Behind barbed wire

This website is about my research into the experiences of Japanese “enemy aliens” in Australia.
Few people know that 4301 Japanese civilians were interned in Australia during World War 2 in remote camps in NSW and South Australia. The research I did in 2009-2013 informed my debut
novel After Darkness (Allen & Unwin, 2014). If you have a story to share on this subject, or would
like to know more about me, please go to the “Contact” page of this site.

Evelyn’s family had a soy sauce factory on Thursday Island. When she was 13, she woke on December 8, 1941 to find a barbed wire fence had been built around their entire community. Everyone was arrested and interned. Evelyn and her family remained behind barbed wire for six years…

Mary Nakashiba

Mary was arrested as a 15-year-old. She and her family were transported from their home in Darwin south by ship. She remembered the crowd of people that greeted them as they got off the ship in Sydney, yelling, “Kill them! Shoot the bastards!”…

Maurice Shiosaki

Maurice was interned as a 2-year-old alongside his parents and 7 siblings. To pass the time, he flew kites and had sumo matches with the other kids. Maurice’s father had run a laundry business in Broome, but during internment he lost everything...