Military Labourers and Sexual Violence in the New Guinea Campaign of the Pacific War, 1942–5

Abstract

ABSTRACT Australia recruited tens of thousands of local military labourers in the New Guinea Campaign (1942–5) of the Pacific War. This article suggests that widespread Australian military incorporation of local people in the war effort rendered Papuan and New Guinean women vulnerable to sexual abuse and exploitation by the Japanese military. These abuses were sometimes facilitated by men organized in Australia’s labour indenturing scheme, both before and during the war. The article describes this historical connection in order to shed new light on the ‘comfort women’ system from an allied perspective. Its conclusions extend a trajectory of research forged by the late Hank Nelson in his groundbreaking 2008 article published in the Journal of Pacific History.