Pat Conroy (Charlton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the 70th anniversary of Victory in the Pacific Day. This is an incredibly important event that we mark in this House today. The conflict in the Pacific during World War II was the turning point for modern Australia. It was a turning point for an Australia that came of age. We were discussing previously the centenary of Gallipoli, another important even in Australian history often remarked on as when Australia came of age as a nation. I respect those that put that as the key moment, but I do think that World War II and the Australian response in the Pacific was a crucial turning point. It was a period when Australian unambiguously turned away from seeing itself as a Pacific outpost of the United Kingdom into a country that was standing up on its own two legs.

The conflict in the Pacific touched every part of our country. There is no doubt about that. Every part of the country would have a story about the impact of the war and how it touched their region. In my region of Lake Macquarie-Newcastle we were home to the Rathmines flying boat base on the shores of Lake Macquarie. At its peak it had 3,000 RAAF personnel present. It was the largest flying boat base in the Pacific. It played a crucial role in the Pacific conflict. Catalina flying boats based out of Rathmines identified the convoys travelling down the coast of PNG towards Port Moresby trying to circumvent the Kokoda track. This identification and trailing of those convoys led to the battle of the Coral Sea.

The Battle of the Coral Sea was a key turning point in the Pacific. It halted the seaward advancement of the Imperial Japanese Navy, and a few weeks later we saw the turning point of the Battle of Midway where the USS Yorktown, which the Japanese thought had been sunk at the Coral Sea, came into conflict and played a crucial role in sinking six Japanese aircraft carriers. This really was a turning point of the war in the Pacific against the Japanese. That could not have occurred without the Coral Sea battle; it could not have occurred without halting the Japanese advancement on Port Moresby. The Rathmines flying boat base played a crucial role in that conflict.

The other part of the flying boat role out of Rathmines in terms of the Pacific conflict that was most crucial was the mining of Manila harbour, which cut off a crucial harbour base for the Japanese—not just their naval fleet but their merchant base as well. The RAAF operated 168 Catalina flying boats from 1941 to 1950. Of these, 32 were shot down in combat and 332 lives were lost. I pay tribute to, and honour the memory of, those 332 personnel. The base was sited at Rathmines because Lake Macquarie is the biggest saltwater lake in the Southern Hemisphere—it is actually four times the size of Sydney Harbour. The base served many purposes: it trained air crews in the use of flying boats and sea rescue crews; it serviced and maintained the flying boats; it supplied Seagull and Walrus aircraft for the Royal Australian Navy; and the Catalinas that were based there patrolled the New South Wales coast. I honour that heritage.

There is a very strong community in the Lake Macquarie region that is dedicated to honouring the Rathmines flying boat base and is doing all they can to get due acknowledgement of that base. It is a well-kept secret in our region. People in our region have RAAF Williamtown, which played a crucial role in World War II, but Rathmines played an equally important role, and we need to honour that contribution.

I would also like to acknowledge the role of servicewomen at the Rathmines base. The Women's Auxiliary Australian Air Force was created in 1949, and Rathmines was a sought-after posting. Women were deployed in 73 trades at the base and worked in many fields that were traditionally the domain of men, such as armaments works, flight mechanics, meteorology, and signals and radar. I pay tribute to the 57 members of the Women's Auxiliary Australian Air Force who died in service to their country.

In talking to this motion I also want to acknowledge and place on the record the courageous and inspiring leadership of our wartime leader, Prime Minister John Curtin. At the Centenary of Federation in 2001 Prime Minister Howard acknowledged two prime ministers of particular significance in the 20th century. One was Australia's longest-serving Prime Minister and Mr Howard's political mentor, Sir Robert Menzies—and that is understandable—and the other was John Curtin, whom Prime Minister Howard honoured for his leadership of our country at a time of grave peril. John Curtin became Prime Minister in October 1941, two years into the war and only a few months after the bombing of Pearl Harbour. His leadership saw the successful defence of Australia against Japanese imperial forces and the establishment of our security alliance with the United States, which, 70 years on, remains the bedrock of our national security.

There is little public recognition of Curtin's pre-war involvement in defence policy. In the years leading up to 1939 Curtin played a constructive role in national security as Leader of the Opposition. He supported the bipartisan approach to defence policy by the Lyons government's defence minister, Archdale Parkhill, and in the years leading up to the war he advocated for coastal defence and the production of defence materiel. In any recognition of John Curtin's leadership it should be noted that he bravely stood up to Sir Winston Churchill and ensured that Australian forces, rightly, defended Australia. It is well known that after the fall of Singapore, and without seeking Australian approval, Churchill directed the 7th Division of the Second Australian Imperial Force to Burma. They were in transit from the Middle East, coming back to Australia, when Winston Churchill attempted to divert them to defend Burma. John Curtin was rightly infuriated by this move and insisted that these ships return to Australia. In retrospect, this was not only the right move for Australia but also the right move for the war effort, because they were not travelling with their defence materiel—their armaments, their weapons. Had they been successfully diverted to Burma—at Rangoon in particular—I suspect they would have been caught up in the Japanese advance, been immediately interned in the Japanese prisoner of war camps and suffered the horrendous fate of other prisoners of war.

Instead, they successfully came back to Australia and strengthened our militia forces then fighting against the Japanese in PNG and played a crucial role in turning the Japanese back in Kokoda—the first land-based defeat of the Japanese army in World War II. I honour the role John Curtin played in World War II. In particular, I honour his role in standing up to Winston Churchill and saying that these troops were needed in Australia, that they were needed to defeat the imperial Japanese forces then advancing through PNG.

Mr Curtin's role in founding the US alliance is also very significant in this debate around victory in the Pacific. In Curtin's famous new year's message of 1941—in fact, 1942—he wrote that:

Without any inhibitions of any kind I make it quite clear that Australia looks to America, free of any pangs as to our traditional links or kinship with the United Kingdom.

This statement was obviously controversial at the time, but history also records that his policy was correct in that the sole focus of the United Kingdom was on defeating Germany in Europe and that Australia would need to ally with America in the Pacific to defeat Japan.

I do not need to inform the House of the close involvement of America and Australia in defeating Japan with our allies, including the United Kingdom, but do note that the relationship that arose from this involvement has formed the basis of our 70-year security relationship with the United States. Both sides of politics recognise the significance of our alliance with America, and John Curtin is responsible for the creation of this important relationship. As a country we were fortunate indeed to have been led during the Second World War by this brave and wise leader—a brave and wise leader much like Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who was not destined to survive World War II, who worried himself sick during World War II and was acutely aware of the demands he was placing upon Australian service men and women and on our civilian population.

In conclusion, I honour the contribution of all Australians at that time to victory in the Pacific. I honour the hundreds of thousands of Australians who fought. I honour the hundreds of thousands who participated in wartime industries. I honour the memory and sacrifice of the thousands of Australians who laid down their lives or were wounded in this conflict. Theirs was a noble cause. We often debate conflict in this place and whether there is such a thing as a just war. World War II was such a thing. It was a just war, and I honour the memory of all those Australians, in particular those in my region, who were associated with that conflict.

Eric Hutchinson (Lyons, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I also rise to speak on the 70th anniversary of VP Day, and I take great pride in doing that. At 12 noon Tokyo time on 15 August 1945, Japan signed an unconditional surrender to bring the war in the Pacific, and indeed the Second World War, to an end, an important moment in Australia's history. Through those six years, nearly one million Australians served. Almost 40,000 lost their lives. Many, many more thousands suffered physical and mental wounds or suffered the ultimate indignity of spending time during that conflict as prisoners of war.

Tasmania had a very proud record of service during the Second World War. My uncle Desmond Cordell served in the Air Force in the Second World War. The 2/40th Infantry Battalion was recruited almost entirely from Tasmania. They served in Dutch Timor, forming the bulk of what was known as Sparrow Force, which defended the airfield at Penfui, the operational base for the RAAF's Hudson bombers of No. 2 Squadron, of which my uncle was a member. Many of those were taken as prisoners of war in 1942.

Sailor Teddy Sheean was also born in Tasmania. He served aboard HMAS Armidale off the coast of Timor in December of 1942, when the ship came under heavy attack by Japanese aircraft. The ship was hit by two torpedos and began to sink. Anyone that has not seen the painting of Teddy Sheean wounded, refusing to abandon ship and strapped to his gun, shooting at the Japanese aircraft even as the ship was sinking below the surface, should do so. To imagine an 18-year-old in that circumstance is something that really is quite extraordinary.

I had the privilege on 15 August this year to attend a memorial service at St Helens in my electorate. It was a wonderful service. It combined the unveiling of 23 plaques, on which are the names of the 1,382 Tasmanian men and women known to have died from their World War II service, serving with various Australian, British and New Zealand armed forces and merchant navies. My absolute congratulations go to Mr Graham Cameron for the work that he undertook to collate this information and to include also all of those men that served in World War I; we will have an opportunity to unveil those plaques later this year. These plaques were made possible by a contribution of $24,000 from the Australian government, and having those plaques unveiled made that remembrance service all the more special.

Of particular note, I should add that there were a number of World War II veterans in attendance that day. These men and women are well into their 90s now, and some are increasingly frail, but truly it made a very special day even more special. I will just acknowledge those veterans that were in attendance at St Helens. Mr Alf Barnett served in New Britain. Mr Roy Moody served in Bougainville. Mr Len Smith served in PNG and Bougainville. Mr Max Franks served in northern Australia. Ray Coltman served on HMAS Warramunga in the Pacific and, significantly, was in Tokyo Bay on the ship during the surrender of Japan. Barney Fletcher served in PNG, Mr Bill Deacon in northern Australia and Mr Allan Brown also in northern Australia. Peggy Cameron served with the nurses in Malaya and in the RAANC post World War II.

It was a wonderful service, and to make it even more special we had Mr Brian Freeman from Walking Wounded, which is an extraordinary story. Brian is an ex-serviceman; he served in Afghanistan. He is the founder and executive director of Walking Wounded. It is his mission to raise awareness of the plight of veterans and the challenges and difficulties that many veterans face, particularly our current veterans, on returning from active service overseas and assimilating back into normal civilian life. Brian Freeman, on behalf of Walking Wounded, has a roll of honour from Afghanistan that was presented to Walking Wounded by the Governor-General of Australia, His Excellency General the Hon. Sir Peter Cosgrove, on Remembrance Day 2014. After travelling from Mount Everest and throughout Australia—including kayaking across Bass Strait—and along the Kokoda Track and up Mount Kilimanjaro, it will be returned to the Governor-General at the Australian War Memorial on the eve of Remembrance Day 2015. It was a wonderful thing to have Brian and a number of supporters that follow him on his walk. They really, as he said, have not had to put their hands in their pockets at all. They have had the generosity of the communities that they have passed through on their travels around Australia. It made this very significant occasion in St Helens all the more special.

Can I just briefly acknowledge the other people who organised the service. I mentioned Mr Graham Cameron. From the RSL, there was Mr Greg 'Legsy' Eyles, and Mr Harry Jager also participated in the service. As I mentioned, Mr Len Smith was the MC. Contributions on the day we were made by Mayor Mick Tucker and yours truly. It was a very special event, with schoolchildren from the high school and representation from TS Argonaut, which is the naval cadet training ship that is located in St Helens and conducts its activities on Georges Bay. They are a very active naval cadet unit and they have a wonderful leadership. They are an outstanding group of young people. Many over the years have gone on to serve in the Australian Navy, having started their interest in these areas with TS Argonaut.

As I mentioned before, it gives me great pleasure to recognise all of those Australians who served—and many of whom gave their lives—during the Second World War. It is appropriate at this time that we recognise the sacrifice that they made for us and the generations to come.

Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for External Territories) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It gives me great pleasure to be able to speak on and about the 70th Anniversary of the end of the war in the Pacific. I do not recall it, but I know that my father's and mother's families do. My father was overseas at the time, in New Guinea. On 15 August 1945, you can imagine the elation when radios in homes across Australia crackled with the news, as Prime Minister Ben Chifley announced the end of the war against Japan:

Fellow citizens, the war is over.

The Japanese Government has accepted the terms of surrender imposed by the Allied Nations and hostilities will now cease. …

At this moment let us offer thanks to God.

Let us remember those whose lives were given that we may enjoy this glorious moment and may look forward to a peace which they have won for us.

Indeed, it was a peace which they won for us. In the days that followed, a war-weary nation breathed a sigh of relief and began to celebrate in the cities and towns and hamlets across this great country of ours.

We well recall the history. The war in the Pacific began with the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. With the fall of Singapore in February 1942, it became very clear to all Australians, I am certain, what the threat really was and how the war might soon come to our shores. And then, four days after the fall of Singapore, on 19 March 1942, bombs fell for the first time on Australian soil, when Darwin was attacked in the first of 64 raids. The last raid was on 12 November 1943. During those 21 months the Japanese bombed other towns, including Broome four times and Townsville three times. Others included Katherine, Batchelor and Milingimbi in the Northern Territory; Mossman in North Queensland; and Wyndham, Port Hedland, Onslow, Exmouth and Derby in Western Australia.

The North felt the brunt of this attack, of these Japanese bombing raids. The reasons were fairly apparent. The Japanese, whether or not they were seeking to invade our country, were clearly trying to prevent Australian and Allied forces operating out of bases in the North that could launch counteroffensives into the Netherlands East Indies—now Indonesia—with its rich supplies of oil. The raids were, in that sense, pre-emptive and could not be seen as part of any invasion. In May 1942 United States and Australian aircraft clashed with Japanese planes over the Coral Sea and, later in June, the Battle of Midway put a check on Japan.

The Northern Territory felt the brunt of the war effort acutely. The Stuart Highway—dirt, as it was—became the main avenue for troop reinforcements into the North and out of Australia. Camps were set up in Alice Springs, Katherine and Adelaide River. Darwin was an occupied town, in terms of the military presence. Citizens were evacuated south, and Australians were put under greater movement controls than at any time since the convict era. There have never been, since then, such controls. Some of them included such things as restricting sporting events. Exmouth's Christmas and New Year holidays were limited to three days only. Blackouts and brownouts were obligatory for cities and coastal areas, including Darwin and Katherine. Daylight saving was mandatory. There were increased call-ups of the militia. There was the issue of personal identity cards. There was the increased enlistment of women in auxiliary and nursing forces. There was a fixing of profit margins for industry.

There were restrictions on the cost allowed for building and renovation. There was the setting of some women's pay rates at near male levels because of the work they were then doing for the war. There were controls put on the cost of dresses and other price-pegging. There was a rationing of clothing, footwear, tea, butter and sugar. There was the banning of the Communist Party and the Australia First Movement for their opposition to the war. We also saw the formation of the wonderful Women's Land Army. That generation that fought and worked for Australia through the Pacific War is passing. Those children who lived through the rationing, shortages, price controls and absent fathers and can remember the experience are well passed retirement age. My generation—and, I am, certain subsequent generations—are eternally grateful to them. We have all become the beneficiaries of the reforms that commenced as Australia was put on alert for total war.

The end of the war brought great hope and enthusiasm for progress—a promise to rebuild Australia that had been marred by the Depression, war and drought; a promise to get on with the work left undone since Federation. All through the Pacific War the Labor governments of John Curtin and Ben Chifley concentrated on the kind of Australia it wanted once the fighting was over. They were ably assisted by some really outstanding public servants, one of whom I worked with closely for a number of years in the late seventies and early eighties. That of course was Dr H. C. 'Nugget' Coombs, who was crucial and central to rationing during the war and the postwar reconstruction and to the economic policies that were adopted by both the Curtin and Chifley governments.

It became clear during that period that Australia could no longer rely on selling primary products to pay for its industrial imports, and the boom and bust cycle of economic activity had to be addressed. The commitment to full employment and low inflation became a key government responsibility. The war transformed the Australian economy. Construction of aircraft, mass production of small arms and the fashioning of precision instruments and machine tools required more skilled trades, and education was subsequently changed to meet those requirements. We built a very extensive and important manufacturing base.

My generation benefited from a high school and university education—something beyond the means of my parents, whose school years were lived through the grim years of the 1930's Depression. After the war we saw great initiatives such as the Snowy Mountains Scheme and many other projects. The Pacific War was also a watershed for women.    Large numbers of women entered the workforce, whereas previously they were unemployed. But at war's end many felt frustration as the skills and confidence they acquired in the workforce were looked down upon as the expectation was that women would depart from those jobs and return to be homemakers. Not all women wanted to return to their old situation.

The war also brought about changes in terms of health reform. Many great changes were initiated as a result of what happened during that war period. No doubt others in this debate will refer to those great battles of Kokoda and Milne Bay, the war in the Dutch East Indies and in Timor, the operation of 'Z' force, those courageous men many of whose lives were lost as a result of the fall of Singapore, and the captured Australian soldiers who died at the hands of the Japanese in Changi and other places as prisoners of war. One cannot underestimate the impact that the war had on Australia.

When we talk about current conflicts, we know that, when our returned men and women come back from those conflicts, they will be well looked after. Sadly, this was not the case after the Second World War. Whilst we pay a lot of regard to issues such as post-traumatic stress and other matters that have evolved from our knowledge regarding the impact of war on the mental health of individuals, there was not that recognition after the Second World War—at least not as widely as it should have been. Many of my own family, including my father and my uncles, were war veterans. After the war, we saw the rise of returned organisations and unit organisations, and they offered support to one another. I vividly recall hearing stories about people being 'in the horrors'. 'In the horror's was a description of people who were mentally affected by the war, and treatment was not as readily available or as extensive as it is today.

During this conflict, those people who fought in the war in the Pacific sacrificed greatly for all of us, and the tens of thousands who marched in uniform on our behalf need to be remembered. We must acknowledge that whether or not you believe that there was to be an imminent invasion of Australia that without their work, their sacrifice, their courage and their effort, then we may well have lost the war in the Pacific. So it is important that we remember this 70th anniversary. There are things which most Australians, I do not think, are fully aware of.

In 1987 when I first got elected to this parliament I spoke in this place—although not in this chamber; in the chamber in Old Parliament House—about our obligations as a result of the Second World War to the people of what is now known as Timor Leste and East Timor. My father was a member of the 2/2nd Commandos. Although he did not serve with the 2/2nd in East Timor, the 2/2nd went to East Timor initially in December of 1941. They left roughly 12 months later. What was important about their contribution was that they actually quarantined a whole Japanese force by running a guerilla campaign in East Timor with very few casualties. They were reinforced in the second half of 1942 by the 2/4th.

Whilst we did not suffer many casualties in East Timor, as a direct result of the protection and camaraderie by the East Timorese, they lost tens of thousands of people, because they looked after, protected, hid and provided succour and support for Australian servicemen. So now we have Timor Leste as a partner, but we should all remember that we owe that country a great debt of honour which I do not think can ever properly be repaid. We can give recognition. We can support their government. We can provide aid but we can never replace the lives of those tens of thousands of people that were lost as a direct result of the Japanese occupation of East Timor.

So when we reflect upon this 70th anniversary, we understand our own pain and the pain of our families and their suffering. But let us also remember the suffering of others, the fall of Singapore—what a military disaster. But we were not the only ones who suffered. We had our troops and civilians in prison but, when the Japanese cascaded down the Malay Peninsula, it was not just Australian and British lives that were lost; there were the lives of the Malays and the Singaporeans. So it is, I think, important that we contemplate the whole of this, not just part. Certainly, its impact on Australia is very hard to define.

I should make the observation, because of where I live, that northern Australians had a particular part to play in this war and Aboriginal Australians and the people of the Torres Strait did most particularly. Aboriginal people became supporters and worked in uniform across northern Australia. The North Australia Observer Unit, the Nackeroos—later became in their modern iteration NORFORCE or Far North Queensland 51 Regiment and the Pilbara Regiment—had their battles. They worked for us in uniform as members of the Australian Defence community during the Second World War.

Significantly, post 1945, our corner of the Asia-Pacific region was no longer controlled by Britain, France and the Netherlands. Australia had to have a new outlook to deal with our soon-to-be independent neighbours, and of course it was also the dawn of the atomic age. The peace that Ben Chifley said we could look forward to has to a great extent been achieved but it has not been without its sacrifice since.

We have seen wars in Korea, Malaysia, Vietnam, the first and second Gulf wars and now the war in Afghanistan. We need to recognise again and remain vigilant in supporting our men and women in uniform for the job they do for us. We must ensure that, unlike for those vets of the Second World War initially who came home, we look after these men, women and their families on their return. Thank you.

Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It gives me great pleasure to rise to speak on this statement of indulgence on the 70th anniversary of Victory in the Pacific Day, which marked the end of World War II. That war ended with the atomic bombings of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In Hiroshima it was estimated that between 90,000 and 150,000 people perished. At Nagasaki, between 40,000 and 80,000 perished—radiation sickness; absolute devastation.

If we look back from the comfort of the 21st century, it is often easy to criticise the decision to drop atomic bombs on those two cities. I would like to take this opportunity to suggest that that decision was actually historically and morally correct. I believe that, if we weigh up all the factors that President Truman had to make, as horrible as it actually was, not to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki would have resulted in more death, more pain and more suffering. Firstly, as the Second World War was coming to a conclusion, it was important not only that Japan surrendered but that it surrendered unconditionally. Their militaristic society which they had developed had to be dismantled completely to avoid future conflict. We had learnt that from the mistakes of the aftermath of World War I in Europe.

Secondly, after the bloody battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, it was clear that a Normandy-type amphibious landing to defeat Japan would have cost millions of lives on both sides—not only Allied servicemen and, most likely, many Australian servicemen but also the lives of the Japanese defenders. The Japanese actually predicted 20 million deaths of their own people defending the home islands. The US estimates there would be four million Allied casualties with one million dead. How could any leader of the world explain to the families of those millions of Allied servicemen that he had the technology and the weapons to end the war and save their lives but did not use them. Likewise, avoiding a Normandy-type amphibious landing to finally defeat Japan saved countless Japanese lives as well. The alternative—a continuation of traditional bombing—would have likely seen just as many if not more deaths. We know, for example, that earlier in 1945 the firebombing of Japan killed an estimated 315,922 Japanese, a greater number than the combined deaths of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Thirdly, prolonging the war would have seen the Soviets enter in full flight against Japan, potentially occupying the northern islands of Japan, setting up Japan for the rest of the 20th century divided like Korea—only sowing the seeds for further conflict like we continue to see with the Korean nation divided between north and south.

Fourthly, there were the prisoners of war. At the time of the bombings there were 123,000 Allied prisoners of war held by the Japanese. The documents showed that, had Allied forces landed on the mainland, the Japanese holding those prisoners of war had been given orders to execute every single one of those 123,000—tens of thousands of them Australian soldiers. They were saved by the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

There are lessons we have to learn and take away. Firstly, sometimes when you are facing extreme evil you need to use extreme violence. We perhaps need to be reminded of that lesson today in the conflicts in the Middle East against groups like Daesh. We cannot expect our military forces to fight them with one hand tied behind their back. If we are serious about the fight—and we have seen the extent of these people's evil with beheadings of innocent civilians and the rape and torture of innocent women—we need to learn from our history to use every military resource in our power to destroy Daesh.

Secondly, we need to realise how fortunate our generation is. My generation, my children's generation and, hopefully, my grandchildren's generation do and will in the future enjoy the prosperity and the peace that was won by those who had to fight the Pacific War, those who had to make those sacrifices.

It is important that we learn our lessons from history. It is important that we remember the past, remember the mistakes and make sure that we do not repeat them. Lest we forget.

Michelle Rowland (Greenway, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On Saturday, 15 August at the Seven Hills-Toongabbie RSL we gathered, standing room only, 70 years after the machines of war fell silent across the Pacific. We gathered to reaffirm that the passage of time has not diminished our pride or reverence for the generation of Australians who came together in our darkest hour and resolutely met the challenge of war. We recalled their triumph, reflected on their sacrifice and rededicated ourselves to the ideals enshrined in this chamber for which they fought and for which so many died.

When the outbreak of war came, the recruiting station in Blacktown saw local citizens sign up from all walks of life and myriad ethnicities, answering the call to defend our way of life. Blacktown residents who originated from far-flung countries such as Sweden, Lithuania, India, China and Greece as well as modern-day Myanmar and Croatia enlisted to defend their adopted homeland. These Australians by choice proudly fought side by side with Australians by birth, and together they faced the forces of oppression against the backdrop of the Pacific Theatre. The Fall of Singapore tested the character of our military and the will of our nation, but, rather than break our national spirit, it galvanised the unyielding resolve that defines us. With unity and courage the men and women of Australia countered the rising tide of Tyranny which threatened our shores. On the front lines, through extraordinary valour, the key battles of the Coral Sea and Milne Bay were won and the jungles of Kokoda and Bougainville were conquered.

As a young community, service men and women from Greenway may have been small in number, but their valour and contribution to the war effort was nevertheless significant. Just as one example, I think of Flying Officer Gordon Jack, of Pendle Hill, who was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. His bravery was proudly recounted in the local papers as follows:

Throughout his tour of operations Flying Officer Jack has accomplished his duties with determination and exceptional skill … On one occasion 70 bursts of accurate fire were directed at his aircraft, but, after, taking evasive action, he returned to the target and completed his mission. Another time, Flying Officer Jack's aircraft was hit by fire from the defences and severely damaged; but, nevertheless, despite difficulty in control of the aircraft, and adverse weather, he persisted in his endeavours and successfully completed his mission.

Back home, Australian women, whom Prime Minister Curtin called 'the second line of service to Australia', responded with equal gallantry and strength. Due to the shortage of male recruits by mid-1941, the Australian government established the Women's Auxiliary Australian Air Force, the Australian Women's Army Service and the Women's Royal Australian Naval Service. By 1944 almost 50,000 women belonged to these services, while thousands of others joined the Australian Women's Land Army to maintain rural farming operations. In our local community, newspapers reported one such group's formation as follows:

Enthusiastically responding to a call to form a branch of the Women's Auxiliary, Air League, at Blacktown, 30 girls enrolled at a meeting at the Public School … an aero engine course, theory and practice, navigation, first aid, morse code and physical drill would be given [to] members.

By 1943 newspapers noted that the Blacktown Auxiliary had grown to '50 financial members, who have sent more than 50 parcels to local boys of the fighting forces'. With determination they sacrificed, rationing food and clothing, holding community events to raise funds and buying Liberty Bonds to pay for the war until finally, on 15 August 1945, Prime Minister Ben Chifley proclaimed to the nation, 'Fellow citizens, the war is over.' News of the victory spread, and our nation was awash with relief and jubilation. Newspapers reported that in Blacktown 'a victory dance and community singing drew large crowds to the school of arts', where people revelled 'from dusk on VP Day to dawn next morning'. On the fringe of the celebrating crowds a woman stood, tears streaming down her face. 'They are tears of happiness,' she said, 'because soon now, my boy, and other mothers' boys, will be coming home on a leave pass that will never expire.'

Yet, for all the joy that the end of the war brought, once the festivities had subsided there were huge and daunting tasks to address. There were families to be reunited and many who were left forever altered by the war. There were tables in almost every household where the sacrifices of war had left an empty place—fathers and sons, husbands and brothers, friends and neighbours who never came home. There were communities to be rebuilt and, above all, there was a new peace to be assured. Prime Minister Chifley declared:

The Australian government … will give all that it has to working and planning to ensure that the peace will be a real thing.

Dispersal centres were established to provide returning personnel with information regarding employment, land settlement, housing, re-establishment loans, tools of trade and other available benefits. Furthermore, the Commonwealth Reconstruction Training Scheme was introduced to provide educational and vocational training to everyone who had served in the war. The scheme also allocated weekly living and expenses allowances, as well as waived tuition fees. By 1951, 470,000 ex-service men and women had taken up the scheme. Perhaps most significantly of all, the Chifley government opened the doors of Australia to a great wave of migration, allowing old cultures to flourish again in a new land, enriching and diversifying Australian society.

In my electorate, the period of the late 1940s and 1950s saw a massive growth in population and development. From a quiet agricultural township with a population of just 14,000 prior to the war, Blacktown now found itself as an urban sprawl with a burgeoning community that had jumped to 85,000. These new arrivals brought with them precious keepsakes from homelands left behind. These keepsakes were treasured and proudly showcased and slowly but surely became ingrained in our community.

In Flushcombe Road, Blacktown, a continental delicatessen was opened which featured meats and foods from Europe, something unheard of in Western Sydney prior. Moreover, the hugely popular Warwick Theatre began midweek screenings of European films, particularly Greek and Italian films, to appeal to its new patrons. Today Blacktown is home to more than 30 different ethnic communities, and we all take pride in a nation and a world which has been transformed. Once-fierce adversaries have become staunch allies, and homogeneous communities have given way to vibrant diversity; yet none of it would have happened without what Prime Minister Chifley called the men and women 'against whose sacrifice for us there is no comparison'.

Indeed, whilst we all live in a much different Australia we are nevertheless bound today by what bound those men and women 70 years ago—the same commitment to freedom, democracy and security for our loved ones. In honouring that extraordinary generation, we therefore draw inspiration from their service and sacrifice and we pledge to uphold the legacy we have inherited from them. We also draw strength from the continued work of so many individuals across the spectrum, from national servicemen to other Returned and Services Leagues, particularly, in my case, throughout Greenway.

Indeed, on this noble occasion I am reminded of the words of the Seven Hills-Toongabbie RSL Club President, John Burgess, who said, 'It's our heritage; it's something a lot of countries don't have, and Australians have this heritage where they look to those service men and women.' May this heritage continue to serve as an enduring reminder of what we can accomplish when we work together to achieve our common goals. Our local community was changed forever by your courage. We thank you and pay tribute to you on this very important anniversary.

I would like to end my remarks by reflecting on the life of one individual who served our nation whom we farewelled last Monday, named Allan Dick. Allan Dick was born in Morningside, Brisbane, in 1921. He joined the Royal Australian Navy in 1939 as a signalman, when he was 18. As for many young Australians growing up through the Depression, hardship gave rise to determination. Like thousands of others, he saw it as his duty to fight for Australia but also as an adventure to see the world. This 'adventure' saw sailors like Allan Dick travel to the Mediterranean, the Indian Ocean and of course the South Pacific, where he served from 1943 and for the remainder of the war on the HMAS Ararat, which was one of 60 Australian minesweepers, commonly known as corvettes, built during World War II in Australian shipyards, as part of the Commonwealth government's wartime shipbuilding program. The ship was built by Evans Deakin & Company in Allan's beloved city of birth, Brisbane.

It was dangerous work sitting in the bottom of the ship day after day, week after week, always knowing that, under attack, the signalman would never escape if the ship was bombed—a determination to fight to the end no matter what, to keep signalling until the ship went down, all the while suffering extreme seasickness.

This, of course, was at a time when families back home had little intelligence of the welfare of their loved ones, sometimes going for weeks and months without contact, and always only letters or the occasional telegram. The anxiety of loved ones cannot be comprehended, going without a single word—unimaginable in today's world of instant communication.

Allan survived the war and went on to become an entrepreneur, the owner of a number of businesses and the father of a gifted educator, Susan, and two sons who followed in their father's footsteps with public service through elected office: Cameron, a cabinet minister in the Queensland state government, and Milton, my touchstone, a Brisbane city councillor and the future member for Oxley in this place. Allan Dick was never defined by his time in the war, only attending Anzac services with his children and grandchildren late in life. But it is also true that the war shaped him as a son, a husband, a father, an employer and a role model to so many lives he touched. This parliament thanks you, Allan Dick, service number B/3388. May you rest in peace. Lest we forget.

Philip Ruddock (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a great privilege to be able to speak in relation to this statement. I do so perhaps differently to some of my colleagues but with the same purpose: to commemorate those people who fought for Australia and others who fought in the Pacific for freedom as we understand it. It was only recently that I attended a ceremony at Berowra, in my electorate, where I had the opportunity to share with so many others the opportunity to honour those Australians who served at that time.

I am not old enough to remember—I was born just in the war—but I did know something of the impact that the Second World War had on us here in Australia. My family at that time lived in Bronte. My grandmother used to describe to me the impact of the shells coming over Bronte Beach towards Garden Island. The Japanese, intent on invading Australia, brought their presence right to our door.

Nearly one million Australians served in World War II. Around 30,000 were captured as prisoners of war, and 40,000 made the ultimate sacrifice, never to return home. The Second World War was the first time that a foreign nation had carried out attacks on Australian soil. As I said, there were shells over Sydney, and certainly in Darwin the impact was very significant.

For me, however, it was those whom I knew who were involved in these tragic events who brought it home to me. During the Centenary of Anzac, we acknowledged the service of those in all wars and peacekeeping operations over a century of service. But, for many, and some of them are still with us, the Second World War is still very much in their mind. There have been commemorative events that have taken place, but I want to identify with a number of individuals whom I have known who were involved as prisoners of war who were taken to participate in the Burma Thai railway.

Early in 1943, the Imperial Japanese Army determined to speed up the 420 kilometres of Burma Thai railway, and they used 9,500 Australian prisoners of war, some 51,000 British, Dutch and American prisoners of war and 270,000 conscripted civilians as forced labour for its construction. Many died, tragically—some 2,646 Australians, 10,000 other prisoners of war and 70,000 civilians. That railway was completed six months after my birth, in October 1943.

It is amazing that many who served in that situation ultimately took the view that, in contributing to Australia and Australia's future, an engagement in public life would be appropriate for them. Some have only recently left us. A predecessor of the member for Werriwa, the late Tom Uren, was one of those who served. Can I simply say that he recalled, in a speech that he gave in this place in 1988, that there were 11 parliamentarians who had been taken as prisoners of war during that time, and he noted them all. They were members of this parliament. There was Charles Anderson MC MP. Tom Uren spoke on his death. The Hon. Sir Kenneth Anderson KBE, Ken Anderson, was a mayor of Ryde, later a senator and a government leader. His daughter, Robyn Kerr, whom I fondly remember, a good friend, worked for me in my electorate office for a time. There were Adair Blain MP; Senator George Branson; Sir Alexander Downer, our friend Alex's father; the Hon. Sir Wilfrid Kent Hughes MP; Thomas Pearsall; the Hon. Reg Swartz KBE MP; and Sir Winton Turnbull CBE MP.

I mention all of them, but I want to remember one particularly who is still with us. He has been a friend to many of us. I saw him at Tom Uren's funeral. I saw him at Malcolm Fraser's funeral. He is frail, but Sir John Carrick, the former general secretary of the Liberal Party in New South Wales, was very much a stalwart of the Liberal Party who gave leadership and certainly ensured the success of Sir Robert Menzies over a period of time. He is somebody whom I still regularly quote if I need to give advice to people about how they should conduct themselves in public life. I feel very privileged to have known him. I feel very privileged to know that he has mentored so many on this list.

He spoke some Japanese and was able to intervene and support those who were prisoners of war. His leadership in public life was something that he offered in that perilous situation. His is a unique contribution. He is well into his 90s now and frail, but I am delighted he is still with us. I know John Howard would want me to say, on his behalf, that he is a man who has been very special, as he has been to the member for Ryan and me.

Laurie Ferguson (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will show how small a world this is. I will make sure that before Jane Carrick puts me under anaesthetic in two weeks time I will convey the comments of the member for Berowra in regard to her farther.

At the outset I want to recognise the work of two RSLs in my electorate: Ingleburn and the city of Liverpool. Every year they support the work of John Baron and the Victory in the Pacific Committee in making sure this occurrence is remembered. It is quite appropriate that on their invitation letter they have that iconic photograph of the New Zealand citizen helping a blinded Australian soldier.

I will speak on a number of aspects of this, but not all are necessarily connected. Before I turn to Australia, I note the courage of Japan's Emperor Akihito in recent weeks in commemorating the Second World War when he chose, in a very deliberately way, to make a different point from Japanese Prime Minister Abe in regard to Japan's responsibility in the Second World War. Akihito spoke of deep remorse and a deep and renewed sense of sorrow about what had occurred. It was in contrast to Prime Minister Abe's comment:

The peace we enjoy today exists only upon such precious sacrifices. And therein lies the origin of postwar Japan.

Some people have seen that as a comment which, in a way, perhaps only stressed the Japanese wartime contributions and did not in any way recognise Japan's responsibility in regard to the Second World War.

I want to also make sure that I put on the record my continued association with people who think that it is overdue that the Japanese recognise one particular aspect of this—the exploitation of women for sexual purposes for Japanese forces in the Second World War. We are talking about a situation where approximately 200,000 women were utilised and supposed to undertake an average of 25 to 30 sexual activities a day. They were of varied ethnicity—Japanese, Korean, Chinese and to a lesser extent Taiwanese, Burmese, Indonesian, Australian and Dutch.

It is worth saying that, whilst some countries have chosen to see the rosy side of in Abe's words as being an indication of some movement, I think that the South Korean President was quite correct in saying that Japan has not gone far enough. I appreciate that China, to some extent, tries to exploit these issues for its own current geopolitical purposes, but there is a need for Japan to respond, to act and to recognise its contributions in regard to that war and the treatment of both war prisoners and servicewomen in that conflict. Earlier this year 187 historians called on Japan's government to 'show leadership by addressing Japan's history of colonial rule and wartime aggression in both words and actions'.

Of course, we should also remember the devastating loss of human life in the firebombing of Tokyo and the dropping of nuclear weapons on Nagasaki and Hiroshima—the later cases were estimated to have killed at least 150,000 people. It remains the subject of international debate as to how necessary that was. Some, such as Gore Vidal, put forward that the position that the Japanese peace party was stronger than the Western powers have tended to indicate and that perhaps it was not necessary and was meant as a warning to the Soviet Union about the United States' position on nuclear weapons.

Of course, this war impacted deeply upon the country. Last year I went to Broome. I am typical of many Australians in that I had no knowledge of the Japanese's attacks on that town and the airfields and of the evacuation of Dutch refugees from the Japanese seizure of Java. I think we are still unaware of how many died in Darwin, because of the number of Aboriginal Australians who were basically wandering and unaccounted for. Then there were the attacks on Sydney Harbour in 1942. When we look at the number of places attacked—Derby, Port Hedland, Horn Island, Townsville, Katherine, Wyndham—it is quite extensive. I think that younger Australians have no appreciation of the degree to which the Australian mainland was affected, with Japanese forces landing on at least one occasion here for reconnaissance.

It was a period of very major national effort. On a personal basis, I am probably rare in having had both my father and his father involved in the Second World War. In both cases they cheated on their age to participate. My grandfather had been a gunner in the British forces in the First World War. He put his age down by three years to participate in the Second World War and he went to the Middle East. My father allegedly came crying from an enlistment post because he was not allowed to go. He was only 18 and they had increased the age to 19 in 1943. He was involved in the Pacific. His life was very much affected by this. For years later one of the big events would be Anzac Day and those friendships, that comradeship from the Second World War were instrumental in his life.

A previous speaker referred to the Commonwealth rehabilitation scheme. That was in a period when there was concern that the unemployment figure, after all of the wartime absences from the country, had started to lift to three per cent—today we would probably wish it was three per cent. As they left service, veterans were given a medical examination. A mental rehabilitation officer provided information about benefits eligible to veterans and training courses were available. Eventually 270,000-odd Australians got to university, technical or rural training courses. The case of my father was typical of so many of those people after the Second World War who had left employment at a very early age in the depression and who had not had trades. He got the opportunity thereby to go into the building trade, to get a skill to eventually be able to create a lifestyle for his family in this country.

I think it is important to remember the efforts of those governments at the conclusion of the Second World War that actually made sure that people were not forgotten and operated a rehabilitation scheme both in regards to employment and in regards to payments. That scheme provided for veterans with a disability not caused by military service while the Repatriation Commission oversaw the building of new hospitals to treat tuberculosis and mental disorders.

As I said, I want to recognise the fact that Australia's own citizens were directly affected and the fact that it entailed such a tremendous national effort not only for the soldiers at war but also for various people that were in protected occupations that were necessary for the war effort. Schools in Sydney were evacuation centres and all of that deeply informed the psyche of the Australian people.

It is also worth remembering some of the paranoia that affected this country in the Second World War to the detriment of ethnic minorities. We had a situation where Lutheran ministers were jailed as supposed Nazi sympathisers—one of whom, ironically, was a convert from Judaism, but they still thought he might be a Nazi sympathiser. The member for Berowra referred to living at Bronte. I met leaders of Sydney's Jewish community, who advised me that they were not allowed to live on the coastline in Sydney and had to live out at Wentworthville past Parramatta because we thought they might signal German submarines. There were anti-Japanese riots at Guildford—the suburb I come from—because a Japanese nurseryman had married an Anglo-Saxon years before and had created a very valuable business in Old Guildford and there was an anti-Japanese feeling towards him. He had married an Australian and had children who had featured in local newspapers during their family festivities.

I want to recognise the effort in the Second World War not only of the soldiers involved, not only of the sailors or air personnel, but of the large numbers of other portions of the Australian community, the sacrifices they made and the fact that some RSLs in Sydney still try to ensure that it is not forgotten.

Jane Prentice (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We as Australians are fortunate that we have never been required to fight a war on home soil. A combination of our relatively short history of European settlement, our peaceful independence and our remote geography mean that Australia has never served as a major theatre of war.

But there was a time when we came extremely close. In 1942, invading forces reached what is now West Papua, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. Northern Australian ports such as Darwin and Townsville were bombed. Japanese submarines staged a daring raid as far south as Sydney Harbour. Those were dark days in Australian history. Australia faced the threat of invasion from a Japanese military emboldened by victories across the Pacific.

It was only through the valour, bravery and, in some cases, the sacrifice of Australian service men and women that Australia and our allies were able to hold off and eventually defeat the Japanese and end the war in the Pacific. It is those men and women who we commemorate on 15 August every year on Victory in the Pacific or VP Day. This year takes on special meaning as the 70th anniversary of Japan's unconditional surrender on 14 August 1945.

The world has changed so much in the ensuing decades. Japan has transformed itself into a highly developed, peaceful and democratic nation, so much so that younger generations of Australians may find it difficult to comprehend that their grandparents and great-grandparents were required to fight a war for survival against a militaristic and expansionist Japan. But in early 1942, the world was a vastly different place. In late 1941 Japan had dramatically escalated the war in the Pacific through their invasion and occupation of Malaya and Singapore, and through their attack on US naval forces at Pearl Harbour. They had also begun to move on the Dutch East Indies—now Indonesia—and on New Guinea.

The remaining Australian naval vessels not already committed to the war effort in Europe were tasked with slowing the Japanese fleet as they moved ever southwards towards Australia. Among them was the Australian light cruiser, the HMAS Perth. Having already served as part of the Mediterranean fleet in the early years of the war, by early 1942 the HMAS Perth had returned to South-East Asia and was one of the few remaining allied ships in the region at the time. HMAS Perth, along with American, British and Dutch warships, made a valiant attempt to slow the Japanese advance. The Allies engaged the Japanese fleet in the Java Sea on 27 February 1942, sustaining heavy losses.

In an attempt to reach to the port of Tjilatjap the following    evening through the Sunda Strait, the Allies once again

encountered Japanese naval forces. In fact, they had inadvertently chanced across the main Japanese invasion convoy, lying in anchor at Bantam Bay. The remaining Allied fleet, including the HMAS Perth, fought a desperate battle in the late evening darkness. At around midnight, the Perth was struck by a shell below the waterline. As it attempted to seek safety, it was torpedoed and sank 20 minutes later in the early hours of 1 March 1942. Of the 680 men on board the Perth, 357 lives were lost. Among the casualties was my uncle, Lloyd Righetti, a young Able Seaman. He was one of four brothers, including my father, who served in the armed forces during the Second World War. He left behind a widow and a daughter. His younger brother Sid served on both the HMAS Shropshire and the HMAS Quiberon, and thankfully survived the war.

Among the losses from the HMAS Perth, my uncle's story is just one of many. This single tragedy was second only to the loss of the HMAS Sydney in terms of Australian lives lost in naval battles during the Second World War. For the survivors there was little respite. Three hundred and twenty men were captured and became prisoners of war. Eventually, they were sent with other Australian prisoners to labour in brutal conditions on the Burma-Thailand railway. In such harsh conditions, one-third of those captured did not live to see the end of the war. Among those who survived was a young John Carrick, later to become Senator Carrick and then Sir John Carrick. He was a senator in this place and previously state secretary of the Liberal Party in New South Wales, and my former employer.

Thankfully, those lives were not lost in vain. It may have been difficult to foresee back in 1942, but the war in the Pacific was beginning to turn in favour of the allies. In time, the Japanese forces proved incapable of providing the resources needed to occupy such an extensive territory. Later in 1942, the Battle of the Coral Sea proved to be a decisive turning point. So too did the battles of Kokoda Track, where 625 Australians lost their lives and more 1,000 were wounded in unimaginable, difficult conditions. For the first time in this part of the world, the might of the Japanese fleet was repelled. This gave hope that the allies could ultimately prevail, and by 1945 we ultimately did.

Victory in the Pacific was not achieved through military might alone. Sustaining the war effort required the commitment of the entire nation and many cities and towns played a role. While supporting the war effort by other means, suburban Brisbane also played host to a top-secret facility that was unknown to residents at the time and did not become public until years later. During the war, Witton Barracks, located in suburban Indooroopilly in my electorate of Ryan, was the site of an interrogation facility for high-value Japanese prisoners of war. A joint US-Australian intelligence agency was set up in the requisitioned Witton Barracks facility. There, Japanese prisoners of war were questioned and captured documents were examined to gain information about Japanese military movements. Crucially, Japanese army code books were captured and translated. Much of the information discovered at Witton Barracks remains a mystery, as almost all of the documentation was removed by the American forces at the conclusion of the war. Remarkably, however, the interrogation buildings are still standing as a reminder of Brisbane's contribution to the war effort all those years ago.

The Witton Barracks site is no longer used by the Australian Defence Force, but it remains in defence hands. Steps are underway to ensure that the unique wartime heritage of the site is preserved. Brisbane City Council has submitted a proposal to purchase the site and maintain the heritage buildings, while reserving a corridor for a future bridge over the Brisbane River to deal with continuing population growth. This is a proposal that I wholeheartedly support and I have been working with the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Defence to ensure that the Department of Defence understands and appreciates its merits.

If the Anzacs at Gallipoli created the legendary Australian fighting spirit, then the war in the Pacific only served to further enhance it. On VP Day, we commemorate all those who served and who died defending Australia as well as all those who contributed to the war effort back in Australia. Let their sacrifice not be in vain. In these more peaceful times, we unite with old allies and foes alike to remember that war exacts a terrible human toll on all sides, and that we should never again contemplate a return to large-scale conflict in the Pacific. Lest we forget.

Gai Brodtmann (Canberra, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a great pleasure to rise today to mark the 70th anniversary of VP Day and to acknowledge the service and sacrifice of all those who served and all those who died in World War II. VP Day, also known as the Victory in the Pacific Day or Victory over Japan Day, marks the end of World War II. It marks a day when, more than 70 years ago, on 15 August 1945, the Emperor of Japan announced Japan would accept the allies' ultimatum to surrender. Shortly afterwards, Prime Minister Ben Chifley's voice could be heard over the radio airwaves relaying this news to Australians everywhere. His voice beamed:

Fellow citizens, the war is over.

The Japanese government has accepted the terms of surrender imposed by the allied nations and the hostilities will now cease.

At this moment let us offer thanks to God.

Let us remember those whose lives were given that we may enjoy this glorious moment and may look forward to a peace which they have won for us.

Almost immediately, there was an outpouring of happiness, joy and celebration across cities and towns throughout the nation. Hundreds of thousands of people danced on the streets of Sydney and there were similar scenes throughout Australia and around the world. Since then, services have been held every year to recognise the significance of this day.

Last month, the Australian War Memorial held a number of activities to commemorate VP Day, including a last post ceremony and a wreath-laying ceremony. Hundreds of Canberrans attended the wreath-laying ceremony, paying tribute to around 150 veterans and their families who attended. The president of the RSL ACT Branch, Peter Eveille, appropriately claimed it was 'sombre and emotional day'.

The number of World War II Australian veterans is dwindling, with only 25,000 still with us and only 200 veterans who were prisoners of the Japanese still alive. That is out of the almost one million Australians who served in World War II, one-seventh of Australia's population at that time. The war left 40,000 Australians dead, more than 100,000 wounded and 30,000 who had been prisoners of war. For a relatively small nation, we played a significant role in World War II. We fought in campaigns against Germany and Italy in Europe, the Mediterranean and North Africa. We also played a major role fighting Japan throughout various Pacific nations, including Papua New Guinea, Malaya, Bougainville and New Britain.

Our home came under attack for the first time in history. Japanese aircraft bombed towns in north-west Australia, and Japanese midget submarines attacked Sydney Harbour. While 40,000 Australians died, more than 60 million people were killed worldwide. At the ceremony in Canberra last month, the Director of the War Memorial, Dr Brendan Nelson, said the Second World War was 'the most destructive conflict in human history' and 'changed the world forever'.

So, while we pause to honour those who served and pay tribute to the sacrifice they and their families made, it is also important to remember this dark part of our world history, to ensure we never repeat those horrors again. Sixty million deaths is a staggering, horrifying and sobering number. But most of all, it is a deeply saddening number. I think about the men and women who died, and the children, but also their families back home who were left forever broken-hearted; or the men and women who returned home to us, but were never the same, forever scarred by what they had done or seen.

There are no words that accurately describe just how much we owe the veterans of World War II—and in fact, all Australian veterans, and those who currently serve. But it is through services like those on VP Day that show our continued thanks and recognition for their service, and their sacrifice. We will always remember them. Lest we forget.

Natasha Griggs (Solomon, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Prime Minister's motion to mark 70 years since the end of horrid World War II.

To Australians in the years 1939 to 1945, war was not something that was happening on the other side of the world; it was not a distant abstract prospect. When things were at their worst, there were battles being fought on Australia's doorstep—and in some cases on and over Australian soil.

In the Coral Sea, naval fleets of the Allies and the Japanese Empire massed in what was to be one of the biggest naval battles in history. In New Guinea, Australian soldiers fought against Imperial Japanese forces and ultimately halted their southward advance just a few hundred kilometres from Queensland. And, of course, my hometown, in my electorate of Solomon, came under direct attack.

Much is made in the history books of the Japanese naval attack on United States forces in Pearl Harbor. It is not as widely known that the same aircraft carriers that launched their aircraft against the United States at Pearl Harbor then turned west and steamed to waters just north of Darwin. The very same aircraft and pilots that had attacked the United States fleet base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii also attacked the city of Darwin, its harbour and its military bases.

On 19 February 1942, just before 10 am, 188 aircraft—including fighters, dive bombers and torpedo bombers—arrived over Darwin. They formed the first wave of the attack, sinking three warships, five merchant vessels and damaging another 10 ships. Just before midday the town's air raid sirens blasted again as 50 land-based bombers arrived over the city. These aircraft attacked the airfield, destroying aircraft on the ground and causing further deaths. That day, more bombs were dropped on Darwin than on Pearl Harbor, and around 243 people lost their lives. It was the first time a foreign power had shed blood on Australian soil. Over the years that followed, several other attacks took place in Darwin and Broome.

The Pacific theatre of World War II was in every sense very close to Australia. Australian soldiers, sailors and airmen lost their lives in direct defence of their homeland. Civilians, going about their business on Australian soil, lost their lives to enemy attacks. Seventy years ago, with the enemy at the gates, Australians from all walks of life came together and did what needed to be done to ensure their homeland's safety and security.

The efforts and sacrifice of those men and women seven decades ago has not been forgotten. In my first term in this place I put a motion to the House to recognise the bombing of Darwin in a national day of significance or observance. Many of my colleagues in this place had heard the speeches and had never heard about the bombing of Darwin, because it was a secret for many years. It was not taught in most Australian schools' curriculums. But it is taught in the Northern Territory.

On 19 February every year, Darwin stops to remember those moments 70 years ago. We pay our respects to those who lost their lives and those who were impacted. We stop to remember how these events changed our lives forever. The images of VP Day that marked the end of World War II were images of hundreds and thousands of people dancing in the streets, celebrating together the end of this horrible war; grateful that it was finally over. We have heard that the number of dead was around 60 million. It is an astronomical number; so many people, so many families impacted by the horrors of war. It is important that we remember and commemorate all those people affected by war, especially those who lost their lives.

In Darwin, like in most other capital cities, we have a cenotaph. Our cenotaph might not be as flash as those in other capital cities, and the Darwin RSL and other RSLs are lobbying me and members of the Northern Territory government to work together to build an eternal flame and upgrade our cenotaph to honour the people and families that were affected by World War II and World War I. Over the last few years the ex-service community of Darwin has rallied together to correct some errors and omissions on the plaques attached to the Darwin cenotaph. This was funded by the Anzac Centenary grants. Now every Australian serviceman from the Territory who made the ultimate sacrifice has their name accurately recorded forever in stone.

As I said, the RSL clubs and ex-servicemen's communities are now rallying around a new cause—the establishment of an eternal flame at Darwin's cenotaph. In this endeavour I am absolutely happy and delighted to support them. I wanted to bring these examples to the House's attention today to show that even now—a full lifetime after the bloody and horrific war—the sacrifices made by that generation, far from being forgotten, are still being remembered and being honoured. To this day Australian servicemen put themselves in harm's way so that their loved ones back home do not have to. To all Australians from all eras who have sacrificed a comfortable and safe life for the protection of others I say thank you—thank you, thank you, thank you.

Michael Danby (Melbourne Ports, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

At my electorate's largest RSL, the Elsternwick-Caulfield RSL in St Georges Road there are regular meetings of the 39th Battalion, including on the 60th anniversary that the famous militia battalion was sent untrained and almost unarmed to defend the Kokoda Track before the regular elements of the Australian Army got there. They went in 900 and, as the famous film and the great books about Kokoda outline, they came out 300. There is the famous assembly, the military parade that took place at the end of military operations, that the great Lieutenant Colonel Owen, their commanding officer, held. Those ragged men in shorts—barely clothed after months of fighting the Japanese all the way to the edge of Port Moresby—are owed great credit by Australia. One of the most moving moments of my time in office was to have the great Chris Masters show his film The men who saved Australia at the Elsternwick RSL, to have the 60th anniversary celebrations there and then, at the end of the film, to have the remaining 17 veterans of the 39th Battalion—that great Victorian battalion—stand up and take the credit that was due to them.

In referencing Victory in the Pacific Day, nothing had to be like it was. Had it not been for the magic intercepts in my electorate at the Monterey block of apartments on Queens Road—an anonymous block of flats now with no memory of what happened there—the American carriers would never have positioned themselves to the north-west of Midway and sunk the four Japanese carriers that came to attack that central point of American defence of the Pacific thereby altering the course of the Second World War. If the Japanese had cooperated with the Germans, if the carrier force they had sent to Trincomalee to sink the British fleet there had continued their cooperation with the Germans all the way to Suez, the war would have probably ended in a very different way.

I want to speak about a sequence of events that led to Japanese-German non-cooperation, which benefited Australia and could never have been foreseen. On 1 June 1939 Georgii Zhukov, the famous Red Army commander, was summoned to the Kremlin. He thought he was going to be purged and put in the Lubyanka, as 30,000 Russian officers had been arrested and many of them tortured into making ludicrous confessions. But when Zhukov arrived in Moscow he was ordered by Stalin to fly to the Soviet satellite state of Outer Mongolia to command the Russian army there. Something very unusual happened—the least-known battle in history, and probably one of the most important. The battles of Khalkhin Gol, also known as the Nomonhan Incident, happened on the Russian-Chinese border in the puppet state of Manchukuo that was run by the Japanese. To the great surprise of the very arrogant Japanese army—the Kwantung Army that controlled that part and had attacked into the then Soviet Union without consulting even their own government—they faced a massive defeat at the hands of General Zhukov and the Red Army.

Many people have wondered why, at the crucial point of the Second World War when Japan attacked the United States, there was no cooperation between Russia and Japan. One-third of all of the supplies of the Russians came across the Bering Strait from Alaska to Vladivostok and areas around there, without interception by the Japanese Army. There was virtually no cooperation against the Soviet Union by the Japanese on behalf of the Germans. Indeed, if you read some of the great histories by Antony Beevor or other great historians, you will discover that, as the Germans were about to arrive in Moscow in October-November 1941, the Japanese diplomats in Berlin were sending telegrams to their masters in Tokyo telling them to attack south: 'The Germans will conquer Moscow. They'll conquer Russia. There is no need for us to participate in that joint operation against the Soviet Union.' If that had not happened, the entire course of the war in the Pacific would have been different. The Russian Siberian army, after the incidents at Khalkhin Gol, was transferred almost in its entirety in front of Moscow, and that is what changed the course of the war in front of the Russian capital. As I said, the Japanese decision to strike south came as the result of that.

The total strategic noncooperation of the Japanese Empire and their ally in the Pact of Steel, Nazi Germany, is one of the great mysteries of the Second World War. It saved Australia. As the great Churchill instantly realised as soon as Japan attacked the United States, they had wakened a sleeping giant, and he knew from that minute that the Allies would persevere now that America was involved. We in Australia made our great strategic alliance with the United States. Our relationship was to bring back our troops from the Middle East. President Roosevelt, Mr Churchill and Prime Minister Curtin made a great decision to keep the Australian 9th Division at El Alamein, and the deal was that the Americans would bring a division here to defend Australia, as the Japanese were practically at the door. But strategically Churchill and Roosevelt were right. The decision of the Japanese and Germans not to cooperate together—the great strategic mystery of the Second World War—and the Japanese decision to strike south were inevitably going to lead to their defeat. Australia had many bloody years in that conflict in the Pacific, sometimes in a secondary role, but the safety of our country was preserved by that strange sequence of events that began with Zhukov's recall to Moscow and the decision to send him to fight the Japanese Kwantung Army in Mongolia. History would have been very different, however, if individuals—one can only describe them as immortals—from the Victorian 39th Battalion, the civilian militia who were sent up to the Kokoda Trail, had not fought every inch of the way back along that trail before the battalions from the regular Army, from the 7th Division, arrived to support them and eventually drive the Japanese out of a land attack across Papua New Guinea.

So let's thank goodness for the odd coincidences of history that strategically preserved Australia. Let's remember the great Pax Americana that has preserved all of those days since the end of the Second World War. One hopes that the peace and security of this region of the world is kept. We certainly have had a great period of economic prosperity, growth and peace ever since those days, with countries like Japan, Australia, China and all of the great countries of South-East Asia which have grown into maturity joining together in peace.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That was quite a speech by the member for Melbourne Ports, who was chairman of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade in the previous government. He certainly showed that he knows his history. Well done. Good speech.

Another war historian of eloquence is Dr Ian Grant from my electorate of the Riverina. He is also the foundation principal of the Riverina Anglican College in Wagga Wagga, and he gave the keynote address at the 70th Victory in the Pacific commemorative service, held in the Victory Memorial Gardens at Wagga Wagga on 15 August. It was a splendid speech. In it, he noted:

The commemoration of VJ Day—

Victory in Japan Day—

is quite different from the Armistice in November 1918 or V E Day—

Victory in Europe Day—

in May 1945.

He told a crowd of about 90 people:

The unconditional surrender of the Japanese on 15 August was rightly celebrated because it meant the death sentences for the men and women who had become prisoners of war were commuted. The Sandakan massacre was the first of half a dozen mass executions that were being organised for prisoners in Ambon, East Borneo, Java, Sumatra and in Singapore.

The Allied High Command knew of the plans to massacre the POWs. They believed, that if there were an attempt to liberate the POWs in one of the camps then all the major other ones needed to be attacked at once, or the massacres would commence.

I continue to read from Dr Grant's fine speech. He said:

While this made military sense, it led to the agonising decision not to send forces to rescue the men from Sandakan as they were being marched to Ranau. There is evidence of at least two US and Australian commando patrols witnessing the forced march but unable to intervene for fear of sparking off mass executions of POWs in other places. For me, the most arresting section of the Australian War Memorial in Canberra is the individual photograph of the men on their forced march who perished over those few weeks. For almost seven decades there was an accepted historical version of the events that led to Japan's surrender. This was that the Japanese Government recognised there was no reasonable hope for victory and faced an unparalleled holocaust from the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Over the last five years, a new interpretation has emerged which suggests that it was not the bombs that formed the Japanese surrender but the Soviet declaration of war. This interpretation raises provocative questions about nuclear deterrence that has been the foundation stone of military strategy in the post war period.

In 2012 Dr Grant visited Japan with TRAC, The Riverina Anglican College, and visited Hiroshima and the Peace Museum that has been built in that city. He spoke of this in his speech:

Because we were a school group there was an educational speaker who addressed this. This turned out to be a 74 year old woman who had been near the railway station at Hiroshima as an eight year old, and was able to give a personal account of her experience. There are no winners in war. As I listened to her account of her physical burns and later of being ostracised as a potential wife by Japanese mothers for fear of nuclear contamination, I could still see the faces of the men from the Riverina who were murdered by the Japanese army. What struck me was the relatively small area that was obliterated. The devastated area was three kilometres by three kilometres. Our speaker was four kilometres from the epicentre and survived.

He concluded his remarks in that very fine speech by talking of what needed to be done post war and of our understanding, concept and perspective post 1945:

Clearly we must revise our understanding and, with that, revise the narrative of the post war story. The traditional interpretation retains a strong hold over many people's thinking, especially in the US. The explanation that the bombs played the vital role is emotionally convenient and satisfying. Japan fought hard but faced with new terror weapons capitulated because of the terrifying impact of atomic weaponry. Thus Japanese honour is saved at a single stroke and the ability to blame the loss of the war on the atomic bombs sweeps away all the mistakes and misjudgements of the disastrous war under the rug. The bomb becomes a perfect excuse for having lost the war. No need to apportion blame; no court of inquiry need to be held. Japan's leaders were able to claim they had done their best. Certainly being able to re-case Japan as a victimised nation suffering under the horrors of nuclear radiation helped to affect or mask many of the morally repugnant things that Japan's military had done.

Similarly, the story that tens of thousands of US servicemen were not sacrificed because of US technological advances is a satisfying story but it is an unjust conclusion. Japan had been militarily beaten. The Australian soldiers fighting in 1945 in Bougainville, New Britain and Borneo were not a sideshow to an unknown new weapon but were playing a vital role in making the Japanese understand that they were defeated on the conventional battlefield. To raise the impact of the atomic bomb is to undercut the necessity for ongoing assault on the Japanese military position.

What difference to our understanding does the knowledge that it was Russian intervention and not the bombs that led directly to the Japanese surrender? What happened at Hiroshima and Nagasaki has framed the world's thinking about nuclear weapons. The sheer horror of the destruction and the lingering poison of radioactivity has become the driver for the weapons to be seen as end-game weapons. The idea that more nuclear weapons actually deter your enemies from attending has become even more popular. The reality is that no nation has ever surrendered because of the levelling of population centres—Churchill didn't, Hitler didn't and Tojo didn't. The US wouldn't even if a city was destroyed. If killing large numbers of civilians does not have a military impact then what is the purpose of keeping nuclear weapons? In the 21st century they are far more likely to accidentally explode than be deployed.

A final thought is that for forty years, Russia was seen as our primary enemy. In reality the Soviets' decision to honour their agreement with the Allies was the prime reason 14,000 Australian POWs came home.

The 15 August VP Day 70th commemorations in Wagga Wagga were moving. Former serviceman Steve Trood, a former regular member of the Australian Army, collected sand from the very beach where Japan signed its surrender in 1945. He collected this while tracing the 105-kilometre Sandakan death march just last year. He sprinkled that over the beautiful monument in the Victory Memorial Gardens. Six Australians survived that dreadful Sandakan death march from the POW camp to Ranau as World War II came to a close. Mr Trood, one of more than 20 Australians to complete last year's trek, organised by RSL Life Care and Soldier On, addressed the crowd at Wagga Wagga before he sprinkled the sand that he brought home from Labuan Island over the beautiful memorial. That was followed by the TRAC Principal, Dr Grant, making a keynote address. After that, Wagga Wagga RSL Sub Branch President Kevin Kerr led The Ode, and the sound of bagpipes, splendidly played by Bob Scott, closed the milestone service.

On 2 September we had another very significant ceremony, the Battle for Australia ceremony, at which we heard the newly elected RSL President, John Gray, deliver a keynote address. We also heard the national anthem sung by OJ Rushton. I mention OJ Rushton because she conducted the RSL Rural Commemorative Youth Choir on Saturday, when the Kangaroo March stepped off from Wagga Wagga, but I will talk a little bit about that in a moment. In Mr Gray's speech, he said:

Australian forces were involved in World War II from the declaration of war on 3 September 1939. The early years saw the Navy in action on all oceans, the Army fighting in the Middle East, in Greece, Crete and Syria, and the Air Force supporting those Army operations and also operating from bases in Britain. On 7-8 December 1941 the Japanese entered the war by attacking American, British Commonwealth and Dutch forces in South-East Asia and in the Pacific. The Battle for Australia had begun.

…   …   …

In January 1943 the Japanese, having failed to capture Port Moresby, determined to render it useless as a base for allied operations by intensive bombing. To make their bombing more effective they set out to capture the airfield at Wau, which was much closer to Port Moresby than the base at Lae that they had been using. This was forestalled by flying in an Australian force in Dakota transport aircraft. In March 1943, a Japanese convoy of ships carrying reinforcements and supplies to their forces on the north coast of Papua New Guinea was almost totally destroyed by Australian and American aircraft in the Battle of the Bismarck Sea. The Japanese no longer held the initiative. Hard fighting followed for another two and a half years in New Guinea, the northern Solomons, the Pacific islands and the East Indies, now Indonesia. Coordinated with allied strikes closer to Japan, this culminated in the Japanese surrender on 15 August 1945.

As Mr Gray pointed out, the battle for Australia had been won. It had been a hard-fought battle.

Mr Gray succeeded John Keyes as the Wagga Wagga RSL club president. John Keyes' great uncle, Sidney Keyes, was an original Kangaroo. I appreciate that this debate is about World War II and not World War I and that this speech is about the 70th commemoration of VP Day, but it was a very colourful, significant and historic ceremony on Saturday morning when we had the Kangaroo march—which is coming to a town near you over the next weeks—as the longest recruitment march in World War I was re-enacted. John Keyes' great uncle, Sidney, was wounded in action three times. He was a private in the 13th Battalion. He finally fell on the Western Front on 1 March 1918. He was a spirited young man who answered his country's call in its time of need and paid the ultimate sacrifice, like so many of them in World War II. OJ Rushton led the choir in a beautiful rendition of a song that she composed herself called Young and Free. It is a song for the ages. It is a song that could commemorate World War II, World War I or, indeed, any action that Australia has fought in. It is a wonderful song and was sung beautifully by the Youth Choir. I am sure it will be heard many more times as the Kangaroo march journeys from Wagga Wagga all the way to Campbelltown, its ultimate destination.

I will conclude with some comments about World War II and what followed. The book, Snowy: The people behind the power, by Siobhan McHugh, sums up what transpired after World War II concluded. The construction of the Snowy Mountains hydroelectric scheme between 1949 and 1974 still ranks as one of the world's greatest engineering feats. For Australia, it marked a passage from the old world to the new and became a monument to multiculturalism along the way. Two-thirds of the scheme's 100,000 workers were immigrants, newly arrived from more than 40 countries in war-weary Europe. The Snowy was to provide them with hope and with an opportunity to rebuild shattered lives and to try to forget the devastation and animosities of war. Mutual suspicions between new and old Australians gave way to cautious acceptance, and the disparate workforce became a skilled and united team which set world records in hard rock drilling and earthmoving in an environment of extraordinary racial and industrial harmony—all taking place in the Riverina. The mateship was not without cost. The work was dangerous, and the accidents claimed the lives of over 100 people. The Snowy gave us a hydroelectric scheme and an irrigation scheme second to none anywhere in the world. It just goes to show what Australia can do and what new Australians can do when they put their minds to it and when given the opportunity. Certainly that was one of the great monumental projects that followed World War II.

We have learnt a lot from the devastation of World War II—1939 to 1945. Let's hope that the world never descends into that horror again.

Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The 70th anniversary of VP Day is a very important event. It is apiece with the Centenary of Anzac and a number of commemorations around the country for the 73rd anniversary of the Battle of Milne Bay. Three weeks ago I went to the official opening of the 9th Battalion Association's First Ashore display at the Kedron-Wavell RSL; and two weeks ago I went to a VP Day service, once again at the Kedron-Wavell RSL; and a week or so ago I was at the Nundah-Northgate RSL for the 73rd anniversary of the Battle of Milne Bay. All of these events are of course directly linked.

The First Ashore display at Kedron-Wavell in the Milne Bay Centre is a moving and poignant tribute to Queensland's 9th Battalion. It was the first battalion recruited in Queensland for the Great War. It was the first ashore at Gallipoli and it remained there until the evacuation in December 1915. It then served on the Western Front, fought at Ypres, the Somme and the Hindenburg line and participated in the great allied offensive in 1918 at Amiens. The 9th lost 1,128 men, of the 60,000 who died in World War I. In those Western Front battles, the 9th fought alongside the 41st Battalion, my grandfather's battalion. He received serious shrapnel wounds at Ypres and was gassed for the second time at Morlancourt in the Somme Valley. He was one of the 156,000 who were wounded in the Great War. He came home a very sick man.

The 9th Battalion today is based at Gallipoli Barracks at Enoggera, just outside the electorate of Lilley, but was recruited on the north side of Brisbane, particularly in the areas around Chermside. Of course, when it was recruited, within weeks of the beginning of the war, the locals turned out in big numbers and more followed. By November 1916 there were 6,400 men training in a camp at Chermside alone. So it is fitting that this display at the Kedron-Wavell RSL is located in the old Sandgate drill hall—brought from Sandgate to Chermside. The Sandgate drill hall was moved—and this is the important link with the 70th anniversary of VP Day—to its site at the Kedron-Wavell RSL as part of the 1995 Australia Remembers commemoration. That was a very important event. It was really the first time as a country we took seriously the task of communicating to younger generations the importance of the service of servicemen right from the very beginning of the formation of our nation. I believe that that 50-year anniversary commemoration has set the scene for the success of this year's 100 year centenary of Gallipoli commemoration.

A lot of work has gone on in the last 20 years since that 50th anniversary back in 1995. Many energetic volunteers and RSL members have become very much involved in moving into our local communities, particularly to our schools, to talk about the importance of service and the values that underpin it. This display located now in the Milne Bay Memorial Hall at Kedron-Wavell RSL is one more tribute to the resilience, the courage, the resolve and the loyalty of those who risked and lost their lives for their mates that they served beside and the home that they loved. It teaches a story of people who found the courage to do the truly extraordinary—to use the phrase that was used by Paul Keating some years ago. It is fitting that it is there at Chermside in the Milne Bay Memorial Hall.

In the Second World War, it was the 9th Battalion formed back in Chermside in 1914 that was again at the centre of an epic battle, the Battle of Milne Bay. It was a critical moment that prevented the Japanese invasion of Australia. It was the first defeat of the Japanese on land—in fact it is said the first defeat of the Japanese in a thousand years. So the Milne Bay centre was a very important part of that 50th commemoration and a very important part of the 70th commemoration.

The Battle of Milne Bay is also one that is quite close to me in that 73 years on my Uncle Charlie Stacey—who still lives at Bli Bli just on the Sunshine Coast—is one of the few veterans now left from that epic battle. It was one of those moments in the Second World War when the fate of millions literally did hang in the balance and the tide was turned in critical ways.

There were enormous events going on across the world—battles taking place at El Alamein, Guadalcanal and over the skies of Germany. The Battle of Milne Bay was not necessarily a large battle in terms of the number of soldiers on the ground; it was incredibly significant not just in strategic terms but, as I said before, because it was the first defeat of the Japanese in the Pacific.

I will just go back and talk about it: August 1942—an attachment of Japanese marines with naval and air support tried to outflank our position on the Kokoda Track. Their target was the strategically important harbour and air base of Milne Bay. Had they succeeded, they would have put a bayonet in the back of the thin khaki line that was preventing the fall of Port Moresby. But they were stopped by a rapidly assembled force of Australian militia troops—7th Division veterans from Tobruk, ack-ack gunners, airfield engineering units, Kittyhawk fighters from 75th and 76th squadrons and Boston bombers from No. 6 squadron. As I said before, this battle punctured the myth that the Japanese were invincible.

After Milne Bay, the Australians and Americans were always on the offensive. So this was a turning point in the Pacific that helped the victory of the allies. It was also a brutal, murderous and muddy encounter, as tough as war gets. On that sweltering bay, there were massacres of troops and civilians—later the subject of war crime investigations. There were no rear lines or support troops. Everyone there was under constant fire and constant attack. Construction workers fought with rifles. Men attacked tanks not with long-range guns but by crawling up to them to attach sticky mines to their hulls.

It was a place where the tropical wetlands bred malaria, and many soldiers were infected. One of the them was my Uncle Charlie, who fought in B Company stationed in Milne Bay when the Japanese arrived on August 25. He was sent home to Brisbane but went back to fight in Bougainville after his recovery. He returned once more just a few years ago with my three older brothers. He went to find some of the locals who had helped them, and they actually managed to locate a family that had helped him when he was there. These are incredible stories, and it is because of people like Uncle Charlie and all of those who served to whom we pay tribute.

Of course in this war my father was also in the Pacific. He was not in Milne Bay; he was in the RAAF at Tarakan and Balikpapan—roughly 5,000 kilometres from home and 3,000 miles from Milne Bay. He came home a different person. He went back to normal life and dedicated his life to working in the RSL. It certainly shaped my experiences of war. That is not to say that many of these men, including my father and my Uncle Charlie, were constantly talking about it; they were not. They did not talk about it.

One of the great successes of the Australian Remembers program 50 years ago was that many of these men did for the very first time start talking: first of all, to their families and then, more broadly, to the community. That event alone changed our country in many significant ways put together, as it were, by Prime Minister Keating, veteran's affairs minister Con Sciacca and in close collaboration with the RSL's ride around the country—which I believe was one of the most spectacularly successful community education programs that we will see in the life of our country. I believe it is now bearing fruit in the way in which the Centenary of Federation program is working.

It was very important in our nation's life that that conversation to bridge the gap between the generations started to happen conclusively as it did 20 years ago. Because many people of my age did not necessarily have—and certainly my children and their children would not have—the direct experience with war veterans that my generation had. So these sorts of commemoration programs are very important so that all of our community continues to honour and respect the service of our veterans but, more importantly, the values that underpin the service of our veterans. That goes to the very core of what type of country we aspire to be—a country where we respect our friends; where there is equality of outcomes; where mateship is seen as a valuable virtue; and where we will stand up and defend the principles of equality and democracy. These are the values that underpin the service and the sacrifice that has come before us. Of course, it is now honoured continuously in the work of our RSLs and a whole host of other affiliated organisations that have come forward to work with a new group of veterans of conflicts, particularly in the Middle East—Afghanistan, Iraq and many others. In fact, the number of troops on rotation in recent years is such that we have a much bigger group of people coming through who will need the same help that people like my father and my uncle Charlie needed when they came back from the war.

These are all of the reasons why we commemorate these important dates to remind ourselves once again of the importance and the purpose of service, the defence of democracy and the maintenance of a society which is not only prosperous but free and dedicated to the principle of equality.

Dennis Jensen (Tangney, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to take this opportunity to thank those who volunteered then to fight in that awful war so that we can live free today, because freedom is not free; it is earned. Every generation, it appears, needs to pay a price for that freedom because, unfortunately, we appear not to learn those lessons of history and therefore we tend to repeat them. Today, on behalf of the people of Tangney I thank those who served then and now.

The Americans have a wonderful term they use to describe the generation that fought in World War II. They refer to them as the Greatest Generation. However, it is critical that, in acknowledging the service and sacrifice of those that have gone before, our generation does not seek to rewrite history or try through the comfort of time and distance to seek to change fundamental truths of what happened in that conflict.

Relativism is a danger—a danger to world order and stability. Red lines simply do not exist when it comes to a relativist world view, and relativism allows evil to prosper in the world. But relativism is not the only danger; the second modern danger is that of revisionism. Revisionist history, while popular in parts, can be immensely damaging. History—or a common and shared history—is the usual starting point for the birth a new state. History is wound up by a thread of common values and beliefs. Going back and unravelling that thread questions the motives of those that acted. It goes to the question of who was right and who was wrong.

Before I go into the details of one of the biggest pieces of revisionism that tends to happen in the West, I think it is important to note that there are things that absolutely shock in war and that indeed shock us now. We see the images today of, for instance, the Daesh cult and the killings that they do. We see the issue of suicide bombers with horror. Similarly, in World War II, among a whole lot of other things there was massive horror and lack of understanding of the whole issue of kamikaze. So we need to realise that many of these things we are seeing as unique now simply because we do not look back far enough. If we look back far enough, we see similar things, and we need to realise that we need to deal with some of these things just as comprehensively and conclusively as those in the past.

But, to get back to the issue of World War II and revisionism: in the case of the Pacific War there is one standout incident that is periodically subject to historical revisionism—namely, was the US justified in dropping the atomic bomb on Japan?

Yes. There can be no other answer. Yes, it definitely was necessary. The US was, like the rest of the world, soldiering on towards the end of a dark period of human history that had seen the single most costly conflict in all factors in history, and they chose to adopt a stance that seemed to limit the amount of casualties in the war by significantly shortening it. That was by use of atomic weapons.

It was certainly a reasonable view for the USA to take since they had suffered the loss of more than 418,000 lives both military and civilian. To the top rank of the US military the 135,000 death toll was worth it to prevent the 'many thousands of American troops that would be killed in invading Japan'—a view attributed to the president himself.

It must be remembered as well that the largest single-day death toll in Japan was the incendiary bombing raid that was conducted against Tokyo in April 1945 which likely killed over 100,000 Japanese. The issue of nuclear bombs was a consequence that was taken seriously by the US. Ordering the deployment of the atomic bombs was a terrible act but one they were certainly justified in doing.

The atom bombs achieved their desired effects by causing maximum devastation. It might seem a terrible thing—and it is—to talk about maximum devastation being an aim that has been achieved, but, as I will go to show, this maximum devastation was very much necessary to the Japanese psyche to result in them suing for peace. Just six days after the Nagasaki bombing, the emperor's speech was broadcast to the nation, detailing the Japanese surrender. Indeed, if you listen to or read Hirohito's effective non-acceptance of the course of the war when suing for peace that was unconditional, when he announced that unconditional surrender, he stated among other things that 'the war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan's advantage'—this despite the devastation and two atomic bombs dropped.

Another argument defending the bomb is the observation that, even after the first two bombs were dropped and the Russians had declared war, the Japanese still almost did not surrender. The Japanese convened in emergency session on 7 August. Military authorities refused to concede that the Hiroshima bomb was atomic in nature and refused to consider surrender. The following day, Emperor Hirohito privately expressed to Prime Minister Tojo his determination that the war should end, and the cabinet was convened again on 9 August. At this point, Prime Minister Suzuki was in agreement, but a unanimous decision was required, and three of the military chiefs still refused to acknowledge defeat. Some in the leadership argued that there was no way the Americans could have refined enough fissionable material to produce more than one bomb.

But then the bombing of Nagasaki demonstrated otherwise, and a lie told by a downed American pilot convinced the war minister, Korechika Anami, that the Americans had as many as 100 bombs. The official scientific report confirming that the bomb was atomic arrived at the imperial headquarters on 10 August. Even so, hours of meetings and debates, lasting well into the early morning hours of the 10th, still resulted in a three-all deadlock. Prime Minister Suzuki then took the unprecedented step of asking Emperor Hirohito, who never spoke at cabinet meetings, to break the deadlock. Hirohito responded:

I have given serious thought to the situation prevailing at home and abroad and have concluded that continuing the war can only mean destruction for the nation and prolongation of bloodshed and cruelty in the world.

He concluded:

I cannot bear to see my innocent people suffer any longer.

In his 1947 article published in Harper's, former Secretary of War Stimson expressed his opinion that only the atomic bomb convinced the emperor to step in:

… all the evidence I have seen indicates that the controlling factor in the final Japanese decision to accept our terms of surrender was the atomic bomb.

There was a coup attempt. The coup failed, but the fanaticism required to make such an attempt is further evidence to the supporters of the view that the atomic bombs were required to end the war. Without the bomb, Japan would never have surrendered. The attempted coup was to try to continue the progress of the war. In the end, the military leaders accepted surrender partly because of the Emperor's intervention and partly because the atomic bomb helped them 'save face' by rationalising that they had not been defeated because of a lack of spiritual power or strategic decisions but by science. In other words, the Japanese military had not lost the war; Japanese science did. You can see that of course in Hirohito's own statement calling for the unconditional surrender. If the atomic bombs had not had the devastating effect they had, they would have been utterly pointless. They replaced thousands of US bombing missions that would have been required to achieve the same effect of the two bombs that, individually, had the explosive power of the payload of 2,000 B29 Superfortresses. Additionally, it showed the unequivocal power of nuclear weapons, and following World War II it kept the peace between the US and the USSR. There are no cases of a direct all-out war between the US and the Soviets, and that can obviously be attributed to the potentially devastating effects of atomic weaponry. Indeed, there were a number of occasions where, had it not been for the possession of nuclear weapons, a war would have been close to inevitable. The Cuban missile crisis is just one case in point.

Revisionist historians should be queried on both sides. By this I mean that there is an equal measure of danger in allowing a revisionist history view that Japan was a victim of Allied aggression. The same goes for revisionist historians who would dare question the reality of the holocaust. Our society should never cower from calling a spade a spade and should speak out in favour of good against evil. Those who advocate expressing remorse for the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, such as Nancy Pelosi, should be aware that such gestures will be misrepresented by the revisionist right in Japan to paint Truman as a war criminal. We must forgive, but we must never forget.

Alex Hawke (Mitchell, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time for this debate has expired.