BRIEF HISTORY OF AUSTRALIA'S PARTICIPATION IN THE OCCUPATION OF JAPAN

1945-1952 

On 17 August 1945 Australia advised Britain that it would participate in the military occupation of Japan.

1. ESTABLISHMENT AND COMMAND

By agreement between the Australian Government (also acting on behalf of the United Kingdom, New Zealand and India) and the United States Government, known as the MacArthur-Northcott agreement, reached in December 1945, arrangements were confirmed for a British Commonwealth Force under an Australian Commander to participate in the occupation.

The Supreme Commander for Allied Powers was General Douglas MacArthur.

Responsibility for the control and administration of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force (B.C.O.F.), rested with a committee; the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Australia (Australian Chiefs of Staff Committee augmented by British, NZ and British Indian representatives) operating from Head Quarters in Victoria Barracks, Melbourne. 

Australians were in Japan on 2 September 1945 when the surrender document was signed and advance parties of various units started arriving from then on, firstly to organise the repatriation of Australian prisoners of war and then to set up logistic units to support the main force.

The first main Australian component arrived in Japan on 13 February 1946 in the Stamford Victory from Morotai. 

B.C.O.F. was under an Australian Commander- in -Chief throughout its existence. The C-I-C was responsible to the Joint Chiefs of Staff and to SCAP.  Each B.C.O.F. commander was also directly responsible to his government (which meant in theory, that the Brigadier commanding the Australian component of B.C.O.F. could have had access to Canberra independently of the Australian General who was C-I-C of the entire force).

The three  B.C.O.F.  C-I-C's were: Lt Gen. (later Sir) John Northcott, February to June 1946.  (when he became Governor of NSW.) 

Lt Gen. H.R.H.(later Sir Horace) Robertson from June 1946 to November 1951

Lt. Gen. E. W. Bridgeford from November 1951 until the end of the occupation.

2. COMPOSITION AND LOCATION 

At its height in 1946, the Australian component of B.C.O.F consisted of the 34th Infantry Brigade Group AIF (65, 66 and 67 Battalions from 7th,9th and 6th Divisions), 1st Armoured Car Squadron, "A" Field Battery, and the 130th Australian General Hospital plus ancillary and lines of communication component; No 81 Fighter Wing, with Nos. 77, 76 and 82 Squadrons (Mustangs )and No 5 Airfield Construction Squadron, plus a hospital and base operational services.

The AIF ceased to exist on 30 June 1947 when troops from the Interim Army began to arrive. Later as the Interim Army term of enlistment expired the Australian Regular Army took over, from the Interim Army, 3rd Battalion Royal Australian Infantry, established headquarters at Hiro, near Kure. The RAAF component was located at Iwakuni, with shore establishment for the naval force at the former Japanese naval base, also at Kure. 

In February 1946 the Australian component of B.C.O.F. comprised 9155 military, 2185 RAAF, personnel as well as a RAN supporting unit of two ships serving with the British Fleet. By August 1946 when at main strength, total B.C.O.F. (all ranks) was 40,236. (US troops totalled 152,000)

From February 1946 to June 1950, 15 RAN warships were in Japanese home waters engaged on Occupation tasks. Most were assigned to this duty more than once. They were the cruisers Australia, Shropshire, and Hobart; the destroyers Warramunga, Arunta, Bataan, Quadrant, Quiberon Quickmatch, Culgoa, Murchison and Shoalhaven and the LSI's Manoora, Westralia and Kanimbla. The naval shore establishment was designated HMS Commonwealth. On 1 October 1948 Australia took command of the total naval force and was named HMAS Commonwealth.

The air component of B.C.O.F. was known as BCAIR, and came under the operational control of the US 5th Air Force.

The other B.C.O.F. participants were: 

From UK- 5th British Brigade consisting of 2nd Battalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers; 2nd Battalion, The Dorset Regiment; 1st Battalion. The Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders, 30th Field Battery and 80th British Hospital; Nos. 11 and 17 Squadrons RAF (Spitfires), a communications squadron and a hospital.

From India - 268th Indian Brigade, consisting of the 5th Battalion 1st Punjab Rifles; 7th Indian Light Cavalry Regiment; 16th Indian Field Battery; 92nd Indian General Hospital; No 4 Squadron RIAF (Spitfires). 

From New Zealand- 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force (Japan) consisting of 22nd and 27th Infantry Battalions and the 2nd Division Cavalry Regiment, 6th New Zealand General Hospital and lines of communication units; No 14 Squadron RNZAF (Corsairs).

 3. AIMS AND OCCUPATION DUTIES

The aims of B.C.O.F. were 'to maintain and enhance the prestige of the British Commonwealth of Nations by worthily representing it in the Occupation and to demonstrate to the Japanese the democratic way of life'.

Tasks of the Occupation Forces included;

*Supervising the demilitarisation and disposal of Japanese military installations and armaments, safeguarding these temporarily, protecting Allied installations and generally exercising military control in five prefectures of the main Japanese island of Honshu and the whole of the island of Shikoku.

*Repatriating through ports in its area approximately 700,000 returning Japanese soldiers from overseas theatres of war, such as China, Formosa, Korea and the Ryuku Islands. Over 61,000 foreign nationals were repatriated to their respective countries.

*Constant patrolling by land, sea and air to uncover armaments, smuggling (both of illegal immigrants - mainly Koreans) - and of goods and black marketing.

*The organising of activities appropriate to the general objectives, such as providing expert advice on engineering and town planning, assistance in reconstructing Hiroshima.

*Protecting Allied installations.

Australians were allotted the largely rural and severely devastated prefecture of Hiroshima. Huge stocks of war material (including chemical agents and tons of ordnance) had to be rendered safe and disposed of or destroyed. Thousands of tons of material was located and destroyed including approximately 10,000 depth charges, 1290 torpedoes, 278 midget submarines,100-18 and 100-16 naval guns and hundreds of guns from 8-14. Caches of small arms and high explosives were also destroyed. The 10th. Australian Bomb Disposal Platoon was responsible for destroying live armaments and many high explosives. These duties were considered the most dangerous of B.C.O.F. operations.

A George Medal was awarded to Corporal J R Sewell of this Unit for exceptional bravery under hazardous conditions in October 1946.

A year later as Sergeant Sewell, he was killed whilst delousing a mine on Skikoku.

At its peak, B.C.O.F. controlled 20,000,000 Japanese in an area of 22.000 square miles, comprising five western prefectures. (Shimani, Yamaguchi, Tottori, Okoyama and Hiroshima), and the whole of Shikoku Island.

4. WIND - DOWN AND WITHDRAWAL

By late 1948 the major tasks of the occupation had been largely completed. By that time the total strength of B.C.O.F was less than 16,000, the AMF and RAAF strengths being respectively 8573 and 2408.

Britain began to withdraw forces in February 1947, due to the Malayan emergency and India withdrew in July 1947 followed by NZ in October 1948, US forces were also being repatriated on the assumption that the various Commonwealth countries would continue to share occupation responsibilities assigned to them in 1946.

Australia made substantial reductions in 1948-9, cutting its Army component from a brigade to one battalion and withdrawing two RAAF Squadrons. The 65th and 66th Battalions returned to Australia to become the 1st. and 2nd Battalions, Royal Australian Regiment, while the 67th Battalion was re-named the 3rd Battalion RAR and remained in Japan. These Battalions became the nucleus of the Australian Regular Army.

With the agreement of the participating governments, the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Australia was discontinued on 31 December 1947, and responsibility for the control and administration of B.C.O.F. was then assigned to the Australian Government.

Following withdrawal of other forces from the end of 1948, BCOF was largely an Australian exercise. However, Australia was unable to accept responsibility for more than the Hiroshima prefecture and one police district (Iwakuni) of Yamagughi prefecture, both in the Inland Sea area of Honshu.

B.C.O.F. Headquarters were at Eta Jima when it performed its wider role in the occupation. When contracted, the headquarters were re-established at Kure, the port where the first B.C.O.F. elements disembarked in 1946. Until the end of 1951, the Kure headquarters included the naval shore establishments, HMAS Commonwealth. B.C.O.F. also maintained a sub area in Tokyo with headquarters at Ebisu. The C.I.C had residences in Kure and Tokyo. In 1949 MacArthur indicated that there was no longer a need for extensive surveillance of the Japanese. The Menzies government, elected in December 1949, viewed the continued occupation as a drain on limited defence resources, which would be put under further strain by the introduction of national service in Australia. On 31 March 1950, the decision was made to withdraw the remaining Australians (2750) within six months.

However outbreak of the Korean War on 25 June 1950 reversed that decision and 3rd Battalion RAR, 77 Squadron, HMAS Bataan and HMAS Shoalhaven were committed to combat in Korea.

B.C.O.F. was officially disbanded on 28 April 1952 when the peace treaty with Japan-the Treaty of San Francisco- was ratified.

With the end of the occupation, the Commonwealth organisation in Japan was re-designated British Commonwealth Forces Korea and continued to supply and administer the Commonwealth forces fighting in Korea. These were progressively scaled down and withdrawn in the two years after the cease-fire of July 1953.

5. ACHIEVEMENTS

From a military viewpoint, the achievements of the occupation were: *conducting the first overseas Occupation of a defeated enemy's homeland in Australian history, *the organisation and maintenance of a supply line stretching for 10,000 km across two hemispheres, giving complete logistic support to B.C.O.F. and all official British Commonwealth nationals in Japan.*integration of the Services; the Deputy C-I-C was generally chosen from the RAF or RAAF *full co-operation with US forces, including training and intermingling in amenities facilities.

It must be emphasised that, until late 1948, in order to counter any organized resistance to the Occupation by the Japanese, B.C.O.F. field units were kept at a combat ready level at all times.

6. MEDICAL PROBLEMS

Medical problems needed constant care, the main being Cholera, which broke out in various parts of Japan each summer. When an out break did occur, B.C.O.F. medical staff assisted Japanese doctors while troops, observing strict precautions, cordoned off the area and exercised close control in co-operation with medical authorities and Japanese police.

7. MISCELLANEOUS

BCOF leave centres were significant. They extended from the IZU Peninsula a hundred miles from Tokyo, to the spas at Beppu, in Kyushu. Notable institutions- the Marunouchi Hotel in the centre of Tokyo and the Kawana Hotel on IZU were available to British Commonwealth and American civilians in Japan.

B.C.O.F. published its own daily newspaper (up to the last two years) called BCON (British Commonwealth Occupation News).

One of B.C.O.F.'s interesting experiments was the encouraging of wives and families of its members, of all ranks. to go to Japan. Approximately 700 families of UK, Australian and Indian servicemen travelled to Japan in 1947 and 1948 (494 wives and 626 children came from Australia). This involved building and planning special houses shops, schools and hospitals Relatively few dependents remained during the last two years.

In Australia itself the general public took little interest in the force.

Personnel who served in Japan received no formal recognition by way of a medal or service clasp, which contributed to a feeling of disaffection and lack of appreciation on the part of many. This latter circumstance was remedied in 1994 through the issue of the Australian Service Medal. US occupation troops were, however, issued with an occupation medal at that time.

8. AWARD OF THE GEORGE MEDAL
CITATION

Corporal J R Sewell NX7351, 10th Australian Bomb Disposal Platoon was awarded the George Medal. The citation reads as follows:

On 22 October 1946 at Onasamishima (MR735.248) the above named NCO was in charge of disposal works assisted by Spr Smith. At approximately 1000 hours a boat loaded with 83 tons of High Explosive and pyrotechnics caught fire. The 56 labourers and crew after being badly burnt jumped into the sea. Cpl Sewell with total disregard for his own safety, swam to a small dinghy and attempted to save as many labourers as possible. After he had rescued 6 the explosive in the boat detonated, killing 1 Australian, Pr. Smith who was on the beach and 14 labourers in the water. Although he Cpl. Sewell suffered head injuries and shock from detonation, he continued to pick up survivors and dispatch them to hospitals for treatment. After arranging for the removal of Spr. Smiths body, he reported back to camp. Japanese survivors state that if it had not been for the untiring efforts of Cpl. Sewed with total disregard for his own personal safety in his efforts to rescue survivors and control panic. a far greater number of Japanese would have perished..

A year later as, Sergeant Sewell, he was killed while delousing a mine on Shikoku Island.

List of Books of interest to members of  B.C.O.F

This web was first published on  9 August 2003
and updated on 25.8.2008

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