The significance of Kokoda for Australia is emphasized through the battles Australia fought, those who lost their lives as well as the major effects of the Kokoda Campaign. This essay will thoroughly investigate the Pacific theatre of war as well as the importance and impact the Kokoda Campaign had on Australia.
Many parties were involved in Kokoda. These parties include; Japanese, Papuan, Australian and The Americans. Australia, Papua New Guinea and the Americans were all opposing against the Japanese. There are numerous causes for the Campaign of Kokoda. One possibility is that after the Japanese tried to capture Port Moresby by sea, they thought of a new tactic. They thought that if they could go on land through Kokoda they would be successful.
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The Japanese tried to cross this river but many were unsuccessful, or others were shot by Papuan Patrols (Department of Veterans Affairs, Dr. Richard Reid, 2015) By the 17th of November the 16th and 25th Battalions triumphantly crossed the Kumusi River. The Japanese then retreated and withdrew, therefore ending the Campaign of Kokoda. The Kokoda Campaign started on the 21st of July 1942 when Japan landed at Gona and the first fighting occurred between the Papua Infantry Battalion and the Japanese. Kokoda was fought through the locations of Buna, Gona, Oivi, Kokoda, Isurava, Efogi and Owen’s Corner (Department of Veteran Affairs) (See Appendix 1) At Isurava, Australia was able to hold the Japanese in a 5-day period of intense fighting and combat in August. The Australian’s aim was to defend Port Moresby and ensure the threat to Australia of invasion would cease. The Papuan People and The Americans were very helpful in making sure this aim was …show more content…
Rations were made and fuel, a common commodity was reduced. The issuing of Personal Identification was also applied seeing as the threat for invasion was still very real. Clothing, footwear, butter, tea and sugar were rationed, thus meaning that fewer goods were being bought. When Americans were in Transit, they lived in Australia, therefore meaning shops were forced to open, boosting economy and introducing new tastes and fashion. The introduction of rations made sure all of the goods were evenly and fairly divided. According to the Curtin Government in order for Australia to survive, they had to “Populate or Perish” (1942). If these actions weren’t taken then it could be said that Australia would be much worse off than it is
The Kokoda Campaign was a World War II militant initiative, consisting of a series of sequential battles fought between the Japanese and predominantly Australian Allied forces. Kokoda itself, was a small village and airfield at the foothills of the Owen Stanley Mountain Range though, the Kokoda Trail was the setting at which these conflicts transpired. The mountainous road rose over 3000 meters, extending 200 kilometers across Australian territory New Guinea, from Gona in the north, to the administrative centre of Port Moresby in the south. The official commencement of the Kokoda Campaign was on the 21 July 1942, when the Japanese forces landed on the coast near Gona.
The Actions along the Matanikau—sometimes referred to as the Second and Third Battles of the Matanikau—were two separate but related engagements, which took place in the months of September and October 1942, among a series of engagements between the United States and Imperial Japanese naval and ground forces around the Matanikau River on Guadalcanal (island in the south-western Pacific, northeast of Australia) during the Guadalcanal Campaign. These particular engagements—the first taking place between 23 and 27 September, and the second between 6 and 9 October—were two of the largest and most significant of the Matanikau actions. The Matanikau River area on Guadalcanal included a peninsula called Point Cruz, the village of Kokumbona, and a series of ridges and ravines stretching inland from the coast. Japanese forces used the area to regroup from attacks against U.S. forces on the island, to launch further attacks on the U.S. defenses that guarded the Allied airfield (called Henderson Field) located at Lunga Point on Guadalcanal, as a base to defend against Allied attacks directed at Japanese troop and supply encampments between Point Cruz and Cape
The Battle of Kokoda was a Japanese attempt to isolate Australia from their allies of the US so that they could not use their resources and weaponry. Kokoda was a direct result of other failed attempts by the Japanese for example, the Battle of Coral Sea. Kokoda gave the Australian military the opportunity to fight a forward defensive battle on foreign soil rather than an attempt to repel an enemy from its sovereign soil, within its victory it assisted in improving the moral of both the soldiers and its citizenry by providing a much needed victory that showed the Japanese could be defeated. Additionally, it was the first occasion where the new alliance between the Australian and American forces was tested and with this the alliance was cemented not only for world war to but continuing to present
Within 10 weeks, Japan had dominated Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaya and Rabaul. The biggest town in north of Australia was Darwin which was a key defensive position against an aggressive Japan. Darwin was going to be a base for naval and air operations against the war in south east Asia. The intention of the attack was to scare Australia to become neutral in the war.
Australia adapted the national security act in 1939, which was used during world war 2. This gave the Government unprecedented power to protect the people and defend the country from the war, which had a major impact on the Australians. Censorship, rationing and conscription were all laws made during world war to: hide terrifying truth, keep the economy and living standard maintained and to get men and women to protect and defend the country. The Australian government introduced this two laws to specifically protect the ordinary Australians.
Pacific, which resulted in approximately 26,000,000 casualties. A major battle of the Pacific war was the Kokoda track campaign. Kokoda involved a series of battles fought between July and November 1942 between the Japanese troops and the Allied forces including the Australians and Americans. The battles were fought on the mountainous Kokoda track along the Owen Stanley Range which is in the southeast of Papua New Guinea. The Japanese troops objective in the Kokoda campaign was to capture Port Moresby, in order to allow an expansion of Japanese people to Australia.
Australians supported the decision to go to war very enthusiastically in 1914 mainly because they were very loyal to England but of course, there are other reasons which influenced their decision. Because Australia was extremely loyal to their ‘mother country’, they of course did not hesitate in following Britain’s declaration on war. Australians had very little experience before World War 1 which started on the 28th of July, 1914 and continued until the 11th of November, 1918. It was said that the cause of World War 1 was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and his wife, Sophie who was the Duchess of Hohenberg, in Sarajevo, Bosnia. World War 1 was also known as ‘The Great War’, it was supposedly the war to end all
The relationship between Australia and Indonesia over the years has changed for many reasons. These reasons are seen throughout time frames that I have chosen. In 1940’s Australia became allies with Indonesia as Indonesia goes through the battle for independence. The second reason of change was when Menzies increased the relationship with Indonesia, making it stronger, this increased trade.
During World War 2 (1939 – 1945), Australia had a variety of impacts on both its government and its people. The war had a great effect on the place of indigenous people in Australia as indigenous men and women joined services throughout the country. The Aboriginal Australians, both the men and the women had contributed in the second Great War. Meanwhile, when the Aboriginals of Australia had jobs during World War 2, Australia’s economy boomed with the help of the war as many Australian troops had gone out to fight for the British. The economy had boomed during the period of the Second World War as Australian products could be produced as well.
Also depleting air strength meant the remaining warplanes had to be hoarded to defend Japanese Home Islands. With no available means to defend Iwo Jima, Japan decided to rely on the established defensive equipment in the area and check U.S. by delaying tactics to gain time for defense of the mainland. Japanese Lieutenant General Tadamichi Kuribayashi was assigned the task of defending Iwo Jima. Knowing he couldn’t win the battle, he aimed at inflicting heavy casualties on American forces to force them to reconsider invasion of Mainland Japan. His strategy was radically different from Japan’s usual strategy of beach defense to face the landings directly.
The Air War at Sea, Stackpole Books: Mechanicsburg, PA, 2005). The objective was for a landing force to sail with troop filled transports, supporting war ships and the light carrier, Shoho. The main Japanese objective in the Solomons was the capture of Tulagi, the colonial capital. “To protect these two invasion fleets, Zuikaku and Shokaku would lead a separate covering force to create a blanket of air protection” (Bennett, Geoffrey, Naval Battles of World War Two, Pen & Sword: Barnsley, UK, 1975, 2003). U.S. intelligence relied heavily on the use of direction-finding equipment to learn where Japanese ships were and where they were heading.
Cmdr. Joseph Rochefort and the U.S.’s overall superior strategies of Nimitz and Fletcher was the true reason for why the U.S.’s seemingly impossible victory became possible. The two key themes that I will focus analysis on is the failures in the Japanese strategic planning and execution at Midway and U.S. determination and resilience to keep pushing on even after things, especially with USS carriers leading up to and during the actual war was falling apart. Symonds begins to argue his case by dissecting Japan’s plans for conquest and domination in the Pacific. He starts with looking at the Japanese failure by several of their military philosophies.
However, even with this in mind, the battle was a significant one, for both good and bad reasons, and this cannot be denied. Through the sheer number of soldiers lost, all the way to the depiction of the Australian spirit in preserving the memories of these men, it is clear that the battle served a purpose, in the
Australia’s experiences of World War II were significant for Australia and impacted on the shaping of our national identity. Australia 's response to entry into World War II in 1939 differed from Australia 's entry into World War I in 1914. Reasons for this includes attitudes towards war changing after gaining the knowledge and experiencing consequences of World War I, the conditions and lead up to World War II as well as Australia’s strong support for Britain. Firstly, the attitude of Australians changed due to World War 3I proving that war was not glamourous or exciting like it was assumed. During the lead up to World War II Australians had already struggled to survive through the depression and were now required to survive at war.
“Letters from Iwo Jima” is considered a historically accurate representation of the conflict in Iwo Jima. However, it misrepresents some facts that could affect our understanding on The Battle of Iwo Jima. Firstly, one aspect of The Battle of Iwo Jima that the film accurately depicted was Kuribayashi’s strategy. The Japanese defence of Jima would have been defence-in-depth, a military tactic that included