NAT: Welcome to my hometown,
Darwin, the capital
of the Northern Territory -
famous for its pristine coast,
the sunset markets and, of course,
the warm weather.
But it's also known
for something that happened here
nearly 80 years ago,
on 19 February 1942.
(AEROPLANE DRONES OVERHEAD,
EXPLOSIONS)
At two minutes to 10
on a humid wet-season morning,
the Imperial Japanese Navy
carried out a massive attack
on Darwin,
destroying ships,
buildings and much of the town.
It was the first time
Australia had been attacked
by a foreign power
since the start
of European settlement.
But Darwin wasn't just bombed once.
A lot of people don't know
how often Darwin was bombed
and for how long.
The Japanese raided us 64 times
over 18 months
and caused a lot of damage.
Austin Asche was in
the Royal Australian Air Force
toward the end
of the Second World War.
There was an awful lot of damage
in Darwin.
They...they certainly bombed
very accurately.
But why carry out such a big attack
on such a small town?
Well, it turns out
Darwin was actually
a pretty important place
during the Second World War.
WOMAN: Darwin was important
because it had
a big naval base here,
um, and large storages
of naval fuel oil.
Um, it also had a military presence
and it also had a RAAF presence.
Many historians now think
that Japan never actually wanted
to invade Darwin.
The importance
of them attacking Darwin
was to nullify it,
was to try and destroy the town,
destroy the infrastructure,
so that Darwin couldn't be used
as a marshalling point
for Allied military forces
to hit back at Japan.
On 12 November 1943,
Japan carried out
its last air raid on Darwin.
And then, in August 1945,
the news came through -
the war had ended.
(CHEERING)
It came as a big surprise.
I think everybody believed
that there'd be
many more years of war.
Every year on 19th February,
the City of Darwin holds
commemoration services
to remember the battle for Darwin.
In many ways,
it's a very different place today,
but this little town
won't be forgetting its history
anytime soon.
In class, I've been learning about
the bombing of Darwin.
And how the Japanese air raids
attacked
and it was the largest attack
on Australia in World War II.
And tons of buildings, ships
and infrastructures got destroyed.
I think it's important
to learn about history because,
if we know what the past is like,
we get a hint of the future.
