Darwin Bombing Persuasive Speech

On Febuary 19th, 1942, Japanese forces launched two air raids on the city of Darwin. The attack was lead by the same commander who was responsible for the Pearl Harbour catastrophe, which occurred only 10 weeks earlier. The Japanese were planning to invade Timor, therefore they bombed Darwin in an effort to frighten Australia and its allies and prevent any of their forces leaving the country. Over 260 enemy planes attacked the city, destroying twenty military aircraft, eight ships and the majority of civil facilities, including the local hospital.

The history wars of Australia is an area of great controversial debate. Throughout the course of Australian history, the public has been mainly subjected to one perspective that focused on the glorifying moments of European settlement and its progress such as its involvement in world wars and the transition of the nation into a globalised continent. As a result, there is a rigid dichotomy between the perceptions of white Australians and the indigenous population on subjects such as the colonisation or invasion of Australia. History told from the perspective of Aboriginal people greatly contrasts what is written in the history books and also what is exposed or encouraged towards the public. It focuses on the dispossession of indigenous people, the massacres and the attempted eradication of culture. This view of Australian history has been labeled as 'black armband history', which was first used during an interview by a historian, Geoffrey Blainey.

In this essay I will be talking about the impact of the fall of Singapore on Australia’s immediate security, and also be giving a brief background of important events during that time.

Not long before 10:00am, on February 19, 1942 the Japanese forces commenced air raids on Darwin. Over 260 enemy planes attacked Australian and US shipping, the harbour of the town, military and civil aerodromes and the local hospital. There were two waves of attacks which were part of Japan's efforts to harm Australia's confidence, hold back the use of Darwin's military base, and at last secure neighbouring Timor. At least 243 people were killed in the attack and up to 400 people were injured. Eight ships in the harbour were sunk and twenty military aircraft were destroyed. Over a space of almost two years the air attacks continued and about half of Darwin's population ended up moving south.

The Second World War was a massive event that left the whole world shocked and saddened of the outcomes. World War 2 was known mostly because of who ruled, Adolf Hitler was the leader of the Nazis. The Nazis where a German army who terrorized Europe and the world with the in humane treatment of people and mostly the treatment of the Jews. Australia’s involvement in ww2 will be the main focus of this essay. Australia lost over 30 000 people who became in prisoned by the Nazis. To follow on with the hypothesis of Australia’s involvement and contributions to WW2 was significant due to their alliances with Great Britain and the USA largely affect Australia even to this day, I will be discussing this through the rest of the essay.

The author of the book, John Hersey, had a good purpose in telling so many individual anecdotes about the life before the bomb. He focused on expressing the stories of these survivors in a way in which the reader could see it from their point of view. His aim was to demonstrate that each individual was a real human being with real feelings just like us. The author seeks to make sure that readers understand that the bombings happened to people who had a daily life and were astonished by what had happened. Hersey demonstrates that the bombing impacted people who had previously been undergoing a lot in life.

Imagine waking up and seeing the Twin Towers being hit by airplanes and seeing mass destruction in the city. What would you do? How would you feel? What would you say if you were the President of the United States at the time that horrendous attack occurred? “ One of the worst days in America’s history saw some of the bravest acts in America's history. We’ll always honor the heroes of 9/11. And here at this hallowed place, we pledge that we will never forget their sacrifice.” 9/11 was a very tragic and scary day for a lot of people and many people lost their lives and some are still dealing with the effects today. It would be very sad seeing the lives taken by this attack and also scary because you didn’t know if there were any other attacks to follow. Due to the events that happened that day, many things had to be changed in order to prevent another attack from occurring again.

On February 19, 1942, Darwin was bombed by Japanese aircraft, wiping out military infrastructure and vehicles, as well as killing soldiers and civilians.

In 1978, on Monday the 13th of February, Australia faced what is believed to be its first experience of terrorism, when a bomb hidden in a bin outside the Sydney Hilton Hotel exploded, killing two council workers and a policeman (Cahill & Cahill, 2006). At the time, the hotel was hosting eleven heads of government who were in Sydney for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Regional Meeting (Cahill & Cahill, 2006). The Australian government reacted by mobilising the military, which came to be referred to as ‘Siege of Bowral’, that highlighted issues with the legislation that dealt with terrorism and how unprepared Australia was at responding to a terrorist event (Hancock, 2002). Over the following years, a range of legislation was enacted to handle matters associated with terrorism, laws such as allowing for defence to aid to the civil power, aviation and shipping safety, chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, surveillance and intelligence services (Hancock, 2002).

The text, ‘Why Weren’t We Told’ by Henry Reynolds deals with many issues and themes, one of these being the treatment of Aboriginals in Australia. Reynolds is a historian; it is in his nature to use evidence to support his statements and anecdotes, this evidence appears in documentation dating back to the 1700’s and quotes from individual people throughout the entirety of Australian history. Reynolds also includes many perspectives, events and situations pertaining to Aboriginal history. Some of these perspective comment on the politics of the time period Reynolds is writing in. Such perspectives as former Prime Minister John Howard and ex-Premier for Queensland Johannes Bjelke-Petersen conflict with Reynolds own political perspective whilst

April 19, 1995, 9:02 a.m: a bomb was set off beneath the Alfred P. Murrah Building. The bomb damaged the structural support beams and the Northern support columns. Half of the building collapsed. 168 people died (Cook 5). Eric McKisick, a district manager, recalls the incident, ¨I made an assumption that, hey, everybody is out, everybody is good, and I left at that point. It wasn't ´till much later that I saw the devastation and understood they didn't respond because they couldn't.” Not only were there a large number of casualties, 300 people were also injured, some of whom were physically impaired for the rest of their life. A child who was in the building at the time of the explosion states, “I have no recollection of that day, but I’m reminded everyday about it because of my breathing problems (Brandes, Heide, Schapiro).”

The bombings of Darwin was the most catastrophic events in the Australian war history. Darwin and Australia was shocked at the time knowing that they were being targeted by the Japanese. The coming of Darwin was extraordinarily significant within Australian History. Some of the short term effects were that the buildings were turned into rubble and long term many of the families lost members and suffered.

The United States dropped their first atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945. The explosion was tragic, “90 percent of the city was wiped out and immediately killed 80,000 people; tens and thousand more would later die to radiation exposure” (Lemay and Paul). Innocent children and citizens would die.

Concerns about the Japanese-Australians as well as Aboriginals had an impact on Australians as they

     They succeeded in causing a serious fire situation in the docks. An area about 1½