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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Australian-American relationship has been the central issue in Australian foreign policy since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. War in the Asia-Pacific brought Australia into a crucial and ultimately successful military alliance with its powerful Pacific ally, the United States.

Soon after the First World War, Australians found themselves committed to a another global conflict.

But many things would be different this time: they would be fighting much closer to home, women would be playing a greater role, and life would be harder for those on the homefront.

This site aims to provide quick, convenient, and reliable access to the best history-oriented resources online in a wide range of categories and has been designed to benefit history teachers and their students.

Primary sources. Archive of digitised Australian newspapers.

The involvement of Australian women in each war is closely connected to their role in society at different times, and the nature of each war. Australia has been involved in a number of wars including The Boer War (1899-1902), World War I (1914-1918), World War II (1939-1945), The Korean War (1950-1953), The Vietnam War (1962-1972) and The Gulf War (1990-1991).

The world’s passions and conflict of the early 20th century were to shape the new nation’s history, despite its physical distance from their epicentres. In some respects this was the least positive of the major periods of Australian history. Nationalism grew in strength, but it killed and sterilized as much as it inspired; egalitarianism tended to foster mediocrity; dependence on external power and models prevailed.

On 3 September 1939 Prime Minister Robert Gordon Menzies announced the beginning of Australia's involvement in the Second World War on every national and commercial radio station in Australia. Almost a million Australians, both men and women, served in the Second World War. They fought in campaigns against Germany and Italy in Europe, the Mediterranean and North Africa, as well as against Japan in south-east Asia and other parts of the Pacific.

During World War 1, many Italians living in Australia served in the Italian or Australian armies, a number with distinction. Dr Tommaso Fiaschi, for example, earned official recognition for his service at the Australian field hospital during the Boer War and then went on to fight with both the Italian and Australian armies during World War I. These international conflicts did not impact on the status of Italians in Australia. The Second World War however, did this dramatically.

War conditions necessitated civilian rationing of clothing and certain foodstuffs in Australia. The main reasons for clothing rationing were the serious falling off in imports, increased Service demands, and reduced labour for local production of textiles and making up of garments. The supply to the United Kingdom and the Australian and Allied Services of maximum quantities of foodstuffs necessitated the rationing of sugar. butter and meat, while reduction in imports, consequent upon enemy occupation of Java, necessitated the rationing of tea. In addition to the controls exercised by the Rationing Commission, rationing of certain other commodities is directed by other departments, e.g., petrol, tobacco, liquor, etc.