If ever an image could be said to sum up the Australian attitude to the Japanese at the very end of the Second World War, then the photograph of Lieutenant Colonel Murray Robson, commander of the
Douglas MacArthur, Commander in the Southwest Pacific and Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, also signed. He accepted the Japanese surrender "for the United States, Republic of China, United Kingdom, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and in the interests of the other United Nations at war with Japan."
General Thomas Blamey signing the Instrument of Surrender on Australia's behalf. General Thomas Blamey, Commander-in-Chief of the Australian Military Forces and Commander of Allied Land Forces in the South West Pacific signed the Instrument on behalf of the Australian Government.
In early 1942, elements of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) proposed an invasion of mainland Australia. This proposal was opposed by the Imperial Japanese Army and Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, who regarded it as being unfeasible, given Australia's geography and the strength of the Allied defences.
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 only Japanese force to land in Australia during World War II was a reconnaissance party that landed in the Kimberley region of Western Australia on the 19th of January 1944 to investigate reports that the Allies were building large bases in the region.
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.
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."
Of the 1 million Australians who served in Australia and overseas during World War II, we estimate that up to 3000, perhaps more, were Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander peoples. Important contributions to Australia's war effort by Indigenous Australians included: military service overseas in all theatres of the war.
Australia and Japan are close partners in regional forums such as Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the East Asia Summit (EAS) the G20, and the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF). Australia supports Japan's aspiration to become a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.
The main reason Japan would not surrender was that it did not want to get rid of the Emperor, a seemingly non-negotiable term for the U.S. There are many competing theories about why Japan surrendered.
Australia's declaration of war on Japan was a response to the coordinated attacks by the Japanese on United States and British territories across the Asia-Pacific region.
For Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda, the war was finally over. He was the second to last Japanese soldier to surrender. The last man standing, Private Teruo Nakamura, would finally hand himself in on the 18th of December 1974.
It was the deployment of a new and terrible weapon, the atomic bomb, which forced the Japanese into a surrender that they had vowed never to accept. Harry Truman would go on to officially name September 2, 1945, V-J Day, the day the Japanese signed the official surrender aboard the USS Missouri.
Eight days later, on August 6, the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima; the second was dropped on August 9 on Nagasaki; on the following day, August 10, Japan declared its intention to surrender, and on August 14 accepted the Potsdam terms.
The war in the Pacific may have ended on Sept. 2, 1945, for just about everyone, but for Imperial Japanese Army intelligence officer Hiroo Onoda, the conflict persisted for nearly three decades.
Between 11,000 and 14,000 Aboriginal people died, compared with only 399 to 440 colonisers. The tallies of the dead are not the only measure of what took place, according to Dr Bill Pascoe, a digital humanities specialist and key researcher on the project. “We are always using conservative estimates,” Pascoe said.
A number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people served in the Boer War (1899-1902) Over 1000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people served in World War I (1914-1918) and around 70 fought at Gallipoli. At least 3000 Aboriginal and 850 Torres Strait Islander people served in World War II (1939-1945)
More than 1000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples served in the First World War, and more than 4000 in the Second World War. At least 300 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples served in the Vietnam War.
Japanese plans
In early March 1942, the Japanese had debated what to do now that Japan had so easily gained her objectives. The Navy wanted to invade Australia and deny the country as a base to either America or Britain. The Army felt it did not have the strength to invade and fully occupy so vast a continent.
Over the years Japanese political leaders have issued a number of general apologies for the Imperial Army's conduct during World War II. Despite these apologies, the Chinese people and Sino-Japanese relations have yet to be fully normalized, and tensions remain.
During the Second World War, people of Japanese origin were interned in Australia as 'enemy aliens'. National Archives holds alien registration and internment records from this time period. Most Japanese internees were deported at the end of the Second World War.
Kokoda, as part of the Battle for Australia, saved Australia from invasion. It was only in the Second World War that this country came under threat of invasion — this was not true in the First World War. And the invasion force was being assembled and was thwarted really only at the Coral Sea.
If successful, Operation FS would achieve two strategic objectives for the Japanese: First, it would critically isolate Australia, whose northern coast was only a few hundred miles from Port Moresby. This could have forced Australia to withdraw from the war, or in the worst case, even suffer partial invasion.
The Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) insisted it needed to focus on operations in China and Southeast Asia and so refused to provide substantial support elsewhere. Because of a lack of co-operation between the services, the IJN never discussed the Hawaiian invasion proposal with the IJA.