On Our Doorstep: When Australia Faced the Threat of Invasion by the Japanese by Craig Collie

Book Description

Secondhand. Very good condition. Minor wear to book corners and edges. Interior and binding are also very good.

Australia has a history of believing itself to be under threat of invasion. In 1942, that threat, in the form of invasion and occupation by the Japanese, seemed more imminent than the earlier fears.

On Our Doorstep is the story of how Australia and Australians - the government, the military and the people - prepared to face this calamity, and the events that persuaded them of its probability. The Japanese had steamrolled through Malaya and Singapore, and bombed Darwin with the same ferocity they had dealt Pearl Harbour. Nothing could stop them. Their next step was inevitable, surely.

Meanwhile, wartime leader John Curtin was battling with Winston Churchill to get Australian troops back to defend their homeland and to position Australia to secure America's help in fending off the approaching enemy. At home, people pitched in as best they could, in any way they could, to frustrate the invader, all playing their part, torn between 'she'll be right' and near-panic.

Amid plans and rumoured plans to abandon the north to the enemy and deny Australia resources through scorched earth, particular attention was paid to northern Australia and the islands beyond. In the end, Japan found it had stretched itself beyond the reliability of its supply line, but had it ever intended to invade Australia?

I can't understand the mentality of the Australian people,' said John Curtin. 'One day they are in a panic about the war and the next they want more race meetings.'