Name: Fellows & Friends of History seminar: Dr Georgina Fitzpatrick on Eric Shimada (1912-2010)
Start: 2024-06-27T10:00:00+10:00
Location: 257 Old Arts building, University of Melbourne, Parkville campus

Fellows & Friends of History seminar: Dr Georgina Fitzpatrick on Eric Shimada (1912-2010)

Dr Georgina Fitzpatrick, 'The Man of Two Uniforms: Eric Shimada (1912-2010), interpreter at Australia’s War Crimes Trials, 1945-46'
Fellows & Friends of History seminar
5:00pm for 5:30pm
Eric Shimada or Shimada Masakazu (1912-2010) was a linguist from Japan with a very unusual pathway into the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS). He interpreted at some of Australia’s war crimes trials held on Ambon and Morotai in early 1946. He later went on to interpret at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (the Tokyo Trial).
This paper focusses on his period of interpreting for the Australians. It charts his pathway from pre-war journalist in Tokyo to captured enemy personnel to interpreter at Australia’s trials of so-called ‘minor’ war criminal suspects Using trial transcripts, archival files from the Australian War Memorial and the National Archives, interviews with Australian interpreters and family information. I consider his anomalous trajectory within the context of the widespread problems of finding linguists of sufficient calibre to interpret at Australia’s 300 trials and the ambiguous position of linguists from the ranks of the defeated Japanese forces.
Georgina Fitzpatrick, formerly Research Fellow (Historian) at the Asia-Pacific Centre for Military Law, Melbourne Law School, is lead author of Australia’s War Crimes Trials, 1945-51, Leiden: Brill, 2016, with Tim McCormack and Narrelle Morris. As the historian among the international lawyers, she wrote 11 of the 23 chapters. The book was short-listed for the NSW Premier’s Australian History Award in 2017. She has continued publishing book chapters and articles on aspects of the trials; in particular, the provision of interpreters.
$10.00 for talk and refreshments
Bookings: email Graham Dudley on [email protected]
Payment in cash on 26 June 2024 or direct into SHAPS bank account; please email Graham for details.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

257 Old Arts building, University of Melbourne, Parkville campus, Arts Centre Building 199, 757 Swanston St, Parkville VIC 3052, Australia,Melbourne, Victoria, Australia