Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / Turkey emerged from the Lausanne Conference free but isolated. The Lausanne Treaty gave her, within her narrowed borders, a sovereignty that the later Ottoman Empire had not known. The economic and judicial capitulations were abolished. The British, French and Italian zone were forgotten. But the Allied Powers remained hostile; they begrudged the Angora regime the treaty revision which it had wrestled from them. Soviet Russia was friendly, but the much vaunted Russo-Turkish relation was largely a solidarity of outcasts. The young Republic's isolation was brought into relief by its first diplomatic crisis. In December 1925, the Council of the League of Nations awarded the Mosul Vilayet to Great Britain's protege Iraq. There was speculation whether the Turks would try to recover the province by force. France announced her solidarity with Britain. Greece appeared ready for a war of revenge; and Mussolini left his balcony to speak from the deck of a battleship. Soviet Russia promised neutrality, nothing more [TRUNCATED]

The object proposed in this study is to consider both the activities and the importance of the Pathfinder Force, Royal Air Force, in the Second World War. Their story has a much earlier beginning than 15 August 1942 when the founder squadrons gathered on various R.A.F. stations in the vicinity of the cathedral city of Ely in Cambridgeshire. Some form of target finding and marking became inevitable from the moment it was acknowledged that the preparations that had been made for war during the 1930s were less than adequate. The arguments that ensued pior to August 1942 were much less concerned with the need, than with the form, such a force should take. Unfortunately, while the administrative in-fighting surged back and forth, R.A.F. aircrews went to war not only insufficiently trained but also poorly equipped. Necessity and duty drove these men to attempt to combat weather conditions and enemy defensive measures in aircraft, that all too frequently, were unfitted for the roles they were expected to fulfil. To their credit they pressed on despite the hazards of weather, the fury of enemy defences and the deficiencies of their aircraft and equipment. Regardless of the forces of nature and man ranged against them, the crews of Bomber Command and the Pathfinder Force pressed on. It is therefore fitting that 'Press on Regardless' became the unofficial motto of the Pathfinder Force. It would also provide a singularly apt epitaph for the 3,727 men of the Pathfinder Force who were killed on operations. This work has been written in tribute to all who served in the Pathfinder Force but particularly to those who failed to return.

The thesis examines the literary archive of the Japanese diaspora in North America and uncovers evidence of an intergenerational transmission of trauma after the internment of all peoples of Japanese descent in America during World War Two. Their experience of migration, discrimination and displacement was exacerbated by the internment, the single most influential episode in their history which had a profound effect on subsequent generations. It is argued the trauma of their experiences can be located in their writing and, drawing on the works of Freud and trauma theoreticians Cathy Caruth and Ruth Leys in particular, the thesis constructs a theoretical framework which may be applied to post-internment Japanese diasporic writing to reveal the traces of trauma in all generations, traces that are linked to what Freud referred to as a posterior moment that triggered an earlier trauma which the subject may not have experienced personally but which may be lodged in her / her psyche. An examination of the literature of the Japanese diaspora shows that trauma is carried in the language itself and impacted upon the collective psyche of the entire community. The theoretical model is used to read the tanka poetry written by the immigrant generation, a range of texts by the first American-born generation (including an in-depth analysis of four texts spanning several decades) and the texts written by the third-generation, many of whom did not experience the internment themselves so their motivation and the influence of the internment differed greatly from earlier generations. The thesis concludes with an analysis of David Mura's identification of the link between identity, sexuality and the influence of the internment experience as transmitted by his parents. The future of the Japanese American community and their relationship with their past traumatic experience also makes its way into the conclusion.

This bachelor thesis researches the differences and similarities of how Sweden is depicted in World War Two and the Cold War in Swedish history textbooks with students between age 15 and 19 as intended readers. The thesis uses a historiographical toolset described by Michael Stanford. Three textbooks from the 1960’s, one from the 2000’s, and two from the 2010’s have been analysed. My conclusions are: The textbooks have one voice and one perspective through the whole narrative thus the history in the textbooks is unchallenged, albeit the newer textbooks include discussion and text analysis for the students. The early textbooks do not criticise Swe-den during World War Two whereas the newer ones tend to have a critical outlook with one exception. The focus on Sweden in internationally affairs during the Cold War has decreased in the newer textbooks. Sweden is generally described as a peaceful neutral country with little to no international influence during both wars. The perspective on Sweden’s neutral policies are generally depicted as something positive. Two of the newer ones apply more criticism against Sweden’s politics, however. Because of the textbooks monotone retelling, teachers need to not treat the textbooks as an authority in the classroom, but as one way to tell history.

The long history of Anglo-French relations has often been acrimonious. After the German defeat of France in June 1940 the right to represent the French nation was contested by Philippe Pétain’s Vichy government and Charles de Gualle’s London-based Free French resistance movement. This thesis will examine the highly complex relationship between Britain and these two competing sources of Frenchness between 1940 and 1945. It will do so through a series of empire-themed “crisis points,” which contributed to a heightened state of Anglo-French tension affecting all three actors. This study uses rhetoric as a means to link decision makers or statesman to the public sphere. It argues that policy makers, whether in the British War Cabinet, de Gaulle’s headquarters at Carlton Gardens, or Pétain’s ministries at Vichy anticipated how their policies were likely to be received by a group or groups of individuals. These were individuals who contributed towards what decision makers believed to be public opinion. Perceptions of public opinion, in other words, played a vital role in policy creation. In turn, the desire to get one or more sectors of the public “on board” with a particular policy or wartime operation gave rhetoric a place of primary importance. Specifically, we will see how policy makers carefully constructed and revised public statements and speeches. When these external communications and explanations are placed side by side with internal official discussions, it will become evident that rhetoric is itself a vital strategic tool. The grammatical constructions and vocabulary that made up official statements and mass media responses shed light on broader wartime themes including victory and defeat, allies and enemies, power, sovereignty, neutrality and morality. Ultimately, acknowledging that rhetoric is an inherent part of policy making allows us to better understand the links between the governing bodies of a nation and those who have a stake in its policies. At the same time, it allows us to see how less tangible normative factors continue to impact this process.

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Despite the vast material that has been written about the Second World War, most literature mentions battleships in passing, giving little attention to a role that battleships filled- that of naval gunfire support for amphibious landings. The literature regarding the Navy’s older, obsolescent battleships such as the Texas is scarce. Using primary sources regarding the Texas and the evolution of naval gunfire doctrine from the pre-war and wartime periods, this study looks at the involvement of the Texas in the Second World War and how the Navy employed its oldest battleships. The amphibious landings of the war provided a role in which a ship’s speed and range became irrelevant when firing on fixed targets on an enemy beach. This work provides a look at a little discussed, though widely used aspect of the Second World War and helps further discussion regarding the evolution of the US navy.

French writer, editor, and literary critic Jean Paulhan (1884-1968) stands out as a remarkably ambiguous figure in the period following the Second World War, when interpretations of the war tended to create clear divisions between resisters and collaborators. Shortly after Paris was occupied by Germany in 1940, Jean Paulhan became one of the leading figures in the intellectual resistance to Nazi occupation. During the purges that followed the war, however, he was one of the principal protectors of writers deemed collaborationist and, therefore, treacherous by Resistance writers. This thesis examines the controversial position that Paulhan held regarding the post-war purges by describing the historical context to which he was reacting, and by engaging in a close and comparative reading of three of his key texts. His two texts which deal explicitly with the purge, <i>Of Chaff and Wheat</i> and <i>Letter to the Directors of the Resistance</i>, are read alongside his key work on language and literature,<i>Flowers of Tarbes or, Terror in Literature</i>. His commentary on the purge of writers was a nexus in which his literary and political concerns were conjoined. Uniting his literary and political writings to the context of the purge was an intricate argument against the process of purification. To Paulhan, the relationship that various modern literary movements had to literature and language was based, like the post-war purge, on an ideal of purity and renewal which required a dishonest and violent association with the past. Ultimately, this thesis argues that the seemingly uncomfortable contradictions revealed in the roles that Paulhan played during and after the Occupation actually formed the core of a consistent ethical position, one that responded to a real political situation of national trauma while remaining grounded in a wider understanding of the complex relationships between literature, language, national identity and political action.

French writer, editor, and literary critic Jean Paulhan (1884-1968) stands out as a remarkably ambiguous figure in the period following the Second World War, when interpretations of the war tended to create clear divisions between resisters and collaborators. Shortly after Paris was occupied by Germany in 1940, Jean Paulhan became one of the leading figures in the intellectual resistance to Nazi occupation. During the purges that followed the war, however, he was one of the principal protectors of writers deemed collaborationist and, therefore, treacherous by Resistance writers. This thesis examines the controversial position that Paulhan held regarding the post-war purges by describing the historical context to which he was reacting, and by engaging in a close and comparative reading of three of his key texts. His two texts which deal explicitly with the purge, <i>Of Chaff and Wheat</i> and <i>Letter to the Directors of the Resistance</i>, are read alongside his key work on language and literature,<i>Flowers of Tarbes or, Terror in Literature</i>. His commentary on the purge of writers was a nexus in which his literary and political concerns were conjoined. Uniting his literary and political writings to the context of the purge was an intricate argument against the process of purification. To Paulhan, the relationship that various modern literary movements had to literature and language was based, like the post-war purge, on an ideal of purity and renewal which required a dishonest and violent association with the past. Ultimately, this thesis argues that the seemingly uncomfortable contradictions revealed in the roles that Paulhan played during and after the Occupation actually formed the core of a consistent ethical position, one that responded to a real political situation of national trauma while remaining grounded in a wider understanding of the complex relationships between literature, language, national identity and political action.

Americans are curiously absent from the literature as forces in the black market prevailing in Germany after World War II. Aside from Rundell's study of failed currency control policy during the Second World War and the subsequent occupations of Germany and Japan, historians have failed to accord the American presence on the black market its proper status. They receive mention in narrative fashion, authors noting that Americans could make money on the black market, or relating a story about what a soldier bought or sold there. Then, like bit players in a movie, Americans recede from view, and Germans and displaced persons resume their places in the lead. This thesis has two objectives. Through support from the archival record, first, it demonstrates that Americans did in fact execute a specific function with respect to the maintenance and perpetuation of the black market - they were the market's suppliers. Second, by positing this role, this thesis attempts to correct a view of the black market as an essentially German experience, populated in the main by Germans and displaced persons. In so doing, I posit a schema of American illicit supply to Germans and displaced persons. This thesis argues that Americans operated as suppliers of illicit goods to the indigenous population. This supply occurred in three ways: Americans selling on the black market; misappropriation of materiel (usually food); and theft of goods from American installations. Furthermore, each type of supply was predicated upon the fulfillment of a certain condition. Americans sold on the black market when they were certain they could make a profit. Americans misappropriated US government property (usually food) as a consequence of a relationship with a German or displaced person; in practice, because those with access to American goods were young men, the relationships were only with women, and always included some gradation of intimacy. Germans and displaced persons committed larceny from American installations to procure goods for the black market, which insured handsome profits.