Michael Sturma
Biographic Data
| ID | 374374 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Michael Sturma |
| GIVEN NAMES | Michael |
| FAMILY NAME | Sturma |
| SIGNATURE | STURMA M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Murdoch University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5460-9271 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 37 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 32 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 37 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1978 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
The Battle of Manila: Poisoned Victory in the Pacific War
Swordplay: Lord Mountbatten, Count Terauchi and the Japanese Surrender in Southeast Asia
Field Marshal Count Terauchi’s personal surrender of swords to Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten in November 1945 highlights some of the complexities related to the Japanese surrender in Southeast Asia. Japanese swords served as important symbols for both their owners and the Allies. Mountbatten’s determination to dispossess the Japanese of their swords reflected his views on Japan’s militarism and a desire to impress upon soldiers their subservienc…
Stress to the ultimate degree: Coping with danger on U.S. submarines during the Second World War
Despite the extreme stress faced by submariners on patrol during the Second World War, the incidence of mental breakdown appears to have been very low. Contemporary researchers identified a number of factors that contributed to the mental health of crew members, including their selection, training, rest between patrols and confidence in their leaders. Based largely on the reminiscences of submarine veterans, this article argues that men’s attitud…
Asian Labourers, the Thai Government and the Thai-Burma Railway
While the suffering of Allied prisoners of war on the Thai-Burma railway during the Second World War is well documented, much less is known about the Asian labourers employed on the project. Focusing on Thai and Chinese workers in Thailand, this study argues that although Asian labourers often suffered in a way comparable to prisoners of war, they also exercised some agency in their dealings with the Japanese. Many workers were motivated to work …
Japanese Treatment of Allied Prisoners During the Second World War: Evaluating the Death Toll
The high death rate of Allied prisoners of war in the Pacific compared with those in Europe is commonly used to signify the barbarous way in which the Japanese fought the Second World War. This study examines the extent to which ‘friendly fire’ inflated the death rate of Allied prisoners under the Japanese, and evaluates more broadly the perceived disparity between Japanese and German treatment of Allied prisoners of war (POWs). Four broad conclu…
Convoy HI-72: US Submarines versus Japanese Escorts in the Pacific War
The Japanese convoy HI-72, attacked by a wolf pack of American submarines after it departed Singapore in September 1944, has gained some notoriety because two of the ships sunk carried Allied prisoners of war. Beyond this, however, the convoy’s fate highlights some of the factors which made US submarines so effective while disclosing the shortcomings of Japanese escorts. An examination of the extant battle reports by the convoy ships reveals that…
A little America in Western Australia: The US Naval Communication Station at North West Cape and the founding of Exmouth
A little America in Western Australia: The US Naval Communication Station at North West Cape and the founding of Exmouth." Journal of Australian Studies, 41(4), pp. 536–537
Australian POWs and the Sinking of the Rakuyo Maru: The Politics of Repatriation
On 12 September 1944, a U.S. submarine sank the Japanese transport ship Rakuyo Maru in the South China Sea which was carrying over a thousand Australian and British prisoners. Several days later, nearly a hundred Australian survivors from the ship were rescued by American submariners, and they later returned to Australia in October 1944. Analysis of this unanticipated repatriation provides some insight into attitudes toward prisoners of war as we…
US Fleet Submarines in the Atlantic during the Second World War: A Case Study of Relative Failure
The contribution of US submarines to the Battle of the Atlantic during the Second World War has been almost entirely neglected by historians. Admittedly that contribution was relatively small, as reaffirmed by this study of eight modern American fleet submarines assigned to Operation Torch and subsequent patrols from Britain to the Bay of Biscay and the Atlantic. Faced with stringent rules of engagement and mechanical problems, along with limited…
Dream port: Morale, memory and allied submariners in Western Australia during the Second World War
Fremantle, Western Australia, served as a major Allied submarine base during the Second World War. Among the American and British submariners who served there, Western Australia is remembered as the best leave centre in the Pacific. This study argues that Fremantle’s reputation relied in part on the lack of comparable amenities at other bases. At the same time, Western Australia’s civilian population was especially welcoming and enabled visiting …
The Limits of Hate: Japanese Prisoners on US Submarines during the Second World War
The Pacific War is frequently characterized as a ‘race war’ and a ‘war without mercy’. The experience of Japanese prisoners on American submarines, however, suggests that hatred could often quickly be overcome once combatants spent time in close proximity. The confined space of submarines made a degree of interaction between prisoners and captors unavoidable. Through a series of case studies, the evidence suggests that submariners sometimes contr…
David Hanlon. Making Micronesia: A Political Biography of Tosiwo Nakayama
In discussing the concept of “Micronesia” in Making Micronesia: A Political Biography of Tosiwo Nakayama, David Hanlon states that he finds the prefix “micro” to be “belittling” for a region spread over three million square miles. He suggests that “Macronesia” would apply more suitably. An underlying theme of the book is that the island world should be perceived as large rather than diminutive. Nevertheless, the term “Micronesia” is part of the c…
Movies under the Sea: Film, Morale, and US Submarines during World War II
A month before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, film producer Walter Wanger published a timely article titled “The Role of Movies in Morale” in the American Journal of Sociology. As producer of the movie Blockade (1937), Wanger had already distinguished himself as one of the few Hollywood filmmakers to deal with the Spanish Civil War. In his article, he argued that in the current atmosphere of crisis, movies as a medium of …
Sean BRAWLEY and CHRIS Dixon. Hollywood's South Seas and the Pacific War: Searching for Dorothy Lamour
The cover art of this compact book brilliantly encapsulates its subject matter: on the front, two leering GIs carrying cameras wade through a jungle swamp, while on the back a scantily clad woman reclines against a palm tree. Similarly the subtitle, “Searching for Dorothy Lamour,” suggests the disjunction between Hollywood's image of the South Pacific and the experience of most service personnel posted there during World War II. Lamour became fam…
Atrocities, Conscience, and Unrestricted Warfare: US Submarines during the Second World War
This article explores the meanings of ‘unrestricted warfare’ as practised by US submarines in the Pacific during the Second World War. The submarine war in the Pacific is typically represented as a series of torpedo attacks that devastated Japanese warships, freighters, and tankers. There was also, however, a less familiar submarine war fought on the surface with deck guns. Particularly in the later stages of the war, submarines attacked hundreds…
Democracy in a Drum: Social Relations on American Submarines During the Second World War
Describing life on a us submarine war patrol, one veteran submariner enlists the reader to, 'imagine yourself crammed inside a cold, clammy, inescapable steel cylinder with eighty-five smelly souls for a period of thirty-to-sixty days'. l For most people it is not an inviting image, and yet submarine service during the Second World War evokes a certain glamour. As a fighting unit submarine crews were seen as in some ways unique
Aliens and Indians: A Comparison of Abduction and Captivity Narratives
Stories of captivity among North American Indians dating from the 17th century in many ways parallel the more recent narratives of alien abduction. Telling a story inevitably involves elements of selection, and in both Indian captivity narratives and alien abduction narratives the elements included are often analogous. They share a number of common structures, conventions, themes, and images. I will begin by outlining the origin and some of the s…
Mimicry, Mockery and Make-overs: Western Visitors in South Pacific Dress
The social meanings attached to dress are always potentially ambiguous, but especially so in cross-cultural encounters. This inquiry focuses on Westerners adopting indigenous dress in the South Pacific, employing three historical case studies. The first examines the role of clothing in relations between Tahitians and the mutineers from the HMS Bounty. The second shows how dress mediated the expectations of U.S. soldiers sent to the Pacific theatr…
JFK in the Classroom
Additional informationNotes on contributorsJudy MaccallumMICHAEL STURMA is a senior lecturer in the School of Social Inquiry, at Murdock University in Murdock, Western Australia. JUDY MACCALLUM is a lecturer in the School of Education, also at Murdock University
Packaging Polynesia's image
By reef and palm: Sexual politics and South Seas tales
At the end of the nineteenth century one of Australia's most popular writers wa George Lewis 'Louis' Becke. Some hailed him as the 'Rudyard Kipling of the Pacific'. Although these days Becke is little known, during the course of his writing career between 1894 and his death in 1913, he published some thirty-five books. His speciality was the south sea tale. Becke's stories, I will argue, provide some insight into Australian gender relations at th…
Private Pleasures, Public Leisure: A History of Australian Popular Culture since 1788
Women, the Bounty, the Movies
From Nimbin to Mardi Gras: Constructing Community Arts
The Rule of Law in a Penal Colony: Law and Power in Early New South Wales
From Nimbin to Mardi Gras: Constructing Community Arts
Aliens and Indians: A Comparison of Abduction and Captivity Narratives
Stories of captivity among North American Indians dating from the 17th century in many ways parallel the more recent narratives of alien abduction. Telling a story inevitably involves elements of selection, and in both Indian captivity narratives and alien abduction narratives the elements included are often analogous. They share a number of common structures, conventions, themes, and images. I will begin by outlining the origin and some of the s…
The Politics of Dancing: When Rock ‘n’ Roll Came to Australia
Because rhythm has direct access to the unconcious, because it can hypnotize us, enter our bodies and make us move, it is power. And power is political. \n \nThat is why rhythm is always revolutionary ground. It is always the place where the organic rises to abolish the mechanical and where energy announces the abolition of tradition. New rhythms are new perceptions
Public Health and Sexual Morality: Venereal Disease in World War II Australia
Japanese Treatment of Allied Prisoners During the Second World War: Evaluating the Death Toll
The high death rate of Allied prisoners of war in the Pacific compared with those in Europe is commonly used to signify the barbarous way in which the Japanese fought the Second World War. This study examines the extent to which ‘friendly fire’ inflated the death rate of Allied prisoners under the Japanese, and evaluates more broadly the perceived disparity between Japanese and German treatment of Allied prisoners of war (POWs). Four broad conclu…
Asian Labourers, the Thai Government and the Thai-Burma Railway
While the suffering of Allied prisoners of war on the Thai-Burma railway during the Second World War is well documented, much less is known about the Asian labourers employed on the project. Focusing on Thai and Chinese workers in Thailand, this study argues that although Asian labourers often suffered in a way comparable to prisoners of war, they also exercised some agency in their dealings with the Japanese. Many workers were motivated to work …
Loving the Alien: The underside of relations between American servicemen and Australian women in Queensland, 1942–1945
Eye of the Beholder: The Stereotype of Women Convicts, 1788-1852
Between 1788 and 1852 over twenty-four thousand women were transported to Australia. They made up about one-sixth of Australia's convict population. New South Wales received most of the early convicts and, when transportation to that colony ended in 1840, the flow of offenders was diverted to Van Diemen's Land
Eye of the Beholder: The Stereotype of Women Convicts, 1788-1852
Between 1788 and 1852 over twenty-four thousand women were transported to Australia. They made up about one-sixth of Australia's convict population. New South Wales received most of the early convicts and, when transportation to that colony ended in 1840, the flow of offenders was diverted to Van Diemen's Land
Police and Drunkards in Sydney, 1841–1851
Police-community relations in nineteenth century Australia, while often the subject of generalization, have received little detailed attention
Vice in a Vicious Society. Crime and Convicts in Mid-Nineteenth Century New South Wales
Between 1788 and 1840 about 80,000 male and female prisoners were transported from the United Kingdom to New South Wales. The social consequences of this migration were forcefully stated by British select committee in 1838. The committee sounded the death knell of convict transportation to the colony when it concluded that the system not only failed to reform criminals, but also created societies most thoroughly depraved, as respects both the cha…
Vice in a Vicious Society: Crime and Convicts in Mid-Nineteenth-Century New South Wales
Vice in a Vicious Society: Crime and Convicts in Mid-Nineteenth-Century New South Wales
Convict Society and Its Enemies. A History of Early New South Wales
Myall Creek and the Psychology of Mass Murder
The Myall Creek massacre of 1838 is one of the most emotive symbols of European-Aboriginal relations in Australian colonial history. It symbolizes the conflict of the actions of those on the frontier with the ideals espoused by humanitarians and colonial authority. The massacre also raises issues which are not so much symbolic as symptomatic of racial attitudes and indeed human violence. Historians, it seems to me, have adequately explained the n…
Death and Ritual on the Gallows: Public Executions in the Australian Penal Colonies
Of all public rituals in the nineteenth century, hanging was intended to be the most dramatic and didactic. The Australian penal colonies of New South Wales and Tasmania, as receptacles for transported British convicts during the first half of the nineteenth century, provide a rich context for examining public executions. This article explores the interplay between state, church, and judicial system in managing the death ceremony and reinforcing …
Public Health and Sexual Morality: Venereal Disease in World War II Australia
Loving the Alien: The underside of relations between American servicemen and Australian women in Queensland, 1942–1945
The Politics of Dancing: When Rock ‘n’ Roll Came to Australia
Because rhythm has direct access to the unconcious, because it can hypnotize us, enter our bodies and make us move, it is power. And power is political. \n \nThat is why rhythm is always revolutionary ground. It is always the place where the organic rises to abolish the mechanical and where energy announces the abolition of tradition. New rhythms are new perceptions
Bands. The Brass Band Movement in the 19th and 20th Centuries
This work is devoted to brass bands and brings together the work of most of the principal authorities on the subject. The British brass band is a product of the 19th century - in the final decades of Victoria's reign publishers estimated that there were 40,000 bands in the country. Audiences for open-air contests and concerts were measured in tens of thousands. By that time the brass band had acquired most of the main musical characteristics that…
The Rule of Law in a Penal Colony: Law and Power in Early New South Wales
From Nimbin to Mardi Gras: Constructing Community Arts
Women, the Bounty, the Movies
By reef and palm: Sexual politics and South Seas tales
At the end of the nineteenth century one of Australia's most popular writers wa George Lewis 'Louis' Becke. Some hailed him as the 'Rudyard Kipling of the Pacific'. Although these days Becke is little known, during the course of his writing career between 1894 and his death in 1913, he published some thirty-five books. His speciality was the south sea tale. Becke's stories, I will argue, provide some insight into Australian gender relations at th…
Private Pleasures, Public Leisure: A History of Australian Popular Culture since 1788
Packaging Polynesia's image
Mimicry, Mockery and Make-overs: Western Visitors in South Pacific Dress
The social meanings attached to dress are always potentially ambiguous, but especially so in cross-cultural encounters. This inquiry focuses on Westerners adopting indigenous dress in the South Pacific, employing three historical case studies. The first examines the role of clothing in relations between Tahitians and the mutineers from the HMS Bounty. The second shows how dress mediated the expectations of U.S. soldiers sent to the Pacific theatr…
JFK in the Classroom
Additional informationNotes on contributorsJudy MaccallumMICHAEL STURMA is a senior lecturer in the School of Social Inquiry, at Murdock University in Murdock, Western Australia. JUDY MACCALLUM is a lecturer in the School of Education, also at Murdock University
Aliens and Indians: A Comparison of Abduction and Captivity Narratives
Stories of captivity among North American Indians dating from the 17th century in many ways parallel the more recent narratives of alien abduction. Telling a story inevitably involves elements of selection, and in both Indian captivity narratives and alien abduction narratives the elements included are often analogous. They share a number of common structures, conventions, themes, and images. I will begin by outlining the origin and some of the s…
Democracy in a Drum: Social Relations on American Submarines During the Second World War
Describing life on a us submarine war patrol, one veteran submariner enlists the reader to, 'imagine yourself crammed inside a cold, clammy, inescapable steel cylinder with eighty-five smelly souls for a period of thirty-to-sixty days'. l For most people it is not an inviting image, and yet submarine service during the Second World War evokes a certain glamour. As a fighting unit submarine crews were seen as in some ways unique
Atrocities, Conscience, and Unrestricted Warfare: US Submarines during the Second World War
This article explores the meanings of ‘unrestricted warfare’ as practised by US submarines in the Pacific during the Second World War. The submarine war in the Pacific is typically represented as a series of torpedo attacks that devastated Japanese warships, freighters, and tankers. There was also, however, a less familiar submarine war fought on the surface with deck guns. Particularly in the later stages of the war, submarines attacked hundreds…
Sean BRAWLEY and CHRIS Dixon. Hollywood's South Seas and the Pacific War: Searching for Dorothy Lamour
The cover art of this compact book brilliantly encapsulates its subject matter: on the front, two leering GIs carrying cameras wade through a jungle swamp, while on the back a scantily clad woman reclines against a palm tree. Similarly the subtitle, “Searching for Dorothy Lamour,” suggests the disjunction between Hollywood's image of the South Pacific and the experience of most service personnel posted there during World War II. Lamour became fam…
Movies under the Sea: Film, Morale, and US Submarines during World War II
A month before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, film producer Walter Wanger published a timely article titled “The Role of Movies in Morale” in the American Journal of Sociology. As producer of the movie Blockade (1937), Wanger had already distinguished himself as one of the few Hollywood filmmakers to deal with the Spanish Civil War. In his article, he argued that in the current atmosphere of crisis, movies as a medium of …
History (27 works) · Political science (25 works) · Law (23 works) · Sociology (23 works) · History (18 works) · Law (16 works) · Australian History and Society (11 works) · Politics (10 works) · Criminology (9 works) · Media studies (9 works)