Australia’s involvement in the Second World War is quite unexplored, historians focusing on the period like Steve Bullard or Karl James suggest. The role Australia played in North-Africa and what is most important, in the Pacific remains to be further researched, as certain misconceptions seem to pervade the popular imagination, for example, about the war for the Pacific Ocean, which is believed to be the war of the United States only. The truth is however that for the early months of 1943, they were only supporting Australian troops in their advancement. Another misbelief is that Japan was intending to invade the Australian mainland, whereas in fact the Japanese only wanted to secure their south flank.2 The capitulation of Japan is believed to be caused

1 Sloggett, Jenny, and Sullivan, Fiona “Men and women of Australia, we are at war with Japan.” (70 years ago today”) http://archivesoutside.records.nsw.gov.au/men-and-women-of-australia-we-are-at-war-with-japan-70- years-ago-today/ Accessed 21 November 2014 2 Campbell, Emma “Remembering the first-year battles of the Pacific war” 15 November 2011 2 by the two atomic bombs, but in fact, the real cause was the declaration of war by the USSR.3 In my thesis therefore I intend to analyze in depth the most important battles of the war where Australians were involved, how they were involved, and what bravery they did show. In details I would like to write about units that have shown exceptional bravery, like the Australian 9th Division the Rats of Tobruk, and the AIF units that fought on the Kokoda-trail. I will analyze why Australia asked the United States for defense against Japan, breaking hundreds of years old alliance with Great Britain In the first chapter I would like to explain the outbreak of the war: what technological and leadership difficulties the Allied powers faced and how WesternEurope capitulated to the Axis powers in a year – except the United Kingdom. Until the entry of Japan to the war, Germany and Italy were the only enemies to Australia, and they were far away in Europe, later in North-Africa. In the second chapter I describe the foreign politics of Australia after the war broke out and what armed forces they had, and what duties tied their hands. In the third and fourth chapters I intend to move the focus point to the desert warfare, where Australian troops faced their enemy for the first time in World War II, and to what the traditional British alliance caused in this short time. In the fifth and sixth chapter my thesis will examine the war in the Pacific, which directly involved the continent of Australia as well. In the seventh, my last chapter I intend to analyze the aftermath of the war for Australia, the immigration waves, politics, and the economy. The order of the chapters will not be entirely chronological; they will be set

http://www.awm.gov.au/blog/2011/11/15/remembering-the-first-year-battles-of-the-pacific-war/ Accessed 10 November 2014 3Wilson, Ward “The Bomb Didn't Beat Japan... Stalin Did” May 29, 2013 http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/05/29/the_bomb_didnt_beat_japan_nuclear_world_war_ii?p age=0,3 Accessed 10 November 20143 by their time of being launched, but the events of a certain theatre or offensive will be chronological. I took most of my online sources from Australian Government websites, which I will not include in all of my footnotes and references.