Description |
1 online resource (xii, 191 pages, 12 unnumbered pages of plates) : illustrations, portraits |
Physical Medium |
polychrome |
Description |
text file |
Note |
"This book is based on my PhD thesis at the Australian Defence Force Academy, University of New South Wales."--Page viii. |
Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 169-176) and index. |
Summary |
In July 1940, the wives and children of British families in Hong Kong, military and civilian, were compulsorily evacuated, following a plan created by the Hong Kong government in 1939. That plan focused exclusively on the process of evacuation, but issues concerning how the women and children should settle in the new country, communication with abandoned husbands, and reuniting families after the war were not considered. In practice, few would ever be addressed. When evacuation came, 3,500 people would simply be dumped in Australia. The experience of the evacuees can be seen as a three-act drama: delivery to Australia creates tension, five years of war and uncertainty intensify it, and resolution comes as war ends. However, that drama, unlike the evacuation plan, did not develop in a vacuum but was embedded in a complex historical, political, and social environment. Based on archival research of official documents, letters and memoirs, and interviews and discussions with more than one hundred evacuees and their families, this book studies the evacuation in its full context. |
Contents |
1. Planning -- 2. Evacuation -- 3. Arrival in Australia -- 4. 1941 : pre-Pacific War Australia -- 5. War : Australia, 1942-1944 -- 6. 1945 : War and peace -- Britain, Hong Kong, or stay? |
Local Note |
eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - North America |
Subject |
Evacuation of civilians (1939-1945 : World War) |
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World War (1939-1945) |
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World War, 1939-1945 -- Women -- Australia.
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World War, 1939-1945 -- Women -- China -- Hong Kong.
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World War, 1939-1945 -- Evacuation of civilians -- China -- Hong Kong.
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Chronological Term |
1939-1945 |
Genre/Form |
Electronic books.
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Added Title |
Evacuation of British women and children from Hong Kong to Australia in 1940 |
Other Form: |
Print version: Banham, Tony, 1959- Reduced to a symbolical scale. Hong Kong : Hong Kong University Press, [2017] 9789888390878 (OCoLC)987684508 |
ISBN |
9789888390489 (electronic book) |
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9888390481 (electronic book) |
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9789888390878 |
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9888390872 |
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