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This thesis explores the British Commonwealth experience of occupation in Japan from 1945-1952. It draws on official and private records from the four participating British Commonwealth countries ??? Australia, Britain, India and New Zealand- to examine the complex relationship that developed between the occupying troops and the occupied Japanese population in the period between the cessation of hostilities and the formal ratification of a Peace Treaty. The thesis begins with an analysis of the preconceptions British Commonwealth troops brought with them to Japan, to establish the context for their cross-cultural encounter with Japan and the Japanese people. An understanding of the historical background enables the impressions formed by BCOF troops during the occupation to be presented not as random observations, but as part of a tradition of contact and cultural critique. The British Commonwealth experience in Japan was shaped by a number of external factors. Delays in moving to Japan weakened media and public interest in the force, eroded morale and precipitated a ???foreign force??? mentality. Once in Japan, the dominant US presence, the subordinate status of BCOF and the shortcomings of the isolated, rural area allocated to the force were a source of disappointment and frustration. But the difficulties attending British Commonwealth involvement in the occupation should not obscure the simultaneous development of a significant cultural encounter. The circumstances of the occupation created a particular dynamic between BCOF troops and Japanese civilians. The responsibilities and obligations that SCAP conferred on the British Commonwealth force invested BCOF personnel with authority over the Japanese. The disparity in power was reinforced by participation in occupation tasks that confirmed their status as occupiers. The occupation relationship was heavily influenced by the nature of personal interactions established between BCOF personnel and the Japanese people. Service in Japan provided opportunities for troops to reassess their views of the Japanese in the light of personal experience. For some, the cultural differences they observed only reinforced their sense of the ???otherness??? of the Japanese. For many others, the occupation provided a bridge between war and peace, as contact with Japanese people eased the intense hatreds generated during the war. For most British Commonwealth personnel, service with BCOF impacted in some way on the beliefs they held about Japan and the Japanese.

Historically, most research on Indigenous peoples has been framed by Western empirical positivism which fundamentally conflicts with Indigenous circular ways of knowing. Current research governing bodies, scholars, and Indigenous communities have generated new theories and guidelines for research structures that support respectful and meaningful practices with Indigenous peoples. Participatory action research (PAR) attempts to address the unequal power structures inherent in research relationships: participants set the agenda for the research and are co-researchers in the project. In this study, I placed PAR theory into action to problematize research practices and to generate new discourses for research within an Indigenous context. The Lil’wat Nation and I collaborated on a PAR project in 2006-2007 that led to the formation of the Lil’wat Girls’ and Women’s Affirmation Group. Through the process of reflection-in-action we identified several opportunities for growth as we examined PAR theory in practice. Using decolonizing research methods and a metaphor of the Lil’wat s7istken (pit house), the model of practice wove between three distinct worlds with divergent protocols and pedagogies: the worlds of the Lil’wat, academia, and the researcher’s racialized lived experiences. This model of practice aimed to disrupt the essentialized dichotomies of Indigenous and non-Indigenous relationships and to problematize research practices for the academic and research communities to consider for their practice. The findings exposed several lessons at sites of praxis pertaining to the intersection of PAR theory and practice: definition of the community; ethics in the community; racialized researcher space; and PAR incongruence. The model was intended not as a “how to” manual, but as an entry point for discussions to advance respectful decolonizing research practices.

This thesis examines cross-cultural relationships between Indigenous and Settler women to challenge the dominant historiography that has overlooked women's lived experiences, and fill a gap in the literature concerning Indigenous – Settler relations. Conceptualizing the history of Indigenous – Settler relations as microhistories, this thesis argues that an increase of in case studies that are focused on Indigenous women’s experiences, are useful to nuance how historians think about colonialism at a macro level. Using a diaological approach I have situated myself as a participant within the research project and was able to partake in oral history interviews with Stó:lō and Settler women throughout the lower mainland in British Columbia. Throughout my discussions, it became apparent that female cross-cultural relationships occurred at certain places. Thus, this project analyzes the nature of female cross-cultural relationships that developed because of the residential school system, community interactions and religion. Were Indigenous and Settler women able to form meaningful relationships at these sites? If so, did these relationships change over the course of the twentieth century? By focusing on Indigenous women's experiences at these sites of encounter, it will be demonstrated that Settler women's colonial mindsets did not always determine the nature of cross-cultural interactions. This project makes important contributions towards an understanding of why some cross-cultural relationships were more meaningful and reciprocal than others. An analysis of colonial discourse coupled with case studies based on oral interviews offers a complex study of how colonialism and the dominant culture were experienced by Indigenous women in British Columbia from 1960 to 2009.

This thesis explores the British Commonwealth experience of occupation in Japan from 1945-1952. It draws on official and private records from the four participating British Commonwealth countries ??? Australia, Britain, India and New Zealand- to examine the complex relationship that developed between the occupying troops and the occupied Japanese population in the period between the cessation of hostilities and the formal ratification of a Peace Treaty. The thesis begins with an analysis of the preconceptions British Commonwealth troops brought with them to Japan, to establish the context for their cross-cultural encounter with Japan and the Japanese people. An understanding of the historical background enables the impressions formed by BCOF troops during the occupation to be presented not as random observations, but as part of a tradition of contact and cultural critique. The British Commonwealth experience in Japan was shaped by a number of external factors. Delays in moving to Japan weakened media and public interest in the force, eroded morale and precipitated a ???foreign force??? mentality. Once in Japan, the dominant US presence, the subordinate status of BCOF and the shortcomings of the isolated, rural area allocated to the force were a source of disappointment and frustration. But the difficulties attending British Commonwealth involvement in the occupation should not obscure the simultaneous development of a significant cultural encounter. The circumstances of the occupation created a particular dynamic between BCOF troops and Japanese civilians. The responsibilities and obligations that SCAP conferred on the British Commonwealth force invested BCOF personnel with authority over the Japanese. The disparity in power was reinforced by participation in occupation tasks that confirmed their status as occupiers. The occupation relationship was heavily influenced by the nature of personal interactions established between BCOF personnel and the Japanese people. Service in Japan provided opportunities for troops to reassess their views of the Japanese in the light of personal experience. For some, the cultural differences they observed only reinforced their sense of the ???otherness??? of the Japanese. For many others, the occupation provided a bridge between war and peace, as contact with Japanese people eased the intense hatreds generated during the war. For most British Commonwealth personnel, service with BCOF impacted in some way on the beliefs they held about Japan and the Japanese.

Les nouvelles technologies, tel l’Internet, nous permettent d'obtenir tout ce que l'on désire en appuyant sur une simple touche. Elles procurent des plateformes inédites de communication, comme des espaces virtuels de rencontre, aux gens en quête d'un époux ou d’une épouse et ainsi permettent aux agences virtuelles spécialisées dans ce type d'union de proliférer. Ces nombreux sites de rencontre offrent aux hommes de rencontrer une femme peu importe d'où elle vient. Les femmes de l'Asie du sud-est sont très populaires auprès de ces hommes. Bon nombre d’études ont démontré que des difficultés économiques jouent un rôle de prime importance dans une décision de faire appel à ces agences pour émigrer par le biais d’un mariage avec un étranger. Par contre, en Asie du sud-est, la Thaïlande se distingue par ses réussites économiques régionales et par sa tradition matrilinéaire. Dans ce contexte, qu’est-ce qui induit des femmes thaïlandaises à chercher un mari à l'étranger ? Je tenterai de répondre à cette question en examinant les influences des facteurs suivants: hiérarchie sociale (ethnique et régionale); facteurs économiques (classes sociales); matrilinéarité; conception locale de l'amour, du sexe et du mariage et, enfin, l'importance du trajet personnel de chaque femme dans son évaluation des facteurs influents menant à son choix d’épouser un étranger. / New technologies, such as Internet, allow us to obtain anything we desire almost immediately by a simple click. They provide a novel platform for encounters, new meeting spaces for people wishing to find a marriage partner through Internet correspondence and provide a flourishing business to agencies specialized in this type of union. These countless web sites allow foreign men to meet women from every part of the world. Southeast Asian women are particularly popular among these men. A number of studies have demonstrated that the economic difficulties of countries in this region play an important role in the women’s decision to call upon these agencies in order to marry and to emigrate. In Southeast Asia, Thailand differentiates itself by its regional economic success and by its matrilineal tradition. In light of this, what induces Thai women to look for a husband abroad? I will attempt to answer this question by examining the influences of the following factors: social hierarchy (ethnic and regional); economic factors (social class); matrilinearity, local conception of love, sex and marriage and, finally, the importance of each woman’s personal path to determine which factors influence their choice of marrying a foreigner.

L’interculturation est constitutive de l’histoire du Québec. Ce travail analyse les phénomènes d’interculturation entre populations catholiques et protestantes dans le Sud-Ouest du Québec, des années 1830 à 1920, notamment à travers le prisme du discours et des pratiques de la communauté protestante francophone, alors en expansion. Avant de proposer une typologie des individus qui optèrent pour le protestantisme évangélique dans cet environnement rural, nous avons étudié les voies qu’ils prirent pour y accéder et les raisons de cette acculturation choisie, perçue par la majorité comme une transgression. Nous montrons ensuite les divers degrés d’imbrication entre cette conversion et l’ethos victorien du temps en insistant sur la loyauté envers l’Empire britannique d’une majorité de Canadiens français protestants, posture complexe et polémique dans un contexte colonial. Nous tentons enfin de faire apparaître les zones de rencontres et les interactions interconfessionnelles entre ces individus de confession et de langue différente, territoire peu exploré de l’interculturation au quotidien, dans le but de réévaluer l’idée répandue que le seul mode d’interaction de ces populations ait été conflictuel ou au mieux, coexistentiel. / Cross-cultural relationships, complete with conflictual overtones and strategic dealings, have been part and parcel of the fabric of Quebec history. This work sets out to analyse these crosscultural phenomena at work in Catholic and Protestant relationships in South-Western Quebec from the 1830’s to 1920, mainly through the lens of the growing French-Protestant community. Before offering a typology of those who opted for Evangelical Protestantism in this rural context, I have first thoroughly gone through the ways of the process of conversion/acculturation as experienced by those who dared transgress confessional boundaries and the reasons why they chose to do so. I have then argued that this conversion was, to a higher or lesser degree, closely intertwined with the then prevailing Victorian ethos, and overwhelmingly translated into a staunch loyalty towards the British empire, a complex and controversial posture to adopt for any French Canadian in that colonial context. Particular attention was finally paid to the relations between Catholics and Protestants, French and English-speaking, as they lived their lives from day-to-day, in an attempt to appraise the prevailing idea that these relations were perenially conflictual or at best, on a footing of reciprocated indifference.