The Winton M. Blount Postal History Symposia - Smithsonian ...

7 8 • s m i t h s o n i a n c o n t r i b u t i o n s t o h i s t o ry a n d t e c h n o l o g ylimited number of collectors are actually seeking this material,so while much of this material is scarce or rare, thedemand is not great.AfterwordIn the course of their duty, some of the AustralianBCOF personnel were exposed to residual radiation fromthe atomic bomb. One Australian soldier describes his experience:“We Aussies, our captain told us, had been givenpride of place in BCOF by being stationed in the Hiroshimaprefecture, historic target of the world’s first atomicbomb and the launching site of a new age for mankind . . .“Most of this dead inferno was fairly level and coveredby brown talc- like dust several feet thick in places.The troops found it was a good soft surface on which toplay football!“And so time passed. Four months after reachingHiro shima, I got sick. I began to pass blood in the urineand it burnt. . . . I was taken to 20th Field Ambulance andthen sent by truck and barge to the island of Eta Jima inHiroshima Bay.“I was admitted [to the 130th Australian GeneralHospital] and put to bed and subjected to two days oftests. No organisms were found.“On the third day I was prepared for theatre. Therewas to be a bladder inspection with something knownto doctors as a cystoscope and the rest of the army as ahockey stick. A little blond nurse was fitting a white capon my head.‘That’s funny,’ she said.‘What’s funny?’‘Your hair—it’s all coming out in handfuls.’So it was. We laughed.” 16The writer became a crusader for Australian BCOFveterans who had been exposed to radiation in Hiroshima,after having been denied a disability pension forradiation- related illnesses he claimed were a result of hisBCOF service. 17Notes1. Proclamation Defining Terms for Japanese Surrender,Potsdam, July 26, 1945.2. Data recorded by the Radiation Effects Research Foundation,Hiroshima, Japan.3. Estimated number of deaths associated with the Nagasakiatomic attack is 60,000 to 80,000, according to the RadiationEffects Research Foundation.4. Hirohito, Accepting Potsdam Declaration Radio Broadcast,as recorded by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission,August 14, 1945.5. Australian Department of Defence, The Forgotten Force,“Chapter 7: BCOF: Time for Reappraisal,” quotes statisticsfrom Defence Committee assessment conducted April 22, 1948.By the end of 1947 the entire Indian contingent was gone as weremost of the British and New Zealand forces.6. Peter Bates, “The Long Wait.” Japan and the BritishCommonwealth Occupation Force 1946–52 (London: Brassey’s,1993), pp. 44–51.7. P. Collas, The Postal History of Australian Forces inJapan and Korea, 1945–1957 (Melbourne: Royal Philatelic Societyof Victoria, 1994).8. “Pre- Decimal Postal Rates, Forces Mail and MiscellaneousServices,” Australia Commonwealth Specialists’ Catalogue.9. Marginal notes on proof sheets dated October 1, 1946and attested by officers and manager on October 8, 1946. Theproof sheets were photographed in black and white in the 1970sbefore being broken up and sold to collectors.10. Yoshimi Ito, B.C.O.F. Overprints and British Commonwealthand Indian Military Postal Services in Japan and Korea,Japan Philatelist Club, undated. Quotes letter dated August 17,1950 from F. R. Sinclair, Secretary of the Department of theArmy, Commonwealth of Australia.11. Australian Stamp Monthly¸ December 1946.12. Australian Stamp Monthly, February 1947.13. Letter sent from Kure, Japan by Col. E. Percy Dicksonto Maj. A. Walker, London, April 28, 1948.14. The Australian Commonwealth Specialists’ Catalogue,King George VI, Brusden White, 2006.15. Australian War Memorial, As You Were, 1948, Canberra,ACT: Halstead Press, 1948, Chapter 9; Occupation andThe Forgotten Force, The Australian Military Contribution tothe Occupation of Japan, 1946–1952, Australian Department ofDefense, 2005.16. J. G. Collins, The War of the Veterans, self- published,March 2001.17. Muller, Brumfield, and Kennedy, “Administrative AppealsTribunal, Repatriation Commission Tribunal and J. G.Collins,” VeRBosity, Vol. 16, No. 1, March 21, 2000.BibliographyAustralian Department of Defense. “BCOF: Time for Reappraisal.”In The Forgotten Force: The Australian MilitaryContribution to the Occupation of Japan, 1945–1952. St.Leonards, N. S. W.: Allen & Unwin, 1998.Australian War Memorial. “Occupation.” In As You Were,1948. Canberra, A. C. T.: Halstead Press, 1948.Bates, Peter. “The Long Wait.” In Japan and the British CommonwealthOccupation Force 1946–52. London: Brassey’s,1993.