The Implications of War for the Teaching of Japanese Language in Australian Universities, 1917–1945

Abstract

In times of war, those who are speakers and teachers of the languages of the enemy often face discrimination and suspicion. This chapter seeks to chart the beginnings of Japanese tertiary teaching in Australia, the vastly different backgrounds of the teachers of Japanese at the Universities of Melbourne and Sydney, and the negative effects of the Second World War on that teaching and its teachers. At both the Universities of Sydney and Melbourne Japanese language continued to be taught through the 1920s and 1930s in spite of increasing concern about the possibility of Japanese imperialist expansion in the Pacific region. However, with the entry of Japan into the Second World War in December ..