Invading Australia: Japan And The Battle For Australia 1942

by Peter Stanley

1942 was a key year in Australia's history. As its people had so long feared, White Australia, an outpost of empire, seemed about to be invaded by the Japanese. In that one year, Darwin was bombed, submarines torpedoed ships in Sydney Harbour and Australian Militiamen died on the Kokoda Trail.Each year, more and more Australians celebrate Anzac Day and honour the lives of those who fought for their country. There is even a push to create a new public holiday, in remembrance and celebration of the 'Battle for Australia'. But was there ever really such a battle, and how close did Australia actually come to being invaded?Invading Australia provides a comprehensive, thorough and well-argued examination of these and other pertinent questions. Peter Stanley writes compellingly about Australian attitudes to Japan before, during and after World War II, and uses archival sources to discuss Japan's war plans early in 1942. He also shows that rather than a 'Battle for Australia' there was a worldwide fight for freedom and democracy that has allowed the West to enjoy great prosperity in the decades since 1945.

Genres: History, Australia

308 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Peter Stanley is a leading military historian and author. A Stout Pair of Boots is based on his research on Australia's battlefields in many parts of the world. Formerly Principal Historian at the Australian War Memorial, he is now Director of the Centre for Historical Research at the National Museum of Australia.

Reviews

[Harry · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent historical analysis of Australia at war, with the central focus being the year 1942. I greatly admire Peter Stanley’s mythbusting and his efforts to dismantle what amounts to irresponsible nationalist thinking on Australia’s role in the Second World War. The central plank of that thinking is that there was a concerted Japanese plan to invade Australia in 1942.

Whilst any Japanese invasion was a perceived remote threat in 1942, as Stanley says it was a ‘reality of the mind’. Kokoda, the bombing of Darwin, the Sydney Harbour submarine raids do not constitute a battle or a campaign or a precursor to invasion. They constitute Japanese efforts to isolate, subdue and knock Australia out of the war, preventing communications and lines of supply to and from the US.

The evidence is all here and Stanley goes bit by bit, breaking down each historical ‘fact’ that those who support a ‘Battle for Australia’ use to support their ideas. His analysis is spot on.

1942 was significant for Australia for a number of reasons. It was the year that their faith in imperial defence was irrevocably lost by the fall of Singapore, the year that saw attacks on the mainland (Sydney harbour, Darwin), the year that Australia turned its attention away from Britain and towards the United States. But Stanley does an excellent job of analysing these events both by themselves and, crucially, within an international context.

He recognises that many of the hallmarks of Australian WW2 mythology were actually sound strategic decisions (John Curtin for example and his famous ‘bringing the troops back’ from Europe was actually less dramatic. Those divisions were on their way back to Asia anyway, and the fact that they were spared from Burma allowed them to actually fight another day, they were in no position anyway to fight without a refit at that point). Those divisions would not fight on the Australian homeland because…there was no planned Japanese invasion.

Australia’s achievement in WWII was its value as a member of a grand coalition of Allies that worked together to defeat fascism and militarism both in Asia and Europe. An invasion of Australia which was not planned by Japan and did not happen is, as Stanley concludes, irrelevant.

All countries would do well to examine their own histories and look at how certain strains of nationalist thinking can cloud their memories of war and the roles they play within them. Fantastic book.

[Andrew Carr · Rating 4 out of 5]

The true, if slightly grumpy, story of what Japan actually wanted to do against Australia in the Second World War, and how Australians, from the 19th to 21st centuries have thought about the threat of invasion.

A necessary read for all who want to know what actually happened in WW2 and get a deeper sense of how Australians think about their security.