"He's coming south" screamed the poster, featuring a Japanese soldier poised to trample over a defenceless Australia. It was part of a Curtin government campaign that contributed to a state of panic across the nation in 1942 after the fall of Singapore and air raids on Darwin.
Across the years, history books and high school lessons have repeated the stories of a Japanese invasion plan, foiled only by the diggers' desperate efforts on the Kokoda Trail and the United States' naval victory in the Coral Sea. An imaginary "Brisbane Line" was drawn to represent Australia's second line of defence against the approaching hordes.
The trouble is, someone forgot to tell the Japanese. The only real invasion plan appears to have existed in the minds of prime minister John Curtin and the Australian public.
"The plans got no further than some acrimonious discussions," Dr Stanley said. "The army dismissed the idea as "gibberish", knowing that troops sent further south would weaken Japan in China and in Manchuria against a Soviet threat. Not only did the Japanese army condemn the plan, but the navy general staff also deprecated it, unable to spare the million tonnes of shipping the invasion would have consumed.
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