Darwin bombing Australia's darkest day: PM
Xavier La Canna
AAP.,February 19, 2012 - 5:29PM-
- The bombing of Darwin by Japanese aircraft 70 years ago was Australia's darkest day, Prime Minister Julia Gillard says.
Speaking at the 70th anniversary of the attack, which killed at least 243 people and caused hundreds more to flee in panic, Ms Gillard said the events were unimaginable.
"Nineteen forty-two was the darkest year in Australia's history. And if that darkest year had a darkest day, it was February 19," she told the crowd of about 5000.
The Bombing of Darwin was in fact the battle for Australia.
"Our distance from the hatreds of old Europe was no longer a protection," the prime minister said.
-
About 90 veterans from the bombing were among the crowd gathered in the hot, humid conditions at Darwin's cenotaph to remember the events of 70 years ago.
Craftsman Keith Barton, aged 90, said the bombing raid was frightening.
"It was deafening and when the Neptuna blew up bits landed all over town," Mr Barton said.
-
Eighty-eight-year-old Ray Chin who was working in a general store when the raids began said at first there was no siren or alarm.
"They just kept on coming over the water and when they started dropping black objects I realised they were not our planes."
Mr Chin, whose school in China had also been bombed while he studied there in 1937, fled to Katherine after the Darwin raids and he was again caught in a Japanese attack on that city.
-
Opposition leader Tony Abbott said there were more aircraft used and more tonnage of bombs dropped on Darwin than on Pearl Harbour.
"The defences were inadequate, the warning was ignored, the surprise was complete, the confusion, total, at least initially," Mr Abbott said.
-
Governor-General Quentin Bryce told the crowd the bombing of Darwin fundamentally changed Australia by heralding an appreciation that its security rested on a military alliance with the United States.
She said the post-war immigration policies were also a result of the bombing, which highlighted that Australia needed a much bigger population to occupy the vast expanse of the continent.
-
Japanese journalist Makiko Yanada, from the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, travelled to Darwin for the event because she felt it was important her compatriots knew about their wartime past.
"In the history textbooks we are told we advanced to Papua New Guinea or the Solomon Islands," she said.
"I am sorry that the Japanese people are not so familiar that the Japanese military bombed here."
Last year the Australian parliament voted to make February 19 a national day of observance to remember the bombing of Darwin.
Speaking at the 70th anniversary of the attack, which killed at least 243 people and caused hundreds more to flee in panic, Ms Gillard said the events were unimaginable.
"Nineteen forty-two was the darkest year in Australia's history. And if that darkest year had a darkest day, it was February 19," she told the crowd of about 5000.
-
She said Australia's peacetime complacency was a potent setback during war and people were unprepared for the attack.The Bombing of Darwin was in fact the battle for Australia.
"Our distance from the hatreds of old Europe was no longer a protection," the prime minister said.
-
About 90 veterans from the bombing were among the crowd gathered in the hot, humid conditions at Darwin's cenotaph to remember the events of 70 years ago.
Craftsman Keith Barton, aged 90, said the bombing raid was frightening.
"It was deafening and when the Neptuna blew up bits landed all over town," Mr Barton said.
-
Eighty-eight-year-old Ray Chin who was working in a general store when the raids began said at first there was no siren or alarm.
"They just kept on coming over the water and when they started dropping black objects I realised they were not our planes."
Mr Chin, whose school in China had also been bombed while he studied there in 1937, fled to Katherine after the Darwin raids and he was again caught in a Japanese attack on that city.
-
Opposition leader Tony Abbott said there were more aircraft used and more tonnage of bombs dropped on Darwin than on Pearl Harbour.
"The defences were inadequate, the warning was ignored, the surprise was complete, the confusion, total, at least initially," Mr Abbott said.
-
Governor-General Quentin Bryce told the crowd the bombing of Darwin fundamentally changed Australia by heralding an appreciation that its security rested on a military alliance with the United States.
She said the post-war immigration policies were also a result of the bombing, which highlighted that Australia needed a much bigger population to occupy the vast expanse of the continent.
-
Japanese journalist Makiko Yanada, from the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, travelled to Darwin for the event because she felt it was important her compatriots knew about their wartime past.
"In the history textbooks we are told we advanced to Papua New Guinea or the Solomon Islands," she said.
"I am sorry that the Japanese people are not so familiar that the Japanese military bombed here."
Last year the Australian parliament voted to make February 19 a national day of observance to remember the bombing of Darwin.
-
Brought to you by
Brought to you by
No comments:
Post a Comment