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'If It Wasn't For Us...': Peripheral Narratives of the Pacific War

Di Rosa, Dario (2022) 'If It Wasn't For Us...': Peripheral Narratives of the Pacific War. The Journal of Pacific History, 57 (1). pp. 39-57. ISSN 0022-3344

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Abstract

Scholarship on the Indigenous experience of World War II has justly focused on recording accounts of direct witnesses of that period. Such a sense of urgency, at least in Papua New Guinea, has led to the neglect of areas of the country that, though not directly affected by the war, were invested in the war effort by providing labour and soldiers. Communities residing in those areas recall stories of their war heroes as key figures for the liberation of the country and, ultimately, its current adherence to ‘Western values’. Through an analysis of the moral claims that those peripheral stories entail, in this article I suggest potential directions for the study of narratives of World War II that move beyond ‘the era of the witness’.

Item Type: Journal Article
Subjects: D History General and Old World > DU Oceania (South Seas)
H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform
Divisions: School of Law and Social Sciences (SoLaSS)
Depositing User: Dario Di Rosa
Date Deposited: 30 May 2023 22:42
Last Modified: 30 May 2023 22:42
URI: http://repository.usp.ac.fj/id/eprint/14002
UNSPECIFIED

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