Bernice Archer

This book describes the little-known story of how 130,000 British, Dutch, and American civilian men, women, and children captured and interned by the Japanese during World War II survived their internment. Bernice Archer draws on contemporary war, foreign, and colonial office papers, diaries, letters, camp newspapers and artifacts; post-war medical, engineering, and educational reports, biographies, autobiographies, memoirs, and over fifty oral interviews with ex-internees.

An investigation of evacuation policies reveals the moral, economic, political, emotional, and racial dilemmas faced by the imperial powers and the colonial communities in the far East. Contemporary personal accounts highlight the shock of the Japanese victories and the devastating experience of capture, as well as the social and cultural resources the prisoners used and adapted for survival in the camps, including embroidery and quilting. The Internment of Western Civilians under the Japanese, 1941-1945 also covers wider issues such as the role of women in war, children and war, colonial culture, and oral history, and war and memory.

Bernice Archer curated an exhibit of artifacts related to civilian internment in the far East at the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum in Bristol.

Series: Studying Multicultural Discourses Series

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements

Introduction

1. The Prelude to War
2. The Men's Response to Internment
3. The Women's Response to Internment
4. The Children's Response to Internment
5. Conclusion

Epilogue

Appendix Notes on the Oral History: Method Interviews and Correspondents

References
Index

Pub Date: 2008 ISBN: PAPER:    962-209-910-6    978-962-209-910-4 Price: Paper: $29.95s Subject Listing: Asian Studies, World War II Bibliographic information: 300 pp., bibliog., index, 6 x 9 Distributed for: Hong Kong University Press Territorial rights: North American rights only