[Editor: This is a chapter from the novel The Coloured Conquest (1904) by “Rata” (Thomas Richard Roydhouse).]
Chapter XIII.
The Japanese land in Sydney. — Treatment of the citizens.
There would be nothing gained by dwelling on the details of what followed.
Several books could be written about them; there is no dearth of material; but I only undertook to lightly sketch the main incidents of the upheaval that led to the whole world coming under Coloured rule, with the Japanese as the supreme nation.
The Japanese came to Sydney in due course.
They came to all Australia, and soon their occupancy was complete.
I was in Sydney for the invasion, having left my people at Springwood on the Blue Mountains. They were proceeding thence to Bathurst with a party of friends. Lieutenant Thomas, mentioned in the earlier part of this narrative, was driving the vehicle I had commandeered. I had been jealous of him, once, but now knew that Mabel’s heart was mine, and Thomas I regarded as a true friend.
I had gazed after them as I turned to leave Springwood. They were standing on the verandah of the Oriental Hotel, side by side, my mother near by.
I was struck at the time by the harmony between them in respect of lightness of color of hair and clearness of skin. For myself, I was dark, and I sighed as I thought of it — why I could not have told. Was there some premonition?
I wanted to ascertain what was likely to happen as a result of Japanese occupancy, so that I might be able to warn my people early.
Thousands of men, women and children were congregated at South Head the day the Japanese arrived.
Some torpedo boat destroyers first raced into view, followed by a line of beautiful cruisers, and another of stately battleships.
A steamer containing the Japanese Acting Consul-General, the Lord Mayor of Sydney, and the Premier, among others, was waiting outside the Heads.
The Japanese Admiral was communicated with, and assured that Sydney would make no defence.
The forts were, in fact, deserted; and Sydney, the once beautiful lay in black ruins.
There was one man, however, who determined that the Japanese should not have it all their own way. This was a member of the Submarine Miners’ Corps, and he lived at Chowder Bay. He had quietly (it afterwards came out) laid a number of mines between the Heads and in the main harbor channels, and he watched the Japanese vessels with his finger on the key of the instrument of communication.
Thus it was that the people on South Head suddenly saw several explosions in the water between the Heads, and witnessed the blowing to pieces of one of the finest battleships of the fleet.
Two cruisers and a torpedo-boat destroyer were similarly disposed of as they proceeded up the harbour.
The Japanese Admiral at once gave orders that the Premier and Lord Mayor should be hanged. The Acting Consul-General, however, managed to convince him that those gentleman were innocent, and their lives were spared, though the Admiral declared he would have a full inquiry made in Sydney, and then determine to whom punishment should be meted out. Some one would have to suffer for it.
* * *
Ten thousand troops were landed the first day, and took possession of the whole of the Metropolis.
Placards printed in English were posted everywhere, warning all persons possessed of firearms of any sort that they must at once deliver them up.
“If any cannon, gun, rifle, or pistol, or any other firearm, is found in the possession of any person after two days have passed the penalty will be death.”
Thus run the notice.
It was found necessary to carry out the penalty in only a few cases. Three persons were hanged in George-st., Sydney, one at Parramatta, one at Hornsby, and one at Penrith.
Later on there were some cases in the country, but the promptness with which the Japanese executed any person found with a firearm had its effect.
“Thorough” was the Japanese motto.
There were no excuses, no arguments — just death.
* * *
The morning papers came out as usual after the landing of the Japanese. They told of similar landings in Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane, Fremantle and elsewhere.
The cables were in full work, and the story that came over them — from Japanese senders in London — was that India and Africa were now under Coloured rule. Europe was being invaded by a Yellow and Brown army that was just eating it up, like a plague of locusts, and the Japanese flag was flying over the British Isles.
America and Canada were as yet untouched, but there could be no question as to their fate. The eight million Negroes included in the population of the United States were already holding camp meetings and singing songs welcoming the approach of the new era, when the long-despised Coloured man would rule.
Criminal assaults upon White women had increased enormously in the United States during the past month or two, and Japanese agents had warned the Negroes that they would be punished for such excesses a little later if they persisted in them.
So ran the cablegrams.
The Japanese Admiral received numerous official messages, and sent them to the morning papers with instructions to publish.
It appeared from these that the Japanese plan was a very simple one. The British fleets being destroyed, the Brown men could land anywhere on British soil — sometimes with a fight, sometimes secretly.
District or sectional disarmament quickly extended, and the cutting off of food supplies arriving from oversea were effective in every instance.
The army of occupation in the British Isles was not large, but swift crushing of those who were even suspected of contemplating some overt act against it increased its power. Every force that endeavoured to check its progress into the country was pushed back with great slaughter by the superior guns worked by the world’s best gunners.
Japanese guns outranged those of the British, and the latter were smashed by shell fire before they could get near enough to hit back.
A cruel feature of the investment — an interesting one the Japanese cable described it — was that the Japanese brought a large number of Indian troops with them, all in their British uniforms.
There were two or more Indian regiments in all the great cities of Britain, and they lorded it over the White people as (so they said) the Whites had lorded it over them in India.
* * *
A Japanese manager who could talk English was put in charge of every place of business in Sydney. All White people employed therein were given a ration consisting mainly of rice, and told that they would get two suits a year, one of woollen material and the other of cotton.
“But what of my family?”, asked the department manager of a large store.
“Your family will not trouble you,” replied the Japanese. “The Mikado’s Australian Government is providing for all the people. Your wife will be employed, probably, in a factory; those of your children over seven will go to work of some kind or other.”
“Why, they haven’t left school!” gasped the unfortunate manager. His brain, like that of many another citizen in that terrible hour of stress, had become affected, so that he failed to realise the situation.
“Schools are abolished,” returned the Japanese, in whose face there was as much expression as in a stone. “The Mikado’s Australian Government,” he went on, “will not educate any White children. In two or three generations the White people will become accustomed to their position, and will not, what you call, buck up; but if the children learn to read, and are allowed to read, they will never feel comfortable. You understand?”
The White man understood. Even his confused mind grasped the fact that the Brown rulers were taking the surest step to crush nationality. The Whites alive fifty years hence would know nothing of the grand past of the nation to which they belonged. To those who had been told it would all seem but a dream.
“My wife! Have you taken my wife?” demanded the manager.
“I cannot say; but you will not see her again. You will live here.”
“In the store?”
“In the store — for the present. The Director-General of Supplies Distribution may make other arrangements later on.”
“My wife! Where is she?”
“I cannot furnish any more information. The Government tell us to be courteous as ever to the White people, though firm. You will now proceed to your work.”
“But ——”
The Japanese officer — all officials, civil as well as military, were uniformed and carried arms — silenced him with a gesture towards his sword.
* * *
The scene was repeated all over Sydney, and later in the country towns. Sometimes it was accompanied with violence; but only those present knew of that. There was no Press record of such disturbances; if there was the Whites knew nothing of it. Only Japanese papers were now published. The English papers were suppressed the day after the landing. It was but natural that the comments of some, though conciliatory, had given offence to the pride-swollen conquerors.
A few of these were very arrogant.
One of the cruel scenes of those early days of Japanese rule that linger in my mind — and is at this moment a vivid brain picture — was associated with the Press.
The proprietors, editors, managers and staffs of the various newspapers were required to parade outside their respective offices, and there at the order of the Japanese officers shout —
“Banzai, Japan!” (Long live Japan.)
The grey-headed chief of one of the principal newspapers — a man who all esteemed — could not be induced to utter the words. He was roughly dragged in front of his own men, and ordered to shout by himself.
Still his tongue was silent.
The staff looked on, their finger-nails eating into the palms of clenched hands; their faces distorted with rage.
There would have been death for some of the group — including the swaggering Japanese tormentor — had not a superior officer come along and rebuked him for satisfying his personal antipathy at the expense of the dignity of the Mikado’s Australian Government.
All the newspaper staffs were ordered to the Northern rivers, there to assist in preparing the country for agriculture.
The Premier and his Ministers, together with the Parliament, received precisely similar treatment.
One Member openly and vigorously reviled the Japanese, expressing the bitterness that was kept locked in the bosoms of the Whites generally, and was shot.
There were many of his colleagues who said afterwards that he was better off than they, and regretted that they had not for that occasion permitted impulse to overleap caution.
The electric light, gas, water and sewerage, and street-cleaning men were continued in their respective occupations for the time being, but Japanese filled all the positions of authority, as they did in every other avenue of work or business in Sydney. The men, of course, received no pay. Regular rations (mostly rice) and two suits a year were provided.
The Japanese in conversation with me on the subject later on, always claimed that they treated the Whites well, and laid special stress on the grant to workers of two suits of clothes per year.
Hours of ordinary labour fixed upon were simple — from daylight to dark. In certain occupations — such as baking, to mention one — special hours had to be arranged; but twelve hours’ work per day was about the average for White workers as a whole, city and country. There was no Sunday rest.
I remember an incident in connection with the wharf labourers. They were all kept on the same terms as other White workers as explained above. A deputation was appointed — and it had to be done very quietly — to expostulate with the Superintendent of Wharves, a Japanese, it is hardly necessary to state, seeing that no position of overseeing was held by a White.
The deputation went to the Superintendent’s office — and was never afterwards heard of.
I was surprised that the Superintendent received it, but, perhaps, it was done in order to set an example. I know that the papers (now exclusively Japanese) commented jokingly on the occurrence, and expressed the opinion that “deputations were not likely to become popular.”
Many men who had not been used to the strain of long hours of exacting labour and such poor food soon sickened. In some localities they died off like flies in winter.
Others just pined away, and it seemed to me that there was many a death from broken heart.
They were buried as the Whites used to bury domestic animals — a hole dug, the body placed in it, and earth thrown over. I saw one or two such funerals, if I may so term them. It so happened that I could not avoid them. Even now I hear the muttered prayers strangely mingled with curses of one or two of the roughened White men standing round, and see the glitter of hate flash into eyes kept mostly downcast for fear of inviting insult or worse.
The cowed White people were nothing more than the slaves of the conquerors. They did all the work; leading citizens performing some of the most menial duties for their Japanese masters.
The White children were all taken from their parents and placed on Government farms and in Government institutions until old enough to work. They commenced to earn their rice at seven years of age.
* * *
The Metropolis was subdivided into one hundred divisions, and one full company of Infantry with one Maxim and one Pom-pom were located in every division. They never had to fire a shot.
The remainder of the troops were utilised for service in the North and South, and for an expedition over the Blue Mountains. But for a time the Japanese did not trouble much about the back country. They would deal with that when they had properly settled the fertile coastal districts.
Every day or two a steamer put in an appearance from Japan, and some hundreds of Japanese were landed. They all had sections of land to go to, and were provided with numbers indicating the district and section. They were settled speedily, and without the slightest trouble or friction.
Needless to say they were delighted with the country, and laughed with childish glee as they for the first time ordered or kicked their White slaves.
It was a favourite amusement of the Japanese in most centres of New South Wales for many years afterwards to get a number of Europeans standing in a row and make them salute and say:
“Banzai Japan!”
Many a time did I see the tears roll down cheeks of poor old White men as they saluted.
More than once I was witness of a scene when a White man, thus tortured, flung himself with the cry of a wild beast at the Japanese nearest him — only to be run through with the long heavy knife most Japanese carried, and his body spurned with derisive yells.
Truly the Australians were paying for their neglect of proper defence precautions.
An Empire standing solid in respect of Naval defence would have been able to build sufficient ships to prevent this thing. And had there been co-operation of the English-speaking peoples general safety would have been assured.
But why trouble to write of “might-have-beens” now? At any rate, it is not my task. I leave that to the Japanese naval scientists who often discuss it amongst themselves, or in the Japanese journals.
I merely chronicle what happened, and that only in skeleton form, for a detailed recital would fill many volumes.
And why write them when there are none to read? For am I not now the only free White man in all the world — free because I am the friend of Taksuma, who is full cousin to the Admiral-Governor, and who has stood between me and Yoko’s vengeance.
Source:
Rata, The Coloured Conquest, Sydney (NSW): N.S.W. Bookstall Co., 1904, pp. 99-110
Editor’s notes:
Banzai = a Japanese celebration; the word “Banzai” means “ten thousand years”, regarded as a way of wishing someone a long life — it was especially used to wish a long life for the Japanese Emperor, being a shortened version of the phrase “Tennōheika Banzai!” (i.e. “Long live His Majesty the Emperor”) and was used as a battle cry by Japanese soldiers during the Second World War (especially known for infantry “Banzai charges”, which were virtually suicide attacks), although the word is used in modern times by Japanese people as a patriotic cry or a joyous shout (e.g. “Banzai Japan!”, meaning “Long live Japan!”)
See: “Ten thousand years”, Wikipedia
Banzai Japan = “Long live Japan!” [see: Banzai]
dearth = lack, scarcity
determined = decided, resolved (can also mean: of firm decision, of unwavering mind, resolute, unwavering; to have decided to do something, especially in the face of difficulties)
expostulate = remonstrate; to argue or reason with someone, especially to talk them out of doing something or to rebuke them for something done
Heads = Sydney Heads, the headlands at the entrance to Sydney Harbour (New South Wales)
Maxim = the Maxim machine gun, which used .303 inch (7.7mm) calibre ammunition; it was invented by Hiram Stevens Maxim in 1884, and was the first recoil-operated machine gun
See: “Maxim gun”, Wikipedia
Member = (in the context of parliament or parliamentarians) Member of Parliament
oversea = an alternative form of “overseas”
paper = newspaper
Pom-pom = the QF 1-pounder, an autocannon (produced by Maxim-Nordenfelt, and later by Vickers, Sons and Maxim) which used 37mm calibre ammunition; it was invented by Hiram Stevens Maxim in the late 1880s, basically as a larger version of the Maxim machine gun; it gained its nickname of “pom pom” from the sound it made when firing
[Editor: Changed “the Japanese Acting-Consul-General” to “the Japanese Acting Consul-General” (in line with the other mention of the “Acting Consul-General” in the same chapter).]
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