Robin Gerster is a professor in the School of Languages, Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics at Monash University. He is the author of several books, including the award-winning study Big-noting: the heroic theme in Australian war writing (1987); the travel book Legless in Ginza: orientating Japan (1999); the critical anthologies Hotel Asia (1995) and On the Warpath (2004), and Pacific Exposures: photography and the Australia-Japan relationship (2018), co-authored with Melissa Miles.His articles have been published extensively in scholarly journals in both Australia and abroad, and he has been a frequent writer of travel pieces for newspapers and magazines.

'Drawing extensively on diary entries, papers and personal interviews with Australian soldiers, Gerster paints an intricate portrait of the moral and cultural disorientation felt by the Aussie ‘conquerors’ as they came to terms with not only an enemy decimated by atomic horror but alsotheir own inherent prejudices ... the book is an immense achievement of research and a timely reminder of the tightrope balance of foreign occupation, a message that has particular relevance in today’s post-9/11 climate. It will be particularly popular among avid history readers looking for a new angle on the wartime Australian experience.'

Robin Gerster is a professor in the School of Languages, Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics at Monash University. He is the author of several books, including the award-winning study Big-noting: the heroic theme in Australian war writing (1987); the travel book Legless in Ginza: orientating Japan (1999); the critical anthologies Hotel Asia (1995) and On the Warpath (2004), and Pacific Exposures: photography and the Australia-Japan relationship (2018), co-authored with Melissa Miles.His articles have been published extensively in scholarly journals in both Australia and abroad, and he has been a frequent writer of travel pieces for newspapers and magazines.

'Drawing extensively on diary entries, papers and personal interviews with Australian soldiers, Gerster paints an intricate portrait of the moral and cultural disorientation felt by the Aussie ‘conquerors’ as they came to terms with not only an enemy decimated by atomic horror but alsotheir own inherent prejudices ... the book is an immense achievement of research and a timely reminder of the tightrope balance of foreign occupation, a message that has particular relevance in today’s post-9/11 climate. It will be particularly popular among avid history readers looking for a new angle on the wartime Australian experience.'

Robin Gerster is a professor in the School of Languages, Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics at Monash University. He is the author of several books, including the award-winning study Big-noting: the heroic theme in Australian war writing (1987); the travel book Legless in Ginza: orientating Japan (1999); the critical anthologies Hotel Asia (1995) and On the Warpath (2004), and Pacific Exposures: photography and the Australia-Japan relationship (2018), co-authored with Melissa Miles.His articles have been published extensively in scholarly journals in both Australia and abroad, and he has been a frequent writer of travel pieces for newspapers and magazines.

'Drawing extensively on diary entries, papers and personal interviews with Australian soldiers, Gerster paints an intricate portrait of the moral and cultural disorientation felt by the Aussie ‘conquerors’ as they came to terms with not only an enemy decimated by atomic horror but alsotheir own inherent prejudices ... the book is an immense achievement of research and a timely reminder of the tightrope balance of foreign occupation, a message that has particular relevance in today’s post-9/11 climate. It will be particularly popular among avid history readers looking for a new angle on the wartime Australian experience.'