My first four-week trip to Australia in 1986 was going to be my last one. Life had other plans though and in 1988, 1989, 1991 and 1996 I revisited Melbourne, staying in the eastern suburb of Box Hill. The motel I stayed in was fine at the time; it now generates the most extraordinarily bad reviews (‘I would rather sleep homeless in a warzone that in this hellhole’)! In those days, Box Hill was the Korean capital of Melbourne; it’s changed significantly since then with a number of high-rise towers being built in recent years and Mandarin Chinese now being the single most spoken language in Box Hill homes.

Roll the clock forward to 2008 and I moved to Australia, not to continue the suburban life I’d left behind but for a new life in a Melbourne Docklands high-rise. Box Hill still interested me so in time I joined the Box Hill Historical Society. Our monthly talks have covered a wide range of subjects. I’ve particularly enjoyed those from members describing growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, comparing my UK experience with theirs.

July 2024’s talk was one that I went to unsure as to how interesting it would be. How wrong I was! Our guest speaker, Alli Parker, told us about her historical novel, At the Foot of the Cherry Tree. It’s a novelisation of the true story of Australia’s first Japanese war bride, Alli’s grandmother, who came to Melbourne after World War II, but only after a long hard struggle.

Alli’s grandfather, Gordon Parker (b.1928), the second of seven children, grew up in Ringwood, 10km east of Box Hill, and at 18 volunteered to serve in the British Commonwealth Occupation Force (BCOF) who were stationed in Kure, 20km SE of Hiroshima. Following the end of WW2, BCOF was responsible for supervising demilitarisation. On his first day there, he met Nobuko Sakuramoto (“Cherry”), a 16-year-old atomic bomb survivor, who was employed as an orderly in the BCOF camp. Despite strict anti-fraternisation rules between the Australians and Japanese, the two became friends and fell in love.

As Gordon’s service came to an end, he decided that he wanted to bring Cherry back to Melbourne as his war bride. Opposition came from all sides. Many Japanese wanted nothing to do with those they saw as responsible for the horrific bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki . Australians, like other allies, were all too mindful of the treatment that had been meted out to their POWs by the Japanese. Almost no one could understand why Gordon should do something so stupid as to get involved with a Japanese girl, let alone marry her – twice, at a Sinto shrine in 1948, then at a Japanese Anglican church in 1950 after he discovered the White Australia policy wouldn’t let her into the country.

The defeat of Labor in 1949 had led to a change of immigration minister: Arthur Calwell, a staunch proponent of the White Australia policy, was replaced by Harold Holt. Holt continued with the White Australia policy but “added his human touch and flexibility to hardship cases.” The press carried articles sympathetic to Gordon and Cherry’s plight which evoked a lot of public support, though not from everyone.

And then … At then end of 1951 Cherry and children were granted visas to come to Australia.  Note everyone cheered: ‘Distressed Father’ of Sale wrote to the Herald: “As a father of two sons fighting in Korea, I protest against Mr. Gordon Parker being given approval to bring his Eurasian children and Japanese wife here. We are fighting right now for the right of whites to live in their own country. We do not want Eurasian children to mix with our children in schools or anywhere else.”

The voyage to Sydney took a month. The press were in force to record the arrival of Australia’s first Japanese war bride. Trans Australia Airlines had laid on limousine to take them to the airport for the flight to Melbourne.

At the Parker home in Ringwood friends and family were gathered. A huge pile of cards and gifts from unknown well-wishers showed the better side of Australian society. On the other side, the threatening and abusive phone calls and letters would continue for months: Cherry was not allowed to answer the phone or open the mail.

Don’s father addressed the crowd. These may not have been his actual words, but they were his sentiments:

‘First of all, I’d like to thank all of you for being here today to celebrate Cherry’s arrival home. It is marvellous to see all of our family and friends here to welcome the three additions to our family in Cherry, Margaret and Kathleen. Plus the little one on the way.’

‘Today is a significant day in so many ways. It marks our family being finally reunited. It marks a change in government thinking as to who is permitted to live among all of us as our neighbours. And it marks a fundamental truth in that the power of love is stronger than any of us could have imagined. My son fell in love. Everyone told him it was the wrong type of love. His fellow soldiers. The Army. The government. But Gordon, channelling a level of stubbornness that can only be inherited from both myself and my wife, refused to listen. Why should the government decide whom he could marry?’

‘So Gordon fought. And he kept faith. Even in the face of impossible odds, he never gave up. Why? ‘Because he loved his wife, his two daughters, his third unborn child. He never stopped believing that he had a right to bring his family home. He never stopped fighting. And here we are. His belief changed a fifty-year-old immigration policy, a policy some would argue is carved in stone, to allow his family to be here today with all of us. It is my deepest wish that today be only the beginning of a long and happy life for both of you.’

And so it was. Gordon died in 2010, bringing this 62-year-old love affair to a close. In 1957 Cherry became the first Asian person to be granted Australian citizenship, though the White Australia policy would only be formally abolished in 1975. Tragically, in 1958 Gordon’s father, Harry, was killed by a drunken driver. His contribution to civic life is marked by the H.E.Parker reserve in Heathmont being named after him.

There’s so much more to this story. I’d encourage you to buy and read the book. You’ll be moved to tears by the tales of love and kindness, cruelty and prejudice. It was originally conceived as a screenplay and may yet become a film.

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The book: At the Foot of the Cherry Tree by Alli Parker, pub. 2023 by Harper Collins Australia, ISBN 9781460763520

Life in Box Hill, one of Australia’s strongest Chinese communities (video 2:14):

Alli Parker talks about her book at the Leaf Bookshop (video 17:46)

Alli Parker talks about her book: Better Reading podcast  (video 32:20)

Warm welcome arranged for Japanese wife (Australian Women’s Weekly, July 1952)