Abstract
This paper examines a peace movement active in the 1950s and the 1960s, directed by Hector Chalmers, a former Australian POW in a Japanese internment camp. Chalmers led several organisations after the war, ranging from an anti-nuclear campaign to an organisation for exservicemen and women. His case was unique in that the dominant role in representing ex-servicemen and women at the time was taken by the Returned and Services League (RSL), an organization which tended to glorify the war. Japanese and Australian peace organisations tried to support each other in the peace movement after the Second World War, but these collaborations were hindered by strong opposition fuelled by anti-Japanese feeling. The post-war peace movement discussed here, led by an ex-POW, is worthy of study not only in order to enable us to understand the meaning of an ex-POWs wartime experience and its effect on his post-war life, but also to enable us to rethink the past and the future of Australia-Japan relations.
