中遣唐使的贡献巨大。他们将中国书籍带回日本,对日本的社会、文化、语言诸方面产生了深远影响。这些书籍中有一部分是在中国问世后不久便传入日本,而在中国却渐渐失传。《兼名苑》就是其中之一。本文通过考证《倭名类聚抄》对其的引文部分,对其成书过程、内容及在日本的传播进行了分析。     

Terrorism in the South Pacific? Thinking critically about approaches to security in the region

‘Not only is the Pacific a potential base for terrorist activities, but if we are not vigilant this is exactly what will happen’. This is the impression one gets from much of the recent academic and policy literature in Australia and New Zealand. However, while there is a need for Pacific Island states to be able to counter terrorist threats, there are very real problems which may result from recent moves to portray the South Pacific as a possible terrorist haven. In addressing issues such as the possible ‘over-securitisation’ of the region, in this article we argue that contemporary threat perceptions must be balanced with constant reassessments of the positive and negative ramifications of painting the region in this light. All local authorities must emphasise a law enforcement approach to countering terrorism. Most emphatically, however, cooperation with (not coercion against) other countries must remain the paramount consideration in any and every effort to combat this phenomenon within the region.     

The Curious History of the Minerva Reefs: Tracing the Origin of Tongan and Fijian Claims Over the Minerva Reefs

ABSTRACT

This article explores the historical events relating to the competing claims over the Minerva Reefs by Tonga and Fiji. Tonga’s sovereign claim over the Minerva Reefs was prompted by a private group’s laying claim to a 'Republic of Minerva' in 1972. At that time, Fiji, as well as the South Pacific Forum, recognized Tonga as the only possible owner of the Minerva Reefs, but did not explicitly recognize Tonga's claimed sovereign title. Such a position reflected the legal uncertainty in relation to Tonga's claim in 1972. The establishment of the 200?nm Exclusive Economic Zone legal regime in the late 1970s gave rise to Fiji's claim to the Minerva Reefs, whereas subsequent developments in international law have significantly reduced the legal uncertainty in relation to Tonga's claim.     

Harry Holland's ‘Samoan Complex’

ABSTRACT

‘Harry’ Holland, one of the early leaders of the parliamentary Labour Party in New Zealand, was an anomalous figure in early 20th-century New Zealand politics. In addition to a principled adoption of militant socialism, he stood apart from the rest of the House of Representatives due to his pronounced interest in Samoan affairs. This interest was so acute that one of his Labour colleagues, John A. Lee, remarked that he possessed a ‘Samoan complex’. This paper addresses the lack of critical attention paid to this facet of his career. Even though Holland's attitudes towards Samoa were sometimes couched in the same vocabulary as the coloniser, he always stood on the side of the colonised. His endorsement of Indigenous self-government was ahead of its time, and his campaigning played a key role in the Samoan struggle for independence. At a broader level, Holland was possibly the most significant of a cohort of colonial critics who questioned New Zealand's right to govern Pacific Islanders and who sought to rein in New Zealand's more overbearing Pacific Island administrations.     

Where Are the Coast-Watchers’ Bones?

In October 1942, five British civilians and 17 New Zealand coast-watchers were executed by Japanese military forces, at Tarawa, Gilbert Islands (Kiribati), in the central Pacific. The bodies were buried in a mass grave, the location of which became obscured when the Japanese constructed military fortifications. A battle was fought at Tarawa in November 1943 whereby the US Marines defeated the Japanese defenders and took control of the island. In the battle more than six thousand men died and their bodies were buried in hastily prepared and often unmarked graves. Since the end of the war the remains of hundreds of Americans and some Japanese have been located and recovered from Tarawa but nothing among the remains has been identified as belonging to the 22 British subjects. A problem in locating the grave of the British has been a lack of any record of its position. In this paper the authors consider the documentary evidence including an important map and a report on the first attempt, using local knowledge, to locate the grave. The specific area of the grave is identified, the date of the executions is confirmed and the reasons behind the order to execute are discussed.