Download or read book The Sportsmen of Changi written by Kevin Blackburn and published by UNSW Press. This book was released on 2012 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Australian prisoners of war playing sport, at times with their captors, does not fit the picture embedded in the popular imagination of horror and suffering in Japanese POW camps during WWII. But incredibly, sport flourished amidst the hellish conditions in these camps. The Sportsmen of Changi is a moving account of diggers for whom sport was not just a means to boost morale and an escape from a dreadful reality, but a way of feeling human in the face of inhuman suffering. Captives played Aussie Rules football at the infamous Changi Prison, and tennis on the Burmese side of the Burma-Thailand Railway. They played soccer, cricket, baseball or basketball and sometimes their prison guards even joined in for a game. And there were many elite sportsmen in these ranks who were intent on reviving their sporting careers after returning home at war s end. What did sports in captivity mean to these soldiers? Did it prove that they were still tough fighting men despite defeat? Or was it their one link to normalcy, a poignant attempt to instil order in a maelstrom of humiliation, disease, violence and despair? The Sportsmen of Changi considers these questions with clarity, delving into the diaries of prisoners and other historical evidence overlooked until now."
Download or read book The Changi Book written by Lachlan Grant and published by NewSouth. This book was released on 2015-08-01 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of Changi, told by those who lived through it. In the tradition of The Anzac Book comes this fascinating collection of accounts of life in the notorious Changi prison camp. Changi is synonymous with suffering, hardship and the Australian prisoner-of-war experience in WWII. It is also a story of ingenuity, resourcefulness and survival. Containing essays, cartoons, paintings, and photographs created by prisoners of war, The Changi Book provides a unique view of the camp: life-saving medical innovation, machinery and tools created from spare parts and scrap, black-market dealings, sport and gambling, theatre productions, and the creation of a library and university. Seventy years after its planned publication, material for The Changi Book was rediscovered in the Australian War Memorial archives. It appears here for the first time along with insights from the Memorial’s experts. ‘A moving insiders’ account of life in Changi.’ —Peter FitzSimons ‘A fresh perspective on Changi: illuminating stories from the inside.’ —Les Carlyon
Download or read book Japanese Imperialism Politics and Sport in East Asia written by J.A. Mangan and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-10-11 with total page 451 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This cutting edge collection presents a political reading of the power of modern sport in Asia. Providing an interdisciplinary study of political and cultural tensions in Asia, past and present, through the key case-study of sport, it illuminates the complex practices and legacies of Japanese imperialism across East and Southeast Asia through the 20th century and beyond. Focusing on the deep background to contemporary dynamics of intraregional tensions, it examines sport both as a tool of imperialism and as an agent of reconciliation as the region gears up to the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. Offering a unique contribution to East Asian Studies, Colonial and Postcolonial Studies and Sport Studies, this work represent key reading for students and scholars of East Asian studies, International Politics and Sports Diplomacy.
Download or read book Captive Anzacs written by Kate Ariotti and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-05-11 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the First World War, 198 Australians became prisoners of the Ottomans. Overshadowed by the grief and hardship that characterised the post-war period, and by the enduring myth of the fighting Anzac, these POWs have long been neglected in the national memory of the war. Captive Anzacs explores how the prisoners felt about their capture and how they dealt with the physical and psychological strain of imprisonment, as well as the legacy of their time as POWs. More broadly, it explores public perceptions of the prisoners, the effects of their captivity on their families, and how military, government and charitable organisations responded to the POWs both during and after the War. Intertwining rich detail from letters, diaries and other personal papers with official records, Kate Ariotti offers a comprehensive, nuanced account of this aspect of Australian war history.
Download or read book Battlefield Events written by Keir Reeves and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-10-16 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Battlefield Events: Landscape, Commemoration and Heritage is an investigative and analytical study into the way in which significant landscapes of war have been constructed and imagined through events over time to articulate specific narratives and denote consequence and identity. The book charts the ways in which a number of landscapes of war have been created and managed from an events perspective, and how the processes of remembering (along with silencing and forgetting) at these places has influenced the management of these warscapes in the present day. With chapters from authors based in seven different countries on three continents and comparative case studies, this book has a truly international perspective. This timely longitudinal analysis of war commemoration events, the associated landscapes, travel to these destinations and management strategies will be valuable reading for all those interested in war landscapes and events.
Download or read book Fighting Monsters written by Richard Wallace Braithwaite and published by Australian Scholarly Publishing. This book was released on 2016 with total page 628 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Only six escapees survived the Sandakan death marches of 1945 in North Borneo, the worst atrocity ever inflicted on Australian soldiers. 1787 Australian and 641 British POWs perished. Previous descriptions of the numerous violent acts have yielded little understanding of a situation where the real struggle was to keep one’s humanity when so many were losing theirs, whether Allied POWs, local residents of Borneo, Javanese slave labourers, or Japanese soldiers. Understanding this extraordinary story is aided by reference to a wide range of sources in different countries and disciplines, and by examining the perspectives of all players in this terrible game of survival. An unusual and extreme POW story, the Sandakan tragedy had four stages: active resistance in 1942–3, stubborn endurance in 1943–4, the collapse of civilized existence in 1945 and, finally, the postwar decades of torment for the six damaged survivors, the gradual assimilation of the story, the healing of the damage and the commemoration of the tragedy by the families and communities involved. Richard Wallace Braithwaite’s father was one of the six survivors of the Sandakan death marches of 1945. He died in 1986, still wanting the story to be properly told. This led to a project that has lasted for much of the last forty years of the author’s life, culminating in this book. With a scientific background, Richard worked for many years with CSIRO and universities in the biological and social sciences and in historical research. His extensive and diverse research history and lifelong personal immersion in the story has given him a unique perspective in exploring the complexities of the Sandakan tragedy.
Download or read book War Memory and Commemoration written by Brad West and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-07-15 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a period characterised by an unprecedented cultural engagement with the past, individuals, groups and nations are debating and experimenting with commemoration in order to find culturally relevant ways of remembering warfare, genocide and terrorism. This book examines such remembrances and the political consequences of these rites. In particular, the volume focuses on the ways in which recent social and technological forces, including digital archiving, transnational flows of historical knowledge, shifts in academic practice, changes in commemorative forms and consumerist engagements with history affect the shaping of new collective memories and our understanding of the social world. Presenting studies of commemorative practices from Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and the Middle East, War Memory and Commemoration illustrates the power of new commemorative forms to shape the world, and highlights the ways in which social actors use them in promoting a range of understandings of the past. The volume will appeal to scholars of sociology, history, cultural studies and journalism with an interest in commemoration, heritage and/or collective memory.
Download or read book Sport War and Society in Australia and New Zealand written by Martin Crotty and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-02-02 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sport and war have been closely linked in Australian and New Zealand society since the nineteenth century. Sport has, variously, been advocated as appropriate training for war, lambasted as a distraction from the war effort, and resorted to as an escape from wartime trials and tribulations. War has limited the fortunes of some sporting codes – and some individuals – while others have blossomed in the changed circumstances. The chapters in this book range widely over the broad subject of Australian and New Zealand sport and their relation to the cataclysmic world wars of the first half of the twentieth century. They examine the mythology of the links between sport and war, sporting codes, groups of sporting individuals, and individual sportspeople. Revealing complex and often unpredictable effects of total wars upon individuals and social groups which as always, created chaos, and the sporting field offered no exception. This book was originally published as a special issue of the International Journal of the History of Sport.
Download or read book Australian Soldiers in Asia Pacific in World War II written by Lachlan Grant and published by NewSouth. This book was released on 2014-11-01 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Half a million Australians encountered a new world when they entered Asia and the Pacific during World War II: different peoples, cultures, languages and religions chafing under the grip of colonial rule. Moving beyond the battlefield, this book tells the story of how mid-century experiences of troops in Asia-Pacific shaped how we feel about our nation’s place in the region and the world. Spanning the vast region from New Guinea to Southeast Asia and India, Lachlan Grant uncovers affecting tales of friendship, grief, spiritual awakening, rebellion, incarceration, sex and souvenir hunting. Focusing on the day-to-day interactions between soldiers on the ground and the people and cultures they encountered, this book paints a picture not only of individual lives transformed, but of dramatically shifting national perceptions, as the gaze of Australia turned from Britain to Asia.
Download or read book Cricket in the Second World War written by John Broom and published by Pen and Sword History. This book was released on 2021-07-07 with total page 460 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the civilised world fought for its very survival, Sir Home Gordon, writing in The Cricketer in September 1939, stated that ‘England has now started the grim Test Match with Germany’, the objective of which was to ‘win the Ashes of civilisation’. Despite the interruption of first-class and Test cricket in England, the game continued to be played and watched by hundreds of thousands of people engaged in military and civilian service. In workplaces, cricket clubs, and military establishments, as well as on the famous grounds of the country, players of all abilities kept the sporting flag flying to sustain morale. Matches raised vast sums for war charities whilst in the north and midlands, competitive League cricket continued, with many Test and county players being employed as weekend professionals by the clubs. Further afield the game continued in all the Test-playing nations and in further-flung outposts around the world. Troops stationed in Europe, Africa and the Far East seized on any opportunity to play cricket, often in the most unusual of circumstances. Luxurious sporting clubs in Egypt hosted matches that pitted English service teams against their Commonwealth counterparts. Luminaries such as Wally Hammond and Lindsay Hassett were cheered on by their uniformed countrymen. Inevitably there was a sombre side to cricket’s wartime account. From renowned Test stars such as Hedley Verity to the keen but modest club player, many cricketers paid the ultimate price for Allied victory. The Victory Tests of 1945 were played against a backdrop of relief and sorrow. Nevertheless, cricket would emerge intact into the post-war world in broadly the same format as 1939. The game had sustained its soul and played its part in the sad but necessary victory of the Grim Test.
Download or read book Whose History written by Grant Rodwell and published by University of Adelaide Press. This book was released on 2013 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Somebody once quipped that any work of Australian historical fiction is a 'burning fuse', travelling over decades through Australian culture and society. In some manner, every newly published Australian historical novel is connected to what it has preceded. Each work belongs to a proud history. Through multiple examples, Grant Rodwell encourages readers to see how a work of historical fiction has evolved. Thus, under various themes, WHOSE HISTORY? examines the traditions in Australian historical fiction, and ponders how Australian historical novels can engage teachers and student teachers. WHOSE HISTORY? aims to illustrate how historical novels and their related genres may be used as an engaging teacher/learning strategy for student teachers in pre-service teacher education courses. It does not argue all teaching of History curriculum in pre-service units should be based on the use of historical novels as a stimulus, nor does it argue for a particular percentage of the use of historical novels in such courses. It simply seeks to argue the case for this particular approach, leaving the extent of the use of historical novels used in History curriculum units to the professional expertise of the lecturers responsible for the units.
Download or read book War Sport and the Anzac Tradition written by Kevin Blackburn and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-04-29 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Commemoration of war is done through sport on Anzac Day to remember Australia's war dead. War, Sport and the Anzac Tradition traces the creation of this sporting tradition at Gallipoli in 1915, and how it has evolved from late Victorian and Edwardian ideas of masculinity extolling prowess on the sports field as fostering prowess on the battlefield.
Download or read book Colony of Singapore Annual Report written by Great Britain. Colonial Office and published by . This book was released on 1959 with total page 438 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book One Hundred Years of Singapore written by Walter Makepeace and published by . This book was released on 1921 with total page 842 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Sandakan written by Paul Ham and published by Random House Australia. This book was released on 2012-10-01 with total page 643 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The untold story of the Sandakan death marches of World War II. After the fall of Singapore, in February 1942, the Japanese conquerors rounded up tens of thousands of British and Australian soldiers and shipped them to prison camps scattered throughout Hirohito’s newly won Empire. The fall of Britain’s ‘impregnable fortress’ was the greatest humiliation in British military history, for which Churchill never forgave the Japanese. But nothing would surpass the wretched fate of some 2,700 British and Australian prisoners who were shipped to British North Borneo later that year. They landed in Sandakan, on the east coast of the island, after a 10-day voyage on a Japanese ‘hell’ ship, and were herded into a jungle camp some eight miles inland. Thus began the three-year ordeal of the Sandakan prisoners of war - a barely known story of unimaginable horror.
Download or read book Changi the Lost Years written by T. P. M. Lewis and published by . This book was released on 1984 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Long Road to Changi written by Peter Ewer and published by HarperCollins Australia. This book was released on 2013-08-01 with total page 413 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How flawed planning, dysfunctional personalities and empirical arrogance took Australia down the long road to Changi. In the 1930s while war raged in Europe, Australians were assured by politicians that the country was safe as long as the Union Jack fluttered over 'Fortress Singapore'. the reality was so different: Britain, over-stretched and under threat, skimped on the forces it needed to hold the base. When Japanese forces began flexing their muscles in the Pacific, a hasty defence plan was put in place. Australian troops, aircrews and sailors were dispatched to Singapore as much for purposes of propaganda as anything else. the understanding was that bronzed Aussies would soon put the Japs in their place. But it was so much wishful thinking. While most books centre on the horrors of the death camps, historian Peter Ewer asks how we came to be in this mess in the first place. Why was an untested Australian military contingent expected to play a leading role in halting the cream of the Japanese army? Why did British commanders and politicians send them there - then blame them for the inevitable defeat? Could this disaster have been averted? Drawing on fresh archival research, Ewer uncovers a story of incompetent planning, powerful but flawed characters and national trauma which resonates to this day. Writing from the perspectives of foot soldiers and generals, politicians and socialites, he constructs a riveting picture of a war which was lost before it began.
