Literature on Anglo-Irish relations in the Second World War has suggested that in British popular and political discourse the neutral Irish were felt complacent, shortsighted, stubborn, stupid, and cowardly. Extreme opinion held them treacherous. However, there was significant Anglo-Irish intelligence collaboration, many Irish served in the British Forces and a significant contribution was made by Irish immigrant labour during the war. Yet ambivalent and dismissive perceptions of the Irish continued and grew during World War Two. This thesis will examine the ways in which contemporarypopular perceptions of “Irishness” were affected by cultural antipathy, the actions of the Irish state, the influx of immigrant Irish workers and the recruitment of Irish volunteers into the British Armed Forces, during the years of 1939-1945. Key questions that appear here are whether the shifting circumstances of war changed attitudes to the Irish, and further if, at time of extreme threat to Britain and her Empire, was Ireland, though neutral, considered an enemy.Concentrating on the public discourse on the Irish states conduct during the war, attitudes towards Irish people and British experiences of Irish immigrant workers and Irish people in the British Forces, this survey will illuminate the depth and breadth of ambivalence towards Eire and its people. It is found that the key to British understanding was acquiescence to British influence, even if this was against the wishes of the Irish people. It is the main contention of this thesis that, because of non-acquiescence, the Second World War was the point when Britain psychically ejected ‘Irishness’ from its national identity, casting the Irish as irredeemably ‘other’, even before Ireland seceded from the Commonwealth. It is also concluded that due to influence of this ejection, for many Eire, though neutral, was perceived as if she were an enemy to Britain.
A lost war in living memory: Japan’s Second World War