At its peak, the BCOF committed about 40,000 personnel, that comprised 25% of the occupation force, which was equal to about a third of the number of US military personnel in Japan.
Whilst United States Forces Japan was responsible for military government, BCOF was responsible for supervising demilitarisation and the disposal of Japan's war industries.[1] The BCOF was also responsible for the occupation of the western prefectures of Shimane, Yamaguchi, Tottori, Okayama, Hiroshima, and Shikoku Island. BCOF headquarters was at Kure, a naval port near Hiroshima.[2] At the height of its involvement, the British Commonwealth Occupation Force was responsible for 20 million Japanese citizens in an area of around 57,000 km2.[3]
Occupation
The participation of BCOF in the Allied occupation of Japan was announced on 31 January 1946, but had been planned since the end of the war. On 21 February 1946, the initial contingent arrived at the former Imperial Japanese Navy base at Kure, near the devastated city of Hiroshima, which became the main base for Australian and British warships. A Royal Navy shore party took control of the port and facilities and these were commissioned as HMS Commonwealth on 3 June 1946.[4]
For most of the occupation period, Australia contributed the majority of the BCOF's personnel. The initial BCOF presence included the Australian 34th Brigade; the 9th Brigade, 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force (J Force); and the British Indian Division (BRINDIV) (later known as BRINJAP), a composite British and Indian division made up of the British 5th Infantry Brigade Group (from 2nd Infantry Division in India), and the 268th Indian Infantry Brigade. BCOF was supported by the Women's Auxiliary Service (Burma) (which derived its name from its formation during the Second World War, to provide amenities to Commonwealth forces in the Burmese campaign).
By 1948, BCOF was solely staffed by Australian military personnel, with all British, Indian, and New Zealand troops withdrawn from the occupation.[5]
During 1947, the BCOF began to wind down its presence in Japan. However, BCOF bases provided staging posts for Commonwealth forces deployed to the Korean War, from 1950 onwards. The BCOF was effectively wound-up in 1951, as control of Commonwealth forces in Japan was transferred to British Commonwealth Forces Korea.
^Gillespie, Oliver A. The Pacific. War History Branch, Department Of Internal Affairs. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
Further reading
Singh, Rajendra (1958). Post-War Occupation Forces: Japan and South-East Asia. Delhi: Combined Inter-Services Historical Section (India & Pakistan) India, Orient Longmans [distributor]. OCLC518916.
George Davies, The Occupation of Japan: The Rhetoric and the Reality of Anglo-Australasian relations 1939 – 1952, 2001
John Dower, Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II, 2000
Melissa Miles & Robin Gerster, Pacific Exposures: Photograph and the Australia-Japan Relationship, 2018
Peter Bates, Japan and the British Commonwealth Occupation Force 1946 – 1952, 1993
Robin Gerster, Travels in Atomic Sunshine: Australia and the Occupation of Japan, 2008
Takemae Eiji, The Allied Occupation of Japan, 2002
Spencer, Tom (July–August 2001). "Land of the Rising Sun: British Commonwealth Air Occupation Force, Japan 1945–1948". Air Enthusiast. No. 94. pp. 62–66. ISSN0143-5450.