"..
there was no invasion plan. The Japanese never planned to make to make Australia
part of its Co-Prosperity Sphere".
Again, Dr Peter Stanley is wrong. Dr Stanley's denials of Japan's hostile plans
for Australia in 1942 are refuted by the distinguished historian and Japan scholar,
Professor Henry Frei. From a speech by Dr Peter Stanley at the AWM conference
"Remembering 1942".
"(Prime
Minister General Tojo)...encouraged his army operations chief on 30 January
(1942) to actively pursue the plans for FS Operation, which would throttle Australia
into submission by the gradual extension of Japanese control over eastern New
Guinea, the Solomons, and the New Caledonia-Fiji Islands area."
From "Japan's Southward Advance and Australia" (1991) by distinguished
Japan scholar Professor
Henry Frei at page 172.
JAPAN'S HOSTILE PLANS FOR AUSTRALIA AFTER SURRENDER
Did Japan have long term hostile plans for Australia beyond the Japanese Army's plan to force Australia's surrender?
Dr Peter Stanley of the Australian War memorial says: No!
I believe that he is wrong again. It will be recalled that Dr Stanley delivered a paper entitled "He's (not) coming South - the invasion that wasn't" on 31 May 2002 as part of a series of talks at the Australia War Memorial called "Remembering 1942". In what appears to be his briefing paper for the media , Dr Stanley is reported as saying:
".. there was no invasion plan. The Japanese never planned to make to make Australia part of its Co-Prosperity Sphere".
I assume that by referring to "Co-prosperity Sphere", Dr Stanley probably means Japan's "Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere". That was not ostensibly a plan for conquest but a statement of economic imperialism announced to the world by Japan's Foreign Minister Matsuoka Yosuke on 1 August 1940. The plan entailed creation of an economic bloc of East Asian and western Pacific nations centred on Japan. Japan would draw raw materials from these nations, and the latter would be expected to take manufactured products from Japan in return. Although they did not say so publicly, the Japanese did not view this plan as being negotiable. If Dr Stanley was in fact referring to Japan's Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, he is again contradicted by Professor Henry Frei who claims Australia was included in it. Professor Frei referred to countries that Japan intended to include in its Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere in his paper "Why the Japanese were in New Guinea" delivered at the Australian National University conference "Remembering the War in New Guinea", held at Canberra from 19 to 21 October 2000. In this paper Professor Frei said:
"The Total War Institute's* elaborate "Draft of basic plans for the establishment of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, dated 27 January 1942, divided the super sphere into Inner Sphere (Japan, Manchukuo, North China); [19] the Smaller Co-Prosperity Sphere (Eastern Siberia, China, and soto nan'yo [South-East Asia]); and the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere (Australia, India, and the Pacific islands, and conceivably also New Guinea). [20]" The emphasis is mine.
* The Total War Research Institute, under the direction of Lieutenant General Murakami Keisaku, was required by Prime Minister General Tojo to prepare plans for administration of countries brought as puppet states into Japan's New Order in Greater East Asia and the Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere.
If Dr Stanley meant that Australia was not included in the group of countries comprised in Prime Minister General Hideki Tojo's "New Order in Greater East Asia", then he appears to be wrong again. These countries were to be controlled by Japan and have Japanese-appointed puppet governments. In the same paper mentioned above, Professor Frei claims that Australia was envisaged by the Japanese Foreign Ministry as being part of Tojo's "New Order in Greater East Asia". Professor Frei states:
"In a Foreign Ministry position paper submitted to the army on 24 July 1940 in preparation for the conclusion of the Axis pact in September that year, one paragraph reflects on India, Australia and New Zealand as belonging in the Greater East Asian New Order in the far future.."
On 27 September 1940, Germany, Italy and Japan signed the Tripartite Pact. The agreement recognised Japan's self-assumed role in establishing a "New Order" in East Asia
In view of Japan's strategic concerns about Australia's independence and alliance with the United States in 1942, I do not regard it as unreasonable to expect that Australia was likely to receive a Japanese-appointed puppet government if it surrendered to Japan in 1942, as envisaged by the Japanese Army following full implementation of Operation FS.
Dr Stanley has also spoken of matters that many Australians could view as strong criticism of the character and leadership of wartime Prime Minister John Curtin. I reject that criticism as unfounded, and I will explain my reasons in the next chapter.