Sir Horace Robertson was one of Australia's most colorful and controversial generals. His career spanned forty years and two world wars, as well as a lengthy period in both Japan and Korea between 1946 and 1951. Australian Brass not only charts the life and career of "Red Robbie," it uses his career as a vehicle to trace the development of the Australian regular army and the professional officer corps. It is also the first account of the occupation of Japan from a senior officer's perspective, as Robertson was Commander-in-Chief of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force after the Second World War. This episode is set in the context of the continuing relationship between Britain and the Pacific dominions.