The Railway Men: Prisoner Journeys through the Traumascapes of World War II

Abstract

Over 15,000 Australians were taken prisoner by the Japanese during World War II and around one-third of those men and women died in captivity. The forced labour and incarceration of prisoner of war is considered by many as one of Australia's greatest tragedies of World War II. This article argues that the story of incarceration did not end with those who actually experienced it. These wounding memories were passed down through families and communities; they were recycled and reimagined through the circulation of narratives, the making of memorials, and the constant renegotiation of life stories. Capturing the memory of this experience obliges historians to record the living testimony of both prisoners and their families. Interviews, surveys, and participant observation conducted by the author are utilized to explore the afterlife of memory during a pilgrimage to the traumascapes of World War II.

Keywords:

• war
• memory
• pilgrimage
• captivity
• trauma

Notes on contributors

Prof. Bruce Scates holds the Chair of History and Australian Studies at Monash University. He is the author of several books on war and memory including an imagined history of Gallipoli, On Dangerous Ground. Prof. Scates is the chief investigator on an Australian Research Council project charting the history of Anzac Day and leads a second (international) grant exploring the memory of World War II. Email:[email protected].

Correspondence to: National Centre for Australian Studies, Building B Caulfield Campus, Monash University, PO Box 197, Caulfield East Victoria 3145, Australia.

Rebecca Wheatley is a co-author of Anzac Journeys: Returning to the Battlefields of World War II and contributor to the Cambridge History of the First World War, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013. Her PhD thesis at Monash University examines education and Anzac.

Catherine Tiernan is a first class honours graduate in History from Monash University. Her current research at the National Centre for Australian Studies, Monash University, relates to post World War One soldier settlement.

Notes

1 To comply with ethics requirements all individuals interviewed or cited are addressed by pseudonyms.

2 The social ‘memory’ of war is a problematic concept and some scholars (like Jay Winter) have argued that the term ‘remembrance’ should be used in its place. I take it as a given that memory itself is a uniquely individual possession but will argue here that a ‘postmemory’ can be transmitted across generations and indeed across cultural/social groups. This research was made possible by a Discovery Grant from the Australian Research Council. I gratefully acknowledge the support of fellow investigators, Kevin Blackburn, Hank Nelson, and Keir Reeves and the close readings of Rae Frances and Lucy Noakes. I thank Catherine Tiernan and Rebecca Wheatley for research assistance.