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“We thought we were British, until we lived among
them”: the culture and economics of Australian and
British Prisoners of War in the Pacific.
Ben Manning
University of NSW
Australia
Introduction
Most Australians thought of themselves as British until the latter part of the
twentieth century. This paper looks at the very different cultural attitudes and
economic institutions developed by British and Australian prisoners of war of
the Japanese, and how Australians living in close confines with the British
became aware of how different they were. It demonstrates the importance of
moral economy, embedded within national cultures, and the importance of
comparison as a method. It was only when the two groups lived together
under extreme circumstances that the Australians became aware of their
difference.
PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS A VERY ROUGH AND HASTILY MADE DRAFT
ONLY. HAVING ONLY DISCOVERED THE NEED TO SUBMIT
COMPLETED PAPERS THE NIGHT BEFORE THE DEADLINE, AND THEN
DUE TO THE TIME DIFFERENCE FINDING THE DEADLINE HAD
SUDDENLY MOVED FORWARD 9 HOURS BY THE OVERNIGHT
(AUSTRALIAN TIME) ADDITION OF A 3PM CUT OFF.
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Ben Manning is a PhD candidate at the University of New South Wales in Sydney,
Australia. His thesis is supervised by economic sociologist, Jocelyn Pixley. He has
recently given papers at the 37
th
World Congress of the International Institute of
Sociology in Stockholm on other aspects of this research, and was a participant in the
International Sociological Association’s methods lab for PhD students in Amsterdam.
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