David Sissons (1925-2006) spent thirty years researching just about every aspect of the procedures, personnel and background to the 300 war crimes trials conducted by the Australian military in the aftermath of the Second World War. His interest began when he interpreted at three of these trials held on Morotai in 1946 but it took an academic turn at ANU in the 1970s as part of his research into aspects of Australia-Japan relations. In the last months of the Whitlam Government, the trial transcripts were opened and made available through the National Archives and so his hunt began.

He used all his networks and wrote to participants - both Australian and Japanese. He followed every trail. He turned over every stone. But he did not write the book. However, he did deposit his research files constituting 60 archival boxes in the National Library of Australia. Of these, at least 19 boxes were stuffed with files concerning Australia's war crimes trials.

This paper examines my interaction with one man's archive, our parallel lives as historians sifting through the sources, joining up the dots, testing hypotheses, and trying to contain the monster in order to come up with a workable narrative.