Post War, Japan. British Commonwealth Occupation Force,1945

On 13 February 1946, Australian troops, the vanguard of a 37,000-strong British Commonwealth Occupation Force (BCOF), disembarked at the war-devastated Japanese port city of Kure, almost four years to the day (15 February 1942) after Singapore, the bastion of the British Empire in the Far East, surrendered to the Japanese Army. At its peak, there were some 12,000 Australians serving in BCOF.
From 1946 to 1952 Australian forces were responsible for the military occupation of Hiroshima Prefecture, site of the first atomic bomb attack in history. During this time the role of the Australian forces changed from that of an “occupying power” to a new role of “protective power”; in 1950 Australian forces in Japan were deployed, under UN command, to operations in Korea.