Testimony of War: Australian Memoirs and Fiction of the Pacific War

• Published in: Life writing Vol. 14; no. 4; pp. 475 - 484
• Main Author: Kato, Megumi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Routledge 02.10.2017; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Australian literature; Autobiographies; Collective memory; memory; Military personnel; Prisoners of war & missing in action; testimony; The Pacific War; War; war literature
• ISSN: 1448-4528; 1751-2964
• DOI: 10.1080/14484528.2017.1366246

Pacific War writings, especially memoirs by those who were involved as soldiers or prisoners of war, occupy a significant place in Australian literature. They have contributed to the creation of national stories and myths, constructing a collective memory of war for Australians. In recent years, coinciding with the 70th anniversary of the end of the war in the Pacific, several novels dealing with the war were published in quick succession. These novels not only look at the theatre of war, but also at Japanese internment camps, the vivisection laboratory in Tokyo and sometimes war through the enemy's eyes. Authors from the post-war generation provide different perspectives and reflections of the Pacific War. This article examines examples of first-person memoirs of the post-war years and recent novels to consider the different contributions they make to constructing meaning around war writings. Considered together, these are polyphonic voices of war as an 'ongoing' event.