Hi,
this is Ryuko. I just came back to Tokyo from Sydney.
I went National Archives of
Australia (NAA), Sydney Office for 11 days to research the collections. Among
them, there are records of Japanese companies which were active in the country
before the WWII.
On December 8, 1941, Japan declared war
against the Allied. Since that day, the government of the Allied seized
properties of Japanese citizens and companies, created and preserved for
conducting their affairs. As soon as the war broke out, the Australian
government duly started taking over records of Japanese companies.
The Japanese Company Records Project was launched in 2003 by Gakushuin
University Prof. A by the national scientific research fund. Every year, one
of the graduate students of doctoral course in Archival Science can go with
him together with other researchers. It was my turn this year. Our duty was cataloging
those records. Working began at 10:00am and closed at 4:45pm every day. The records were contained in the carton boxes but some of them were got dusty and damaged by moisture. Look at the photographs of working place.
NAA, Sydney Office locates in the suburbs, as far as 45 minutes by
train from the center of Sydney. Getting off the train at Chesterhill Station, we
must walk for 20 or 25 minutes on the way up and down sloping road, through the
middle-class residential area, carrying a note PC on our back.
This is Kazu,
ReplyDeleteI think you have had a great experience! I am jealous.
This is Minori Nagata.
ReplyDeleteI've never been to Sydney.
I think you were busy and worked hard during the summer vacation.
This is Marino.
ReplyDeleteyou had a great expereince in Sydeny.
It was very interesting to know that there were a lot of Japanese records about the WW2 in Australia. I didn't know that fact, so i'm quite surprised.
Is this Blog #4? Please change the title.
ReplyDeleteHow will you use the information you collected? Did you have any fun while you were there?
Ms. MacGregor
Thank you for your comment, Ms.MacGregor. The information we collected is useful for Japanese economic history researchers, who want to see the firsthand documents, which Japanese citizens and companies created and preserved for conducting their affairs before WWII in Australia. It is very interesting to see the point of view between the War and withdrawing assets.
ReplyDeleteAfter staying in Sydney, we transferred to Cambera to visit the head office of NAA. On Sunday, I visited the National Musium and the War Memorial, where there were several kinds of Japanese archives during the WWII on South Pacific Ocean.
Ryuko