Dear mhaze,

From your comment it is obvious that you do not live in Sydney. Come to Sydney and have a look for yourself if you don't believe me. You'll walk away saying exactly what I am saying.

You have made a personal attack on my integrity so I will return it. Going on what I've seen of other things you write I do not think you are in a position to assess if what I am saying is correct or incorrect. You do not come across to me as an educated and knowledgable person.

Mr O,

We've been down this road before. My figures on Chinese in Sydney is based on Australian Bureau of Statistics data.Its utterly irrelevant whether I live in Sydney or not.

As to the Japanese in Hawaii post-7/12/41, again my comment was based on facts from the period. Your's was based on - well I'm not sure what it was based on, but it wasn't anything that actually happened. Just for fun, explain to us how 20000 Japanese civilians got from Hawaii to Japan in the midst of a war? This oughta be good.

mhaze,

I don't think you have ever been to Sydney. Instead of relying on second hand information I suggest you come here and have a look around and make your own assessment from your own experience.

They swam of course!

Dear Mr. Opinion

I would also be interested in any references you may be able to present regarding these 20,000 Japanese in Hawaii.

Is it possible that the sole reason they left Hawaii was to avoid detention? Then have they voluntarily enlisted in the Japanese army or were they conscripted? And were they of all age groups - obviously those too young or old, women too at the time, could not be asked to serve in either army?

Also, could the fact that the Americans in Hawaii forced the exclusive use of the English language be a factor? They did so to quash the local Hawaiian culture and it was terrible for the native Hawaiians, but the Japanese migrants could potentially also been affected.

In any case, it is difficult to compare the Japanese in Hawaii with the Chinese in Australia because the former were not oppressed in their home country (but were likely economical migrants) whereas the latter are victims of a cruel communist regime: surely we don't want to return victims into the jaws of their tormentors!

The challenge ahead is to develop better sophisticated methods to separate the sheep from the goats.

BTW, when you mention "Sydney", do you mean the greater metropolitan area or just the inner city of Sydney? This is because Chinese people seem (for reasons beyond my understanding) to like congregating in inner big cities. I personally avoid inner cities like the plague if I can.

Oh dear...ABS data, according to Mr O is " second hand information". I have no words to describe how utterly bonkers that is.

"They swam of course!"

Translation...he totally made up the story of the 20,000 Japanese return from Hawaii to fight for Japan. Totally made it up...act accordingly.

Dear Yuyutsu,

I recall reading those figures somewhere. The author also stated that by the end of the Pacific War there were only 60,000 left out of the 120,000 interned on the islands. I have also read another author who says there was no internment in Hawaii because business bosses needed the Japanese as labourers in the cane industry; he says that about 1,500 were sent to the mainland interment camps. The former account makes more sense to me because I find it hard to believe that Americans would have liked the idea of tens of thousands of Japanese walking around freely in Hawaii just it had beed attacked.

mhaze is arguing that none of the Japanese in Hawaii would have returned to Japan to fight for their homeland. I suppose he believes in general that when a war breaks out no one ever returns to their country to fight in a war. I don't believe that because the history books are full of stories about people making their way back home to fight for their country.

Come to Sydney and have a look around and make up your own mind on whether or not Sydney has an inordinately huge Chinese population. I would like people from across Australia to come and see how Sydney is now a predominantly Chinese populated city. There are less Chinese around the perimeter like Blue Mtns, Northern Beaches, Sutherland Shire, etc., but they are gradually making inroads into these areas. So come and have a look.