Japan – Embarkation Nominal Roll, British Commonwealth Occupation Force (BCOF) 1946-51

With the capitulation of Japan ending the Second World War, the task of occupying the Japanese homeland came to the fore. The main task fell to the United States under General Douglas MacArthur as Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP). Also present in Japan would be a force made up of member nations of the British Commonwealth including Australian, British, Indian and New Zealand personnel. This force was known as the British Commonwealth Occupation Force or BCOF.

While the US forces would be responsible for the overall occupation, BCOF would be responsible for supervising demilitarization and the disposal of Japan’s war industries. BCOF would also be responsible for the occupation of several western prefectures.

When the government of the United Kingdom approached Australia among other countries to provide personnel and assets to form BCOF, the Australian government agreed to provide several vessels from the RAN, an Army Brigade group and three RAAF fighter squadrons. At its height BCOF comprised 40,000 personnel, with the largest contingent being provided by Australia, that being about 17,000.

Arriving in 1946 BCOF forces began to wind down its presence in Japan as early as 1947, however the advent of the Korean War starting in June 1950 resulted in many units being transferred to Korea. From 1950 onwards the BCOF bases in Japan provided staging posts for deployment to Korea. BCOF was effectively wound up in 1951 when control of Commonwealth forces in Japan was transferred to British Commonwealth Forces Korea (BCFK).

Contents

The series comprises 36 binders which contain General Index forms. Each form lists one service person, including Name, Army number, Rank, unit and any particulars of transport embarkations or disembarkations. On some forms the unit has been crossed out and modified many times to show a person being transferred between units. Some entries include the Routine Order number next to them e.g. RO27/1379/47.

Where the transport was via ship the name of the ship is included, if it was via aircraft, only the countries of embarkation and disembarkation are usually included. Occasionally the place (city) of embarkation is included.

The location of embarkation and disembarkation is usually between Japan and Australia, however once the records reach 1950 it is frequent to show movements between Korea and Japan as personnel are deployed to Korea.

It appears that these records were generated contemporaneously with the deployments, with entries added as information about individual service personnel became known. All of the entries appear to relate to Army personnel. Each book is arranged in alphabetical order using surnames.

System of arrangement and control

Control of the records is by a single number system based upon original book numbers.

As the records were bound into volumes in alphabetical order with a sequential book number, it was decided to use the book numbers as a single numbering system. Each volume contains roughly 500 forms.

Using the series

Each item in the series is recorded on the RecordSearch database which researchers can access via the Internet.

• AWM412 1 - Book 1 - Abadene, J.C. to Azzi, N.
• AWM412 2 - Book 2 - Baartz, J.R. to Belfield, G.D.M
• AWM412 3 - Book 3 - Bell, A.T.J to Bourne, N.J.
• AWM412 4 - Book 4 - Bow, A.H.R. to Burge, D.O.
• AWM412 5 - Book 5 - Burgess, A.J. to Cawthorne, A.B.
• AWM412 6 - Book 6 - Chadwick, A.B. to Connolly, W.M.
• AWM412 7 - Book 7 - Connor, C.G. to Czapek, A.L.
• AWM412 8 - Book 8 - Dabron, A.A. to Dixon, W.
• AWM412 9 - Book 9 - Doak, K. to Dyson, T.E.
• AWM412 10 - Book 10 - Eacott, D.F. to Fayle, K.P.
• AWM412 11 - Book 11 - Fearn, G.A. to Fyvie, W.A.
• AWM412 12 - Book 12 - Gaal, R.T. to Goudie, A.
• AWM412 13 - Book 13 - Gough, H.L. to Hall, W.B.
• AWM412 14 - Book 14 - Hallet, J.A. to Hazelton, C.E.
• AWM412 15 - Book 15 - Hazelton, D.Y. to Holmes, W.L.
• AWM412 16 - Book 16 - Holst, C.G.L. to Hywood, C.G.
• AWM412 17 - Book 17 - Ibbott, D.F. to Johnston, T.
• AWM412 18 - Book 18 - Johnston, V.H.G. to Kemp, H.C.
• AWM412 19 - Book 19 - Kemp, J.T. to Lanyon, J.W.
• AWM412 20 - Book 20 - Lappin, C.R. to Long, P.H.
• AWM412 21 - Book 21 - Long, R. to Marsden, R.A.
• AWM412 22 - Book 22 - Marsh, A.M. to Mitting, A.
• AWM412 23 - Book 23 - Mobbs, A.G. to Mynott, G.
• AWM412 24 - Book 24 - McAdam, R.G. to McKnown, K.
• AWM412 25 - Book 25 - McLachlan, C. to Nyman, R.J.
• AWM412 26 - Book 26 - Oakhill, D.C. to Parsons, W.G.
• AWM412 27 - Book 27 - Partridge, E. to Pozzer, A.
• AWM412 28 - Book 28 - Praets A S to Richards W F
• AWM412 29 - Book 29 - Richardson G I to Ruxton B C
• AWM412 30 - Book 30 - Ryan A to Sigston J K
• AWM412 31 - Book 31 - Silcock H I to Spence D L
• AWM412 32 - Book 32 - Spence J G to Syred E R
• AWM412 33 - Book 33 - Taber N O to Trundley J C
• AWM412 34 - Book 34 - Truscott B to Wattling P M
• AWM412 35 - Book 35 - Watson A C to Williams M C
• AWM412 36 - Book 36 - Williams M E to Zwoerner C R