"Dear Daddy": Australian Children and their Servicemen Fathers during the Second World War

Abstract

For up to six long years, Australian servicemen and their children were separated as a result of the Second World War. This thesis considers how the war altered the Australian father-child relationship and argues that the war left a lasting mark on the Australian family, with the lives and relationship of Australian servicemen fathers and their children irrevocably changed. Using letters, photographs, interviews, and newspaper articles, it provides a foundational study of the Australian father-child relationship during the Second World War. Where previous studies have focused on the demographic, political and economic effects of the Second World War, as well as the effects on husbands and wives, this thesis is one of the first studies to examine the war’s effect on children and the broader family. In doing so, it extends our knowledge of Australians and their relationship to war, as well as modifying our existing understanding of families at war. Chapter 1 explores how children and their servicemen fathers maintained contact during the course of the war through an examination of the primary forms of communication – letter writing and photography – between them. The chapter demonstrates that while letters and photographs were cherished items by those who exchanged them, they were not suitable vessels through which fathers could parent and continue upholding ‘fatherly’ roles. Having established the difficulties fathers had in properly maintaining a relationship with their children, Chapters 2 and 3 highlight the concerns, both imagined and real, relating to the absence of serviceman fathers. Chapter 2 proves that there were concerns for children of servicemen, particularly boys and those whose mothers undertook wartime employment. It was felt that without a father, these children might become juvenile delinquents, effeminate, spoilt, or emotionally burdened. The chapter then demonstrates that there were two solutions put forward by various members of society, including the government, the church, law enforcement, and medical professionals: the use of male family members as surrogate fathers, and the provision of boys’ clubs. The third and final chapter of this thesis draws on Arlie Russell Hochschild’s concept of ‘emotion work’ to examine how children’s emotional responsibilities changed as a result of their fathers’ absence. It concludes that children of servicemen engaged in emotion work within the familial setting, which burdened them – a burden which was often exacerbated by fathers who wrote to them. Furthermore, it argues that as a result of the emotion work, children’s roles within their family changed.