Closely followed by aircraft, their goal was to destroy the Allies' military base in Darwin. From Darwin, the Allies could contest the Japanese invasion of nearby islands, Timor and Java. The Japanese mounted 2 air attacks that day. The first attack focused on the town centre and the harbour.
MOSELEY: On the 19th of February, 1942, war came to Australia's shores. Japan wanted to destroy our country's northern defenses, so it could invade Timor and in the process send Australia a warning.
The US naval victory at the battle of Midway, in early June 1942, removed the Japan's capability to invade Australia by destroying its main aircraft carriers. This made it safe for Australia to begin to transfer military power to fight the Japanese in Australian Papua and New Guinea.
However, Axis surface raiders and submarines periodically attacked shipping in the Australian coastal waters from late 1940 to early 1945. Japanese aircraft bombed towns and airfields in Northern Australia on 97 occasions during 1942 and 1943.
As a result, the Allied powers including Australia were at war with Japan as well. During this period, the Australian mainland came under direct enemy attack for the first time in history, with Japanese bombing attacks on Northern Australia and an attack on Sydney Harbour by Japanese midget submarines.
They reasoned that sinking a large Allied warship inside the harbour would not only lead American naval commanders to weaken its central Pacific fleet to meet a potential threat off Australia, but that it would also demoralise Australian civilians.
1957: Prime Minister Kishi Nobusuke said to the people of Australia: "It is my official duty, and my personal desire, to express to you and through you to the people of Australia, our heartfelt sorrow for what occurred in the war."
The generals of the Army General Staff, and the Prime Minister of Japan, General Hideki Tojo, did not see a need to commit massive troop resources to the conquest of Australia, with the massive logistical problems that would produce.
Australia and Japan both acknowledges each other as key strategic partners within the Asia-Pacific. With both being prosperous liberal democracies and key allies of the United States.
The Japanese had an invasion plan. The Japanese had the ability to invade. Kokoda, as part of the Battle for Australia, saved Australia from invasion. The Allied successes on the Kokoda Trail, at Milne Bay and on Guadalcanal ensured the security of Australia.
About two thirds agreed that Japan had planned to invade Australia in 1942. Around three quarters tended to agree that the Kokoda campaign had saved Australia from invasion and that the Brisbane Line strategy actually entailed abandoning northern Australia to the Japanese.
The Australia–Japan partnership is Australia's closest and most mature in Asia and is fundamental to both countries' strategic and economic interests. The relationship is underpinned by a shared commitment to democracy, human rights and the rule of law, as well as common approaches to international security.
In February 1942, an invasion of the Australian continent appeared imminent. Just ten weeks after Japan's whirlwind invasion of South-East Asia, Australia itself became the target of air and sea attacks.
Yet Australians have fought in ten wars. Some of these have been in distant lands, others much closer to home. All of them were begun by other nations and involved Australia because of its overseas ties; alliances formed through sentiment, loyalty or simply for reasons of security.
[1] The Australian Prime Minister, Ben Chifley, announced the end of the war against Japan via Radio 2CY Canberra at 9.30 am on the same day: Fellow citizens, the war is over. The Japanese Government has accepted the terms of surrender imposed by the Allied Nations and hostilities will now cease.
Australian Defence Force personnel are deployed to operations overseas and within Australia, in order to actively protect Australia's borders and offshore maritime interests.
These stereotypes served to conflate Nikkei-Australians with the soldiers in the Japanese military that Australia witnessed during wartime, who were regarded as “subhuman beast[s]” and “vermin” (Saunders 1994, 325–27).
While on Australian soil the Japanese even took some 8 mm movie footage of what they saw. As it turned out they had landed only 25 kms from where the RAAF were several weeks later to start building their secret airfield at Truscott.
After 60 years there is still no prospect of a true reconciliation between China and Japan. The recent visit by Junichiro Koizumi, Japan's prime minister, to a war shrine in central Tokyo was condemned by the Chinese.
Australia came under attack for the first time when Japanese forces mounted two air bombing raids. The two attacks, which were planned and led by the commander responsible for the attack on Pearl Harbour ten weeks earlier, involved 54 land based bombers.
In all, Australia conducted nearly three hundred trials, in which 924 Japanese servicemen were accused of war crimes. Of these, 644 were convicted and 148 were sentenced to death, although 11 had their sentences commuted. Execution was carried out by firing squad or by hanging.
Why didn't the Japanese surrender after the first atomic bombing in Hiroshima? Japan didn't surrender after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima because both the Supreme Council for the Direction of the War (I'll call it the Supreme War Council from here on out) and the Cabinet deadlocked on what to do next.
Air war over Europe. The RAAF's role in the strategic air offensive in Europe formed Australia's main contribution to the defeat of Germany. Approximately 13,000 Australian airmen served in dozens of British and five Australian squadrons in RAF Bomber Command between 1940 and the end of the war.
And the German learned to fear Australians, because they were reckless, ruthless - and revengeful. During the Third Battle of Ypres, autumn 1917, the ANZAC's (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) met the Germans on high ground, in front of Polygon Wood.