News from the Paddy Fields: Narratives of Indochinese Workers in Wartime France

In 1939/40 the French government recruited 20,000 men from its Indochinese colonies to work in labouring roles in mainland France. These workers were used as a propaganda tool by the Vichy authorities because of their pivotal role in launching rice production in France. Despite such wartime depictions, these men’s very presence in Occupied France, the roles they played and their interactions with local communities have largely been overlooked or forgotten over the last seventy years. This article examines two autobiographical narratives by such Indochinese workers, comparing and contrasting them with two recent documentaries containing interviews with these workers and their descendants. How have these written and audio-visual narratives sought to uncover this hidden wartime world and to construct a more multicultural history of wartime France?