This link contains search results for POW of Changi from the Trove library of digitised newspapers.

Over 22,000 Australians became prisoners of war of the Japanese in south-east Asia : Army (about 21,000); RAN (354); and RAAF (373). The Army prisoners were largely from the 8th Division captured at the fall of Singapore . Australian troops were also captured on Java, Timor, Ambon and New Britain. Prisoners of war were formed into work parties to provide forced labour for the Japanese army. Throughout the war, Changi in Singapore was the main camp from which working parties were sent to other destinations and through which prisoners of war captured in other areas were staged.

Unlike World War I, the Second World War was waged much closer to home. This time, they were facing an enemy in their own Pacific neighbourhood, aiming to invade the mainland. Civilians had to prepare for the invasion, and they faced years of hardships and shortages.

Through newsreel footage, archival photos, and interviews, this video segment adapted from American Experience traces the decision-making process that led President Harry Truman to order the dropping of atomic bombs on two Japanese cities in August 1945.

Historian Kennedy Hickman explains how the militarisation of the Japanese government, and their invasion of Manchuria, started the war.A valuable ally during World War I, the European powers and the United States recognized Japan as a colonial power after the war. In Japan, this led to the rise of ultra-right wing and nationalist leaders, such as Fumimaro Konoe and Sadao Araki, who advocated uniting Asia under the rule of the emperor.

Since 2002 I've explored the question of whether Japan intended to invade Australia in 1942, reflecting on the meaning of the way Australians look at their wartime history. In Invading Australia: Japan and the Battle for Australia, 1942 (published by Viking Penguin in July) I substantiate my interpretation.

Japanese Midget Submarines 31 May – 1 June 1942. Presented by Dr Robert Nichols, the Memorial's Editor, on Friday, 31 May 2002, beside the Japanese midget submarine in Anzac Hall. Transcript and audio of speech.

This journal article reviews Australia's Southeast Asia defense policy during World War II.

This link contains search results for The Fall of Singapore from the Trove library of digitised newspapers.

This website provides a detailed account of the events running up to and during the fall of Singapore.

This link contains search results for The Battle of the Coral Sea from the Trove library of digitised newspapers.

At the time of the Battle of the Coral Sea, I was serving as the lowest form of marine life, a midshipman, in the heavy cruiser HMAS Australia. As early as 1 April 1942, the Japanese began preparations for "Operation MO" which was aimed at capturing Port Moresby in the Australian Territory of Papua and Tulagi in the British Solomon Islands.

On 15 March 1942, Japan's Imperial General Headquarters decided to sever Australia's lifeline to the United States by seizing and fortifying the southern Solomon Islands, the New Hebrides, New Caledonia, Fiji, Samoa, and Port Moresby on the southern coast of the Australian Territory of Papua.

This link contains search results for Thai Burma Railway from the Trove library of digitised newspapers.

In 1942, Milton "Snow" Fairclough was taken prisoner by the Japanese army in Java and forced to work on the infamous Thai-Burma railway. Mr Fairclough told his story to ABC 11/11/2015.

This website focuses on Hellfire Pass (Konyu Cutting), the deepest and most dramatic of the many cuttings along the Thai–Burma railway. Not all Australian POWs worked here in 1943. Nor was the workforce in this region exclusively Australian. However, in recent years Hellfire Pass has come to represent the suffering of all Australian prisoners across the Asia–Pacific region. The experiences of prisoners elsewhere were, in fact, very diverse but this website can only hint at these.

This link contains search results for Kokoda from the Trove library of digitised newspapers.

The heroic fighting withdrawal on the Kokoda Trail, against overwhelming odds, gave rise to one of the great legends of Australian military history.

This site will help you to understand the battle on the Kokoda Track in 1942: Why it occurred, who was involved and what it was like to face death in the jungled mountains along the Kokoda track.

On land the fortunes of war turned against the Japanese in August–September 1942, beginning with an Allied (primarily Australian) victory at Milne Bay, New Guinea. More prolonged—and of more heroic dimension in Australian eyes—was the forcing back of the Japanese from southern New Guinea over the Kokoda Trail. Then followed a long attrition of Japanese forces elsewhere in New Guinea and the islands, with Australia initially playing a major role and subsequently playing a role secondary to American forces. Australian volunteers and conscripts fought in these campaigns, the government and people having accepted the legitimacy of sending conscripts as far north as the Equator and as far west and east as the 110th and 159th meridians.

Borneo had been captured by the Japanese in early 1942. Most of the island was part of the Netherlands East Indies (modern Indonesia) but the north and north-west was British territory. During 1942 and 1943, many prisoners of war, including Australians, were sent to various locations on the island. In 1944, Australian special forces troops of the Services Reconnaissance Department – commonly known as ‘Z’ Force – were sent to the island to encourage Dyak villagers to engage the Japanese in guerrilla warfare. This was highly successful, with about 2000 Japanese killed.

This link contains search results for the Bombing of Darwin from the Trove library of digitised newspapers.

On February 19, 1942, shortly before 10:00am, Japanese forces launched air raids on Darwin, the first on Australian soil. More than 260 enemy planes, including land-based bombers and planes flying off aircraft carriers in the Timor Sea, attacked US and Australian shipping, the town's harbour, military and civil aerodromes and the local hospital.

During the Second World War, the Japanese flew 64 raids on Darwin and 33 raids on other targets in Northern Australia.

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses articles in the issue on topics including history of the bombing of the city Darwin in Northern Territory by Japanese aircraft, detection of depression in females, and Falkland's war.