Pam Oliver’s book, Empty North: The Japanese Presence and Australian Reactions 1860s to 1942, has recently been announced the winner of this year’s Chief Minister’s Northern Territory History Book Award.
Chair of the CDU Press Editorial Board, Dr David Mearns, accepted the prize on behalf of Pam Oliver, who was unable to attend the ceremony which was held at Parliament House.
Empty North considers the positive nature of Japanese immigration to the north of Australia alongside the fear many Australians developed of Japanese resident in White Australia after 1901.
The book examines key questions including: What part did Japanese people play in the positive development of Australia's Northern Territory? Were Australians' fears of Japanese residents justified? Were Japanese immigrants an official part of Japan's program of southern expansion before World War 2? Did they prepare for Japan's bombing of Australia? These questions and more are examined in Pam Oliver's book within the context of Australia's relations with Japan and Japan's expansion into South East Asia and the Pacific regions.
Dr Pam Oliver is an Honorary Research Associate at Monash University. She has published widely on the Australia-Japan relationship and Japanese immigration to and networks within Australia.
The other titles on the shortlist for the award were: Liam Campbell's Darby - One Hundred Years of Life in a Changing Culture and Glenice Yee's Through Chinese Eyes. Further information about the prize is available at: www.ntl.nt.gov.au/news/events/history
Empty North and other CDU Press publications are available from the CDU Bookshop: order on-line at www.cdu.edu.au/bookshop, or email: bookshop@cdu.edu.au.
Further information on CDU Press and its publications can be found at: www.cdu.edu.au/cdupress. To join the mailing list to receive information on CDU Press titles, email cdupress@cdu.edu.au.
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