Travels in Atomic Sunshine: Australia and the occupation of Japan

by Robin Gerster

In February 1946, the Australians of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force (BCOF) moved into western Japan to ‘demilitarise and democratise’ the atom-bombed backwater of Hiroshima Prefecture. For over six years, up to 20,000 Australian servicemen, including their wives and children, participated in an historic experiment in nation-rebuilding dominated by the United States and the occupation’s supreme commander, General MacArthur. It was to be a watershed in Australian military history and international relations. BCOF was one of the last collective armed gestures of a moribund empire. The Chifley government wanted to make Australia’s independent presence felt in post-war Asia-Pacific affairs, yet the venture heralded the nation’s enmeshment in American geopolitics. This was the forerunner of the today’s peacekeeping missions and engagements in contentious US-led military occupations. Yet the occupation of Japan was also a compelling human experience. It was a cultural reconnaissance ― the first time a large number of Australians were able to explore in depth an Asian society and country. It was an unprecedented domestic encounter between peoples with apparently incompatible traditions and temperaments. Many relished exercising power over a despised former enemy, and basked in the ‘atomic sunshine’ of American Japan. But numerous Australians developed an intimacy with the old enemy, which put them at odds with the ‘Jap’ haters back home, and became the trailblazers of a new era of bilateral friendship. Travels in Atomic Sunshine is a salutary study of the neocolonialism of foreign occupation, and of Australia’s characteristic ambivalence about the Asian region.

Genres: History, War, Nonfiction, Military Fiction

304 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2009

About the author

Robin Gerster is an Australian author and academic, his main fields are the cultural histories of war and travel, and Western Representations of Japan. He published his PhD thesis as Big-noting: The Heroic Theme in Australian War Writing which went on to win The Age Book of the Year Award in the non-fiction category.

In the 1990s he held the Chair in Australian Studies at the University of Tokyo – an experience which led to the controversial travel book, Legless in Ginza: Orientating Japan (1999). His book, Travels in Atomic Sunshine: Australia and the Occupation of Japan, won the New South Wales Premier's Prize for Australian History in 2009, and was shortlisted for the Queensland Premier's Non-Fiction Book Award and the Prime Minister's Prize for Australian History. It was republished in a new paperback edition, with an Afterword, in 2019.

He currently holds the position of Professor at the School of Languages, Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics at Monash University

Reviews

[Patrick Lum (Jintor) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I saw it for $7 on the shelf as I was picking up my uni textbooks and though, hell, why not. Fantastic read, although it's not super deep; I would say it covers a large number of areas with moderate depth. One thing it constantly emphasises is how fucked up by modern standards Aussie (well, all) cultures were at the time; there's just a constant sense of imperialism, of racism, and worse things besides. How quickly things change. I am thankful to live in this age.

/edit the goodreads description is mired in academic bullshit though

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading T A G Hungerford's 1954 Sowers of the Wind, I wasn't sure that I wanted to read much more about the role of Australian forces in the Occupation of Japan, but Robin Gerster's prize-winning Travels in Atomic Sunshine, Australia and the Occupation of Japan turned out to be very interesting reading indeed.  More importantly,  while it acknowledges the less edifying aspects of the novel, it counters Hungerford's somewhat sensationalised account and pays credit to the soldiers of the occupying forces where it's due.

According to the author info in the front of the book, Robin Gerster is a professor in the School of Languages, Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics at Monash University.  He is the author of several books, including the award-winning Big-noting: the heroic theme in Australian war writing (1987) and other books focussed on Asia.  Travels in Atomic Sunshine won the New South Wales Premier's Prize for Australian History in 2009, and was shortlisted for the Queensland Premier's Non-Fiction Book Award and the Prime Minister's Prize for Australian History.  I think that's because he writes in an approachable way, avoiding academic jargon while retaining a scholarly approach so that his account is obviously trustworthy.

Histories about this issue need to be trustworthy, because anything that casts doubt on the heroic myth-making about Australian military service has to be backed up by research...

It seems that the soldiers of the Occupation forces felt the pressure of the heroic Anzacs, and felt discouraged and dispirited because of it.  Their tasks in Japan were more mundane than the fierce fighting that had led to Japan's defeat, and they were more like workers or labourers involved in doing a job that many found dreary and even demeaning. Today, that means that some whose health was affected by atomic radiation in Hiroshima, are denied the benefits that fighting forces receive in recompense for their active service.

BCOF [British Commonwealth Occupation Force] performed many useful tasks during that first year of the Occupation.  After completing its initial deployment, the force settled down to begin its essential operations of sea, ground, and air patrols — a variety of Intelligence tasks, including (in the early, uncertain days) road reconnaissance; to seek out resistance elements  and potential guerrilla activities; checks on illegal immigration; the control of black marketing and smuggling activities; the confiscation of narcotics and other contraband; port and dock control; the demilitarisation and dispersal of repatriated Japanese servicemen; the collection of weapons; the disarmament and disposal of hidden enemy ammunition and equipment.

Both skilled and hack work had to be done to get the region back into some kind of working order. Soldiers were engaged in various clearing, building and maintenance tasks, in concert with a force of Japanese workers that totalled more than 40,000 at its peak, in October 1946. (p.78)

For an example of the essential infrastructure that urgently had to be made functional, Jim Grover, a signalman, helped rebuild the communication system with a modern telephone exchange in Kure.  American B-29 bomb damage had destroyed the hygiene infrastructure, but as Gerster acknowledges erecting lavatories is not quite in the same league as scaling the rocky slopes of Gallipoli under raking Turkish fire. (But if it had not been done, outbreaks of disease would have been catastrophic.)

These soldiers were, however, also achieving historic if not heroic change.  The Occupation brought Japan out of the feudal age and introduced democracy, including women's suffrage.  It also prepared the way for lasting stability and economic prosperity and a normalisation of Japan's relationships with other countries in the west.

However, the Australians had more to contend with than the ghosts of the Anzacs.  For a start there was also poor leadership.  Their CO had an outstanding WW1 and WW2 military record but from Gerster's analysis, was not the right man for a different kind of job in such an unfamiliar place.  (In the Afterword, Gerster tells us that he refused to shake a Japanese hand, and he publicly admonished the citizens of Hiroshima for creating their own mess.)  Briefings about what to expect were inadequate and littered with stereotypes. Hectoring about fraternisation being forbidden didn't stop randy young men from getting what they wanted (and VD into the bargain), but it did make it difficult to develop friendly working relationships between nations who had been at war such a short time ago.  Worst of all, the soldiers were not warned about avoiding radioactive sites, and it is quite shocking to read about soldiers sightseeing in Hiroshima and bringing souvenirs back home.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2025/02/10/t...

[Scribe Publications]

Drawing extensively on diary entries, papers and personal interviews with Australian soldiers, Gerster paints an intricate portrait of the moral and cultural disorientation felt by the Aussie ‘conquerors’ as they came to terms with not only an enemy decimated by atomic horror but also their own inherent prejudices ... the book is an immense achievement of research and a timely reminder of the tightrope balance of foreign occupation, a message that has particular relevance in today’s post-9/11 climate. It will be particularly popular among avid history readers looking for a new angle on the wartime Australian experience.
Bookseller+Publisher

Robin Gerster is a superb writer and in his hands the numerous anecdotes, incidents and details of the occupation gleaned from extensive combing of archives, newspapers, diaries and novels come to life. In lesser hands, the wealth of individual observations might weigh down the narrative, but one of the strengths of Atomic Sunshine is its concentration on personal encounters and perceptions.
Jeff Kingston, Japan Times

An excellent book, vividly describing a little known episode of Australian history.
Peter Beale, Newcastle Herald

Elegant and sardonic history ...
Hamish McDonald, Sydney Morning Herald

This troubling, significant book offers us a crucible of what Australians can be like in victory over a justly hated enemy.
Barry Hill, The Age

... A well-written and highly readable account of an interesting episode in Australian history and a valuable addition to the growing literature on the history of Australia's relations with Asia.
The International History Review

Gerster, who draws on a rich supply of sources, tells an absorbing story of two nations in a state of change.
Lucy Sussex, The Sunday Age

Gerster’s Travels in Atomic Sunshine is a scholarly, superbly documented study and a narrative written in a highly readable style. It incorporates provocative arguments and sophisticated insights without becoming ‘academic’. It is a book that is bound to become a classic social history of a major era of the Australian-Japanese postwar encounter.
David Palmer, Transnational Literature

In a rich meeting of history and literature, Gerster explores the big issues of race, culture, and national identity as victor and vanquished meet in the aftermath of a world war. The love, betrayal, greed, generosity, compassion, and casual brutality of individuals are his evidence and the strength of his narrative.
Hank Nelson

Robin Gerster’s brilliant account of the little-known story of Australia’s occupation force provides new, and often unsettling, insights into Australian responses to Japan and the Japanese at the end of the Second World War. Amid the atomic wasteland of Hiroshima, Australians and Japanese fraternized across the barriers of language, history, and different wartime experiences. Gerster’s evocative cultural history of Australian–Japanese relations is as hard-hitting as it is perceptive.
Kate Darian-Smith

Gerster has a fascinating story to tell and he has done so in a lively and compelling narrative way that makes Travels in Atomic Sunshine accessible to readers well beyond the historical profession.
Judges’ comments from the 2009 NSW Premier’s History Awards

This is a fascinating study of cross-cultural contact and the ways that World War 2 changed the attitudes of many Australians ... Of particular note is Gerster’s nuanced and careful analysis of fiction and memoir, which allows a candour and intimacy not always accessible in other sources.
Judges’ comments from the Prime Minister’s Prize for Australian History

[mack · Rating 4 out of 5]

in the wider community, if one asks people about the nation’s contribution in post-war japan, they will give you an uncomprehending stare. occupied who? when?

randomly, in the middle of the night, i started thinking: so, what did australians do in japan? i knew we did something, but i realised i never learnt the full extent at school (at least, it seems i wasn’t listening). i decided to look at a bunch of wikipedia articles - and when that wasn’t enough, i looked at the footnotes and saw this book.

before i started reading, i had a certain idea of what the history would consist of. and i was right - horrific things did happen. things that were widely swept under the rug especially at the time to retain the anzac narrative. the treatment of prostitutes, maids, other japanese women, stigma against the men… the list goes on. but this book also surprised me. while there were illegitimate babies, there were also marriages. while drunk australians beat up japanese people in the streets, many made friends with them.

overall, this was a comprehensive book that took into account the diversity of experiences in the bcof. there was no monolith within these accounts. a really interesting read that i am glad i stumbled upon

[Joseph Falloon · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's sometimes remarked that Australian history is overly positive in its portrayal of the soldiers and the common man (usually at the expense of authority figures: the British in WW1, the police in regards to Ned Kelly, etc, etc). There is merit to this statement, I think.

On the other hand, it feels like this book sat on a pendulum and swung as far away from positivity as it could (almost into the realm of being overly-negative). If you’re looking for a comforting read, you will not find it here. It is harsh and confronting, yet very interesting to read. Sometimes, however, it feels like a thoroughly unsympathetic lecture.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading TAG Hungerford's "Sowers of the Wind" I was keen to read something non-fiction about the post WW2 occupation of Japan.
I thing I made a great choice with this book. Gerster brings together all the aspects of the occupation including the relationship between the Allies involved, the relationship between the Japanese people & their occupiers and elements of the moral issues of Japanese atrocities compared with the extensive conventional and atomic bombing of Japanese cities giving a fantastic overview of the Australian role in occupation.
Unfortunately, a work like this has to draw extensively from historical fiction sources as people involved in the occupation, as with Hungerford, had troubles presenting elements of the behaviour of the soldiery and alsunderstandingo being seen to show sympathy for the Japanese in the shadow of wartime atrocities and also with Australia enforcing the "White Australia Policy" and feeling isolated in an Asian dominated area of the world.

This is a really interesting work and an essential area for understanding Anglo-Australia's role in the modern Pacific & wider world.

[Annyce · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the truths in this book confronting, it bears witness to a time that doesn't seem that long ago and yet gladly gone and hopefully forgiven. I discussed this book with my father questioning some of the stories, as he had served in Japan as part of the BCOF "in the clean-up" following the surrender by Japan. He denied the stories and felt they were largely exaggerated. Be prepared to be confronted by some ugly retelling of history.

[Scribe Publications]

Drawing extensively on diary entries, papers and personal interviews with Australian soldiers, Gerster paints an intricate portrait of the moral and cultural disorientation felt by the Aussie ‘conquerors’ as they came to terms with not only an enemy decimated by atomic horror but also their own inherent prejudices ... the book is an immense achievement of research and a timely reminder of the tightrope balance of foreign occupation, a message that has particular relevance in today’s post-9/11 climate. It will be particularly popular among avid history readers looking for a new angle on the wartime Australian experience.
Bookseller+Publisher

Robin Gerster is a superb writer and in his hands the numerous anecdotes, incidents and details of the occupation gleaned from extensive combing of archives, newspapers, diaries and novels come to life. In lesser hands, the wealth of individual observations might weigh down the narrative, but one of the strengths of Atomic Sunshine is its concentration on personal encounters and perceptions.
Jeff Kingston, Japan Times

An excellent book, vividly describing a little known episode of Australian history.
Peter Beale, Newcastle Herald

Elegant and sardonic history ...
Hamish McDonald, Sydney Morning Herald

This troubling, significant book offers us a crucible of what Australians can be like in victory over a justly hated enemy.
Barry Hill, The Age

... A well-written and highly readable account of an interesting episode in Australian history and a valuable addition to the growing literature on the history of Australia's relations with Asia.
The International History Review

Gerster, who draws on a rich supply of sources, tells an absorbing story of two nations in a state of change.
Lucy Sussex, The Sunday Age

Gerster’s Travels in Atomic Sunshine is a scholarly, superbly documented study and a narrative written in a highly readable style. It incorporates provocative arguments and sophisticated insights without becoming ‘academic’. It is a book that is bound to become a classic social history of a major era of the Australian-Japanese postwar encounter.
David Palmer, Transnational Literature

In a rich meeting of history and literature, Gerster explores the big issues of race, culture, and national identity as victor and vanquished meet in the aftermath of a world war. The love, betrayal, greed, generosity, compassion, and casual brutality of individuals are his evidence and the strength of his narrative.
Hank Nelson

Robin Gerster’s brilliant account of the little-known story of Australia’s occupation force provides new, and often unsettling, insights into Australian responses to Japan and the Japanese at the end of the Second World War. Amid the atomic wasteland of Hiroshima, Australians and Japanese fraternized across the barriers of language, history, and different wartime experiences. Gerster’s evocative cultural history of Australian–Japanese relations is as hard-hitting as it is perceptive.
Kate Darian-Smith

Gerster has a fascinating story to tell and he has done so in a lively and compelling narrative way that makes Travels in Atomic Sunshine accessible to readers well beyond the historical profession.
Judges’ comments from the 2009 NSW Premier’s History Awards

This is a fascinating study of cross-cultural contact and the ways that World War 2 changed the attitudes of many Australians ... Of particular note is Gerster’s nuanced and careful analysis of fiction and memoir, which allows a candour and intimacy not always accessible in other sources.
Judges’ comments from the Prime Minister’s Prize for Australian History