Abstract
This paper examines the meaning of 'the Pacific' in Australia in the 1920s. Although we now call the region which we belong to the Asia-Pacific region, not many studies have been done on the historical construction of this term. Current discussion on regional integration in Australia is mainly about Australia's relations with Asia. This is due to the relative power shift to the countries in Asia. In the 1920s, the region was called the Pacific and the colonial framework was absolute. The only countries which were called Pacific 'nations' in Asia were Japan and China, and even they were often referred to as the Orient, somewhere rather exotic and mysterious. Examination of the Australian branch of the Institute of Pacific Relations (IPR) shows that the concept of the Pacific as an independent entity was a challenge to the existing British imperial order in Australia in the 1920s. The government as well as many intellectuals took the idea to be dangerous. This concept of the Pacific was related to American involvement in the region, as the IPR was also initiated by American scholars, businessmen and missionaries. The difficulties of acceptance of this organization meant that the initiative of the USA in the region was not easily accepted in the 1920s.While those who gathered at the IPR in Australia and voiced the importance of regional awareness should be re-evaluated as pioneers of this regional movement, they were also confined by the time they lived in. They assumed a colonial framework, and their attitudes to the countries in Asia, were often paternalistic at best. Now in a time of dynamic power shift, the lessons of these pioneers of regionalism in the 1920s should be recognized.
