On screen text: Warning - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that the following program may contain images and voices of deceased persons.
Disclaimer: Some of the views expressed in this presentation do not necessarily reflect the views of the producers or the Northern Territory Government.
On screen text: Victory in the Pacific, 15 August 1945.
On screen text: The war is over. Japan has surrendered.
On screen text: 75th Anniversary, End of the Second World War, Northern Territory remembers 2020
[Graphic animation of various World War II (WWII) images]
Narrator: I was just a young girl at the time when the Japanese bombed the US naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
We didn't know that Darwin would be next…only 10 weeks later. Japan wanted to control the Pacific. They sent their ships, planes and troops to occupy many islands.
They didn't want to invade Australia, but they thought they could isolate us from the US and they believed they could bully us into surrendering.
Narrator: Most of our troops were overseas, they had left Australia in 1939 to fight against Germany and Italy in North Africa and Europe.
After the Pearl Harbor attack most civilians were evacuated from Darwin. The government forced almost all women and children to leave.
Wendy James (evacuee): And the next thing somebody was banging on the door and it seemed to us to be an enormous military policeman, and he came in and he said Mrs Secret, you have to catch the ship now and she said well I'm not going and that's when he told her if she did not go he would put her over his shoulder and carry her down to the wharf.
Narrator: The Japanese wanted to stop the Territory from being used as an allied base to attack them. Their goal was to protect their newly expanded empire. They made their first attempt to attack Darwin with four submarines. HMAS Deloraine sank one, the I-124.
Narrator: On the 19 February 1942 it was a normal Thursday morning in Darwin, but 300km out to sea the Japanese strike force launched 188 aircraft.
These were four of the carriers used in the Pearl Harbor strike, with the same planes and pilots.
Anne Cox (former Katherine resident): I often prayed to god and I would say thank god don't let a Jap ever put his bloody foot in the Territory.
Narrator: The wharf was bombed. Government House was hit, as was the post office killing most of the staff including two sisters, as well as three members of the Postmasters family. The RAAF Base was bombed in a second strike.
Narrator: Darwin was heavily damage. The shipping in the harbour was mauled. Our anti-aircraft gunners put up a fight. They shot down four Japanese planes. The Neptuna with 200 depth charges on board exploded killing 45 people. Thirty planes were destroyed, 11 ships sunk, 235 people died in the first attacks.
It was the day the war came to Australia. A Japanese fighter pilot crash-landed on Melville Island. He was captured by local Tiwi man Matthias, who held him up with a tomahawk.
The bombers kept coming for the next two years attacking targets across the Top End.
Barry Greenwood (signals operator): The Japanese aircraft used to come along this Berrimah Road area which this worker called ‘Bomb Alley’ and would make that swinging approach into Darwin.
Austin Asche (radar crewman): Never anywhere in Australia during that time was there ever any suggestion that we should surrender or make terms. It was totally unanimous that we had to fight.
Narrator: We began to fight back. Darwin built a defensive barrier with radar, searchlights and anti-aircraft guns.
The air defence was flown by the Americans in Kittyhawk Fighters at first but then we joined in with the British and Spitfires. Radar and searchlights combined with radio and the AA guns to make an effective defence.
Florence Peters: Barbed wire was everywhere. Our own house had a crater next to it where what they call ‘daisy cutter bombs’ were dropped in. It made this big crater by the side of the house, and there were machine gun bullet holes along the sides of the wall. So, it then brought home to us just how much this war meant to us as a family.
Narrator: The Territory defence was reinforced with Dutch, British and American forces. They helped build the infrastructure needed to win the war. The Stuart Highway for supplies and 51 airfields to support the heavy bombers.
The Japanese launched 207 attacks on Australia, but we began to bomb their land bases in the Pacific, forcing them to pull back. Australian Navy Corvettes escorted ships in and out of Darwin Harbor and protected them from attack.
US General Macarthur created a daring plan of attack from Australia. The allies would island hop through the Pacific towards Japan skipping most of their territory, isolating their bases and cutting off their supplies.
But the fighting in the Pacific was shocking. Battles at Guadalcanal, Saipan, Iwo Jima and Okinawa killed hundreds of thousands of people including civilians. This bloodbath convinced US President Truman that the Japanese would never surrender. He made a decision to drop the newly developed weapons, atomic bombs, on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The bombs killed over 200 000 people.
It was a terrible loss of life, yet millions of people would have died if a conventional war had continued against Japan. The Japanese surrendered on 15 August 1945. This became known as VJ Day – Victory over Japan Day.
Frank Poke (Major General): Once the piece as it were was agreed, they were no longer our enemy.
Frank Godfrey (infantryman): We've got to let bygones be bygones. We can't hate for the rest of our life.
Anne Cox (former Katherine resident): I reckon we should have enough brains to sit down and solve our problems without gunfire.
Narrator: Today Australia and Japan are friendly allies. Students from the Territory go on study tours to learn about the war.
Evidence of the conflict is still all around Darwin today. Shrapnel, bullet and bombing damage.
Narrator: The wreck of the I-124 submarine remains off Darwin with her crew of 80.
On screen text: Nearly a million Australians, men and women, served in World War II. Over 34,000 Australians were killed and over 130,000 wounded in action.
Wendy James (evacuee): On the 75th anniversary of Victory in the Pacific remember the fallen and all who were affected by the war. To explore history is to try to understand events so that we can prevent any war from breaking out again.
On screen text: Victory in the Pacific, 15 August 1945, 75th Anniversary, End of the Second World War, Northern Territory remembers 2020
