Upon the surrender of Japan which ended the combat phase of the Second World War the Americans made a request for allied forces including New Zealanders, Australians, Canadians and Indians to supply an occupying force for Japan. In February 1946 a contingent was sent to restore peace, clear up debris from the atomic blast, help rebuild and direct Japan into becoming a democratic society.
Prime Minister Peter Fraser wanted the 5000 strong New Zealand contribution to be drawn from single male volunteers from the troops destined to come home from the war in Europe. Few volunteered as most were keen to get back to family and friends after having survived the war. As a result all single non-Maori men from the 13th 14th and 15th reinforcements were conscripted for the force.
Back home however there was no shortage of volunteers to go to Japan with applications coming from returned servicemen who were having trouble readjusting to civilian life as well as from young men and women who had missed out on wartime service and wanted adventure.
Between May 1946 and August 1947 four relief drafts were dispatched from New Zealand to Japan. These relief drafts also included women in the form of nurses, shorthand typists, hostesses and welfare staff.
Known as J-Force their policing duties included monitoring black market groups and also large gatherings of people on public occasions and generally keeping law and order until a civilian government could be established. J-Force also assisted the Americans in promoting democracy in Japan by supervising local and national elections for the prefecture.
A number of local men joined up. Well-known among these were twins Colin and Clive Thorne, Jack Snowsill and Darcy Christiansen. Colin and Clive’s older brother Jim had gone in an earlier draft and in a letter home encouraged his twin brothers to join him.
Earlier this week I spoke to sprightly 87-year-old surviving identical twin Clive Thorne about his experiences in the war-torn nation. They were in an unsettled country on active service as peacekeepers, but their role as it happened was not too arduous. Clive said he and Colin played in the company brass band and so they didn’t face too many situations that might have been considered threatening.
They were issued with clarinet and a side drum rather than arms though towards the end of their tour of duty they did do a three month stint on guard duty as camp police. On that occasion they were each given a rifle with a bayonet, with just one round of ammunition in the breech to be used as a warning shot and a 38 pistol with two rounds.
Band members were also trained as stretcher bearers, but Clive said this skill was never called upon.
They got on well with their charges and most of the more dangerous situations were tackled by the American 11th Airborne Division who had been selected by General Douglas McArthur to lead the American forces that would also occupy Japan.
Clive said they were paid in pounds sterling and the exchange rate with the yen was set at an artificially low rate in an effort to slow inflation. On pay day he said they could swap a British sixpence with one of the locals for 100 yen. A jug of beer was just ten yen so you could get 10 jugs of beer for sixpence!
In April 1948 the New Zealand government made the decision to withdraw from Japan. Once back in New Zealand J-Force personnel found they were treated differently from World War II veterans. Their service went unrecognised and until 1956 they were not eligible to join the RSA or receive war pensions. It was not until 1995 that the New Zealand Service Medal 1946 – 1949 was instituted to recognise the service of J-Force veterans in Japan
Not that the local contingent minded. They hadn’t faced combat and they came home worldly-wise and subsequently made big contributions to our community.
Coincidentally, all were extremely talented musicians and in the 1950’s and beyond you could scarcely attend a dance hall or a ball without at least one or perhaps all of them being on the stage. Colin Thorne played the drums and Clive the tenor sax with older brother Jim on the clarinet. Darcy Christiansen was a trombonist and Jack Snowsill played the piano and the xylophone.
Clive and Colin took up that most dangerous of occupations - aerial topdressing. They were exceptionally skilled pilots, but weaving an aeroplane in and out of Wairarapa’s steep hill country is not for the faint-of-heart. They saw many of their colleagues in the same industry crash and burn and indeed Colin’s career came to an abrupt end after a near-fatal accident in 1966 when the tail wheel fell of his Beaver aircraft during take-off.
Jack Snowsill became a chemist in the town centre and Darcy Christiansen a builder on his own account. Clive, Jack and Darcy still play when asked and have lost none of their skills which were, and still are, considerable.
Japan survived the occupation and emerged as one of the most prosperous nations on earth. They haven’t kept inflation in check though. I noticed recently that a bottle of beer in Tokyo costs 600 yen.
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