1

SPEECH BY  HIS EXCELLENCY

MAJOR GENERAL MICHAEL JEFFERY AC CVO MC (Retd)  GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA  ADDRESS AT A COMMEMORATIVE CEREMONY FOR VP DAY  KOKODA TRACK MEMORIAL WALKWAY, CONCORD, NSW

SUNDAY, 14 AUGUST 2005



Mr Rusty Priest, Chairman - Kokoda Track Memorial Walkway, and Ms Carole Anne  Priest  The Honourable Morris Iemma, Premier of NSW  Mr John Murphy, Federal Member for Lowe  Ms Angela D’Amore, State Member for Drummoyne  Councillor Angelo Tsirekas), Mayor of the City of Canada Bay  Kokoda Track Memorial Walkway Directors  Distinguished guests  Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls

VP Day is a very important occasion for all Australians. It holds special significance  for the generation who endured the Second World War, particularly our veterans and  for those whose loved ones never returned. It signifies the end of a time in our recent  history when Australia was vulnerable to Japanese invasion; when freedom as we  know it was very seriously threatened.

Today, as we reflect on the service and sacrifice of our veterans let us take a moment  to consider what it was they fought for sixty years ago.

The early years of World War II in Europe and the Middle East brought very little  change to daily life for most Australian families.  As in the First World War,  Australians felt comfortably dislocated - both emotionally and geographically - from  the distant fronts.

The bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941 signalled the start of Japan’s rapid  advance through the Pacific.  The day after wiping out the US Navy’s Pacific Fleet at  Pearl Harbor—importantly less the US aircraft carriers, Japan landed its first troops in  Malaya.  A powerful Japanese offensive ensued, and Australia hastily prepared for  possible invasion.

With the majority of our trained Australian forces already heavily committed in  Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, Prime Minister John Curtin necessarily  withdrew most of them to meet critical defence of Australia requirements.

In January 1942, Japan captured Rabaul, the capital of the Australian-controlled  territory of New Guinea.  And within weeks, Australian and Dutch forces had  surrendered the island of Ambon in the Netherlands East Indies.

The Japanese rapidly overpowered Allied forces in Malaya and 15,000 men of  Australia’s 8th Division were taken captive when Singapore fell on the 15th of  February 1942. The loss of Singapore meant the “Malay Barrier” had been breached,  and Australia was in potential danger.

War arrived in Australia on the 19th of February 1942 with a devastating air raid on  Darwin and, during the next six months, northern Australia from Broome to  Townsville suffered almost one hundred Japanese air raids.

2

Plans to abandon most of the Australian continent north of the famous ‘Brisbane  Line’—between the cities of Adelaide and Brisbane—illustrates the seriousness with  which Australian contemplated possible Japanese invasion.

Indeed, some of you probably still remember the air-raid shelters built in your back  yards and schools.  It was a fact of life: the war was on our doorstep.

With the radical lifestyle shift for most Australians came a strong sense of  community; of being “all in together”. Contributions to the war effort included the  employment of women in typically ’male’ trades and professions, including armament  and munitions factories.

Our farmers and graziers were magnificent in sustaining Australia’s essential primary  industry throughout the war years, ably supported by the Women’s Land Army.

But the focus of Australia’s war effort was on the men and women serving abroad.

Almost one million Australian men and women enlisted during the Second World  War; the largest commitment of Australian soldiers, sailors and airmen in our history.

However, despite strong enlistment numbers, there were manpower shortages in all  three Services as Australia became more heavily involved in the war against Japan in  the Pacific.

The army’s manning problems were compounded by a lack of modern equipment,  limited pre-war preparation and little appropriate training for tropical jungle  conditions.

The Air Force, too, was undermanned and under equipped; however, newly-formed  Australian squadrons finally joined the Pacific campaign to meet urgently needed air  reconnaissance, strike, close air support and resupply requirements.

During these early years of the war, some 22,000 Australian soldiers, sailors, airmen,  nurses and civilians were interned in Japanese Prisoner of War Camps.

Although it is difficult for us to understand what these brave Australians endured, the  fact that one third of our POWs perished in captivity is some indication of the  appalling conditions they suffered.

Almost half of the 15,000 Australian servicemen captured at Singapore later perished  as prisoners of war at Changi and on the Burma railway.  We remember the mighty  deeds of Weary Dunlop and his magnificent doctors and medical staff.

Japan’s invasion of Timor in February 1942 at first seemed to be another easy victory.

However, in a display of characteristic resilience, Australian forces soon organised an  effective guerrilla campaign, in which the independent companies distinguished  themselves.

Australian ships faced a precarious passage in support of the Timor guerrilla  campaign; one Japanese air strike took HMAS Armidale and the lives of 100  Australian sailors.

The first major strategic victories in the Pacific came only after the Allies had endured  several months of heavy losses to Japanese air, sea and land forces.

In the Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942, a United States/Australian joint task force,  including three Australian cruisers - Australia, Canberra and Hobart - stalled the  Japanese southward advance and in June 1942 the Americans achieved a critical

3

maritime victory at the Battle of Midway, in which the Japanese lost their very  important aircraft carriers.

Strategic defeat at Midway eliminated Japan’s strategic amphibious capability, and  her plans to advance on Port Moresby were thus limited to a landward approach via  Milne Bay and the Kokoda Track.

Despite being overwhelmingly outnumbered, under-resourced, and poorly trained  initially, Australian soldiers including the Militia 39th battalion famously resisted the  Japanese advance on the Kokoda Track whilst our troops and airforce at Milne Bay  inflicted the first defeat of the Japanese in the war.

British Field-Marshal Sir William Slim, the brilliant commander of the XIV Army in  Burma, later commented that:

"Australian troops had, at Milne Bay, inflicted on the Japanese their first undoubted  defeat on land. Some of us may forget that, of all the allies, it was the Australians who  first broke the invincibility of the Japanese army."

In the months that followed, Australian ships and aircraft played key roles in  transporting troops and supplies, and providing escorts and fire support during the  bitter and hard fought New Guinea campaign.

On the last day of May 1942, three Japanese midget submarines attacked Sydney  Harbour, followed by several minor attacks on Australia’s southern coastline by  conventional Japanese submarines, that included the shelling of Newcastle.

In the following months, Japanese submarines sank six Allied merchant ships off the  east coast of Australia. Several more merchant ships were hit in 1943 and, in May that  year, 268 perished when the Australian Hospital Ship Centaur was sunk in  Queensland waters.

After the defeat of the Japanese at Kokoda and Milne Bay, Australian and American  units between November 1942 and January 1943 fought the Japanese in northern  Papua at Buna, Gona, Sanananda, Finshaffen and Wewak in a series of costly battles,  where no quarter was shown or expected.

By early 1943, Allied forces had halted Japanese offensives in the Solomon Islands  and New Guinea. General MacArthur’s island-hopping strategy saw Rabaul  recaptured, triggering a steady northward advance.

In 1945, Australian land, air and sea forces launched coordinated assaults against the  Japanese at Tarakan, Labuan and Balikpapan. These were the biggest, most complex  and the final Australian campaigns of World War II.

Preparations were then being made for what would have been an extraordinarily  costly assault on Japan itself.

However, with the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, the  Emperor saw the futility of continuing the war and was persuaded to surrender  unconditionally on 15 August.

In Australia, VP Day ended 6 years of hardship, sacrifice and anguish, and signalled  the start of a new era of peace.

However, the war took an enormous toll on the physical and emotional health of our  veterans, and many never fully recovered.  Broken marriages, alcoholism and  depression were just some of the symptoms for many of this wartime generation.

4

Aboriginal Australians were not immune to the effects of the war, indeed many  indigenous Australians enlisted and served alongside their non-indigenous mates.

Great demand for indigenous labour, particularly in northern Australia, helped to  break down prejudices and gave hope to many Aboriginal Australians for a more  equitable post-war community.

So what should we remember on Victory in the Pacific Day 2005? We remember  almost one million Australian men and women who served, and the 40,000 who died  fighting to protect the freedom we enjoy today.

We remember that they fought to protect the Australian way of life; our democracy,  our culture, our land.

We remember and cherish their spirit of service before self; their sense of humour and  fair play; of individual and group responsibility; and their firm belief that true  democratic freedom must be nurtured and protected; and when threatened, is worth  fighting and if necessary, dying for.

We appreciate that through their valour, our country emerged from the Second World  War with a new sense of economic, political and social independence.

Although still very much a part of the British Commonwealth, Australia had forged a  close and enduring relationship with the United States throughout the Pacific  Campaign.  Japan’s post-war democratisation led to stronger economic ties with  Australia, and today Japan rates among our closest trading and dialogue partners.

So on this 60th anniversary of Victory in the Pacific, how best do we express our  gratitude to our veterans of the Pacific campaign? I think it is to seize the marvellous  opportunities we have been given, to become a nation of excellence—the global  example in everything we undertake.

We have the people, the institutions, the physical and moral courage, the tolerance,  and the innovative capacity to be the best in every field of endeavour, and in so being  to permanently ensure our future long term prosperity and security both regionally  and globally.

To those who served, and the many thousands who made the supreme sacrifice 60  years ago, the nation extends its deepest and most sincere gratitude.

On behalf of all Australians I salute you.

Thank you!

