In the last decade one of the more important developments in the history of warfare, both internationally and within Australia, has been the study of the memorialisation of war and the relationship between history and memory.

Professor Joan Beaumont and Professor David Walker, from the School of Australian and International Studies, are studying the way in which the experience of the Second World War has been remembered and represented in Australia, both at the collective and individual level.

"The project will consider how memories of the Second World War, and the way in which it has been commemorated, have changed over the past 50 years," Professor Beaumont said.

The project will explore a number of issues which are central to the memory of the war.

How the different enemies of the Second World War have been depicted will be examined through literary and other kinds of evidence, for example, through the public discourse about the war in newspapers, parliament, and statements by public figures on the occasion of key anniversaries (VE and VJ days, D-Day, Coral Sea, Kokoda, Pearl Harbor, etc). When and how these attitudes changed will also be considered.

"Interpretations of Australia's role in the war will develop one of the more fascinating questions about collective memory of Australia's wartime experience in the 20th century," Professor Beaumont said.

"Why is it that the memory of the Second World War has been overshadowed by the First World War? In part we already know the answer through existing studies of the power of the Anzac legend and the way in which this has acquired its central role in the national political culture.

"But the other side of the coin of the celebration of the memory of the First World War (especially Gallipoli) is the comparative failure to eulogise the battles and achievements of Australians in the Second World War. Again through a study of the public discourse about the war on key occasions (including Anzac Day and Armistice Day) we shall explore the following questions: Which aspects of Australia's military contribution to the war have been given the greatest exposure publicly? How this changed since 1945? In the reporting of Anzac Days and anniversaries of the war, has the Second World War been given a commensurate emphasis to the First? Has this emphasis changed and how? How has the depiction of the Second World War changed in recent years as its memory has been overtly appropriated for the republican agenda?

"Integral to this research on the public commemoration of the war will be an examination of the way in which the celebration of Anzac Day has changed over the post-war period," Professor Beaumont said.

One of the more powerful developments in the historiography of war overseas has been the study of grief and the processes of accommodating the personal loss of war. The project will also consider this aspect of war and will focus on the way in which individuals, both those who were bereaved and those who themselves suffered physical or psychological "loss" though wounds or captivity, expressed their sense of loss. Postgraduate student, Janette Bomford, will work on this aspect of the project.

This project, 'The Second World War and memory, has received $141, 000 funding from the Australian Research Council.