Australia and WWII Impact of the War on Australians Darwin
Australia was not ready for war- came as a surprise
Japan was very ready for war; Attacked countries and established bases on the land.
Pearl Harbor Attack; attacked American Navy, then later British Navy.
By early 1932 Darwin was being used as a military base
Civilisation population was about 200 as many had been evacutated.
Japanese sunk 2 artilery ships and shot down many planes and killed over 240 citizens & personnel.
Over the next 2 years Darwin was bombed 64 more times.
Sydney
In 1942 Australia was convinced they were going to be invaded; the Japanese had taken over all of South East Asia easily and quickly
The US had started to send troops to Australia as they saw the country was struggling
The biggest threat was the shipping routes; if ships from US were bombarded and cut off than Australia would become isolated.
Britain and America had a policy of Germany first; we’ll fix the Germans and then we’ll attack the Japanese.
When the Prime Minister announced that the battle for Australia had begun people who lived in coastal areas took the threat very seriously. Barbed wire fences were put up along beaches, searchlights were positioned in key locations and were constantly on watch.
There was air-raid warning drills for the citizens, and food was rationed.
Generals were bought in from England and America and led the troops and taught them what to do. After losing all their troops to the Japanese (by capture, or murder) many generals decided to get back at the Japanese by helping Australia.
Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne became major staging areas for Australian and imported US troops.
The thousands of troops and help we got caused a great flood of relief to wash over the Australian citizens; we were not alone
On the night of May 31st, 1942, 3 midget Japanese ships attempted to sneak into Sydney harbour. Their aim to sink allied heavy cruisers stationed there.
Government Controls For
Rationing ensures there are enough supplies to sustain Australia during the war times.
Talking about troop movements was forbidden which protected the soldiers
More people going to war to serve our country
Information was not leaked to the rest of Australia
Kept general population calm so they would not know the full threat
The more troops the better Australia was protected from invasion
It was harder for the enemy to find out important details (censorship)
Against
Prime Minister believed; “anybody in Australia can be called upon to do whatever the government want”.
Forcing men who didn’t want to go to war to fight.
Individuals should be entitled to their own privacy (censorship)
We have less knowledge of what is happening (censorship)
People forced to work in areas that they were not trained in- resulted in poor quality of work.
Fighting men could not tell their families where they were or how they were so family had no knowledge of them.
Impact of the War on Australians
Darwin
- Australia was not ready for war- came as a surprise
- Japan was very ready for war; Attacked countries and established bases on the land.
- Pearl Harbor Attack; attacked American Navy, then later British Navy.
- By early 1932 Darwin was being used as a military base
- Civilisation population was about 200 as many had been evacutated.
- Japanese sunk 2 artilery ships and shot down many planes and killed over 240 citizens & personnel.
- Over the next 2 years Darwin was bombed 64 more times.
Sydney- In 1942 Australia was convinced they were going to be invaded; the Japanese had taken over all of South East Asia easily and quickly
- The US had started to send troops to Australia as they saw the country was struggling
- The biggest threat was the shipping routes; if ships from US were bombarded and cut off than Australia would become isolated.
- Britain and America had a policy of Germany first; we’ll fix the Germans and then we’ll attack the Japanese.
- When the Prime Minister announced that the battle for Australia had begun people who lived in coastal areas took the threat very seriously. Barbed wire fences were put up along beaches, searchlights were positioned in key locations and were constantly on watch.
- There was air-raid warning drills for the citizens, and food was rationed.
- Generals were bought in from England and America and led the troops and taught them what to do. After losing all their troops to the Japanese (by capture, or murder) many generals decided to get back at the Japanese by helping Australia.
- Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne became major staging areas for Australian and imported US troops.
- The thousands of troops and help we got caused a great flood of relief to wash over the Australian citizens; we were not alone
- On the night of May 31st, 1942, 3 midget Japanese ships attempted to sneak into Sydney harbour. Their aim to sink allied heavy cruisers stationed there.
Government ControlsFor
- Rationing ensures there are enough supplies to sustain Australia during the war times.
- Talking about troop movements was forbidden which protected the soldiers
- More people going to war to serve our country
- Information was not leaked to the rest of Australia
- Kept general population calm so they would not know the full threat
- The more troops the better Australia was protected from invasion
- It was harder for the enemy to find out important details (censorship)
Against