CHAPTER 9 - TESTING THE NEW NATION - THE SECOND WORLD WAR

Overview: Set in the years 1914-1939. The first world war gave Australia a new symbol of pride and
nationalism - the digger - however, it left Australia bitterly divided in the wake of the conscription
debate. With the York Stock exchange collapsing in 1929, Australia plunged into a depression. The
main images viewed with this era include hunger, despair and humiliation.

The Australian nation was tested further when the world descended into the second world war in
1939. Australian soldiers fought in North Africa, The middle east, Europe and Asia. On the home
front civilian life became increasingly governed by regulations to ensure an 'all in' effort in the
hopes to win the war. There were strong appeals to patriotism which united the nation, but tensions
and divisions did emerge. The war altered both political landscape domestically and
internationally. With the experience of depression and war, there was a new vision for post war
Australia emerging.

Australia is now at war

 The united Australia party prime minister Robert Menzies announced in 1939 that Britain
had declared war on Germany he stated that 'as a consequence Australia is now at war'
 The 1930's was a tumultuous time in world politics.
 The league of nations was born in the years on 1914 - 1918 when the 'war to end all wars'
failed.
 The rise of fascism1 in Italy and Germany threatened fragile democracies of the continent.
 Both Mussolini in Italy and Hitler in Germany wanted to create empires and engaged in
aggressive military campaigns against their neighbours and former colonies.
 Britain pursued a policy of appeasement2 in an attempt to avoid war, accepting the invasion
of Czechoslovakia.
 When Poland was invaded in 1939 France, Britain and their allies abandon this position and
declared war on Germany on 3rd September, 1939
 After a 7 month hiatus nicknamed the 'phoney war', the nazis launched a Blitzkrieg
(lightning war) on Western Europe in April 1940.
 By 1940 Germany controlled most of Western Europe and the British were forced to
evacuate their troops from the beaches of Dunkirk in France.
 On the home front, Britain was under sustained aerial bombing.
 Robert Menzies' decision to announce war without referring it to Parliament was later
criticised, however at the time was supported across the political spectrum.
 Australia was politically and emotionally tied to Britain.
 Issues of international morality as well as practicality informed Australia's response.
 Germany was waging an aggressive war against peaceful nations and if allowed to succeed
the stability of the world was under threat.
 None of the political parties in Australia welcomed war, however in all of their political
speeches they accepted the need to resist armed aggression.

1
Fascism - Ideology that hated democracy and communism, a militant nationalism and a belief in strong
leadership. Often tended to exploit local fears and prejudices.
2
Appeasement - giving into the demands of an aggressive country as long as those demands appear
reasonable to avoid war
BUSINESS AS USUAL

 With the strong memory of World war one still in place, war meant grief rather than glory in
1939.
 Robert Menzies announced it was 'business as usual' and recruitment into the second AIF
was initially slow during the 'phoney war' however as the Germans advanced through
Europe and Britain was threatened, recruitment rose.
 Men enlisted for interconnected and complex reasons - some after many years of
unemployment, joined because for good pay and security. (referred to by Menzies' enemies
as 'Menzies Tourists' and 'two bob a day murderers') Others joined for the adventure and
chance to travel. Loyalty to Britain and citizens wanting to 'do their bit' also played a part in
recruitment.
 Some aboriginal enlisted, despite discouragement, because they wanted to improve
economic position, skills and political status.
 The nature of war had changed with technological advancement, civilians could now be
targeted by aerial bombardment.
 Slit trenches were built in case of air raids, sirens installed on steet's and air raid wardens
began training.
 With war came employment and prosperity: retailers enjoyed huge profits at Christmas of
1939 and holiday accommodation was booked out.
 To most Australians however, the war was remote from their everyday lives.

PLAYING SOLDIERS

 Work and war was still clearly delineated along gender lines in 1939.
 After being denied a role in the first world war, women were quick to mobilise in the second.
 From 1940, hundreds of Parliamentary organisations sprang up devoted to training largely
middle class women (because working class women would not be able to afford the
uniforms.)
 Organisations such as the women's Transport Corp, The Australian women's Land Army
and a Woman's Emergency Signalling Corp.
 These bodies were all voluntary and had no official status.
 Members wore uniforms that they designed and paid for themselves and were ridiculed in
the press for 'playing soldiers'
 When they offered their services to the government they were rejected.
 Raising funds for refugees, donating clothes to Britain's bomb victims, kitting socks and
pouring cups of tea were seen as much more appropriate ways for respectable women to
support the war effort.

JAPAN ENTERS THE WAR

 The sense of worried complacency ended abruptly in December 1941 when the Japanese air
force bombed the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
 Panic developed with families evacuating from the city to the country.
 Remote Darwin was bombed by the Japanese on 19 February 1942.
  Air raid precautions began to be taken seriously, enlistments rose dramatically and
Christmas holidays were cancelled in factories when Japan advanced south through Asia.
 The recruitment of women into the armed forces into non-combat roles, was introduced
reluctantly in mid 1941 by Prime Minister Curtin. He announced that women would be
employed in the industry to replace men 'for the duration.'
 When the British surrendered Singapore Island on 27th January 1942, British defence of the
Asia-Pacific crumbled and Australia felt truly under threat of invasion.
 The allied strategy of the American president Roosevelt and the British Prime Minister
Churchill agreed in principle that the war needed to end in Europe before they could tackle
the Japanese threat.
 Tensions rose between Labor Prime minister Curtin and British prime minister Churchill
when Curtin ordered his troops from the Middle East to return to Australia, rather than
travel onto Burma to stem the Japanese advance.
 Australia's resources were meagre and Britain was virtually wiped out in the Asia-Pacific
region, so Curtin looked to America for security.
 Historians David Lowe and Joan Beaumont argue that this was not the 'turning point' in
Australia's foreign policy, as some historians have claimed, but rather a handover of
Australia's defence from one major ally to another as a result of the realities of the war.
 Memories of the home front of the second world war have been remembered as a time of
unity and sacrifice
 There was a sense of shared purpose among citizens with this war. Evident in the high
numbers of volunteerism taken on by Australian's during the war.
 Children salvaged scarce materials like paper and rubber for recycling, the country women's
association made camouflage nets etc
 The Australian Comfort funds kitted 1,139,087 balaclavas and 347,677 jumpers during the
war.
 Unlike during the first world war, there were no bitter public debates on issues such as
conscription. There were no major outbreaks of social unrest or social protest between
1939-1945, despite the considerable reduction of personal freedom, shortages of consumer
goods and increased government control over many aspects of everyday life.
 What Kate Darian-Smith calls 'the culture of war' saw the civillian become an inegral part of
the war effort in a way Australians had not experienced before.
 Darian-Smith argues that despite the 'rhetoric unity' there remained divisions of class, race,
age, gender and ethnicity within Australian society, and the war reshaped these existing
tensions and divisions.

EQUALITY OF SACRIFICE

 government controls regulated both private and public aspects of daily life. Travel, holidays,
leisure, sexual activity, consumerism, work, information and housing were all overseen by
the new government departments.
 It was an unprecedented level of centralised power, and was a part of the 'All in' effort of
the Curtin government.
 Stuart Macintyre comments on the quality of John Curtin's leadership saying 'Australia
accepted the sacrifices of this second war without the deep divisions of the first'
  Michael Mckernan writes that Curtin 'unified Australia as no Prime Minister had done
before him'
 From 1942, Austerity3 became the catchphrase
 'loose lips sink ships'
 The radio was found in 81% of homes and was widely used as a means of communicating
patriotic messages to the population
 Unlike the first world war, in the second the civilian as well as the soldier was portrayed as
playing a vital role in the war effort

OUTSIDERS, ALIENS AND ENEMIES

 Australian residents of non-british origin, were officially catalogued as 'aliens' felt the effects
of new laws passed in 1939.
 aliens who were officially identified as 'the enemy' were residents particularly of Italian and
German descent.
 They were forbidden to alter their names, work in shipping and own cars, radios or boats.
 Some were interned in camps
 This experience left a bitter legacy within these communities
 In Sydney 400 university students marched on the city streets shouting anti-Italian slogans
and Germans and Italians were indiscriminately sacked from jobs and had their shops
vandalised
 While controlling activities of 'enemies' during war time may seem sensible, many historians
claim that legal actions against these people during this time were unjust.
 national socialism - was the political ideology based on fascist principles developed by Adolf
Hitler

BLACK DIGGERS

 Australian Aborigines were still marginalised during the war and denied the rights of
citizenship and during the 1930's were under increased government control.
 Initially the government blocked the recruitment of anyone not of 'substantially European
origin' however as Japan entered the war and intensity grew, this was lifted.
 Participation in the war as servicemen and women and labourers gave Aborigines the
chance to learn new skills, be paid a wage and be provided with services and conditions
comparable to Europeans.
 In the armed forces, colour counted for little when fighting against a common enemy.
 The experience of war empowered Aborigines and contributes to a more intense fight for
civil rights following it.

GOOD WORKERS AND BAD MOTHERS

 By 1942, the economy was geared into a war footing

 Both industrial and agricultural production needed to be increased to ensure victory.

3
refers to self-denial, reducing living standards and consumption
  The Manpower Directorate was established in 1942 to control national labour and had the
power to direct workers into employment.
 Those working in non-essential industries (retail and government) could be redirected, even
if it meant a drop in wages
 War took precedence over other production
 One of the more controversial strategies of the Directorate was to mount raids on working
class clubs, race courses and hotels to round up the 'lazy or unemployed'
 Women joined military forces in non-combat roles in 1941
 Come 1942, the need for women had become so extreme that even married women were
conscripted to factory work and replacing men in a variety of work places.
 The wage for women varied, in feminised clothing, footwear and food sections they received
56% of the basic male rate. In trades that were originally for men, such as metal trades,
women could receive up to 90 percent of a breadwinners wage.
 despite being encouraged, and then conscripted into work, some commentators saw this
move as threatening the authority of the family and the moral order.
 The government provided minimal childcare despite women being out of the home for this
period. They were expected to rely on the neighbourhood and extended family for support.
 A rise in juvenile delinquency and the sexual misconduct of teenagers, let factory workers to
being criticised for neglecting their families and being greedy and selfish

STRIKES AND TRAITORS

 Workers too were fighting a war and their efforts in the factories and in the fields were in
support of 'our boys'
 There was cases of discontentment, high absenteeism and industrial unrest.
 To increase production, shifts were long
 12 to 13 hours, seven days a week with 20-minute lunch breaks were the conditions these
workers were subdued to
 Industrial unrest and strikes became more common after 1943 when the Japanese were
being driven back and an allied victory in the war seemed certain.
 Disputes in factories were often over issues such as conditions, pay and extended working
hours
 Despite the warnings from Medical Journal saying that long shifts would eventually lead to a
decline in productivity, the punishing schedule in factories continued.
 The businessmen who were reaping huge profits from the war and who at time refused to
pay women workers improved wartime rates were not held up for criticism
 Historian Michael McKernan argues that middle class had little comprehension of the
realities of factory life and the sacrifices made by industrial workers.
 Bishops of Goulburn's suggestion that middle classes need to pay tribute to the enormous
contribution war workers were making to Australia.

LADIES AND SERVANTS

 Manpower directorate worked to publicly ensure that 'equality of sacrifice' was not an
empty phrase.
  Historians have suggested that the burden fell harder on the working class because they did
not have the resources to appeal against manpower directives as did middle class women,
for example.
 The government tried to ban the employment of domestic services in middle-class homes,
and directed 60,000 workers who were in private homes into war work
 Middle class families found it difficult to cope with the drudgery of housework, which was
labour intensive in the 1940's
 Kate Darian-Smith describes the situation as contradictory.
 Working class women were expected to work 12-hour shifts in factories and care for their
families without any assistance. On the other hand, middle class women claimed they could
not work outside the home doing voluntarily work without domestic help.
 Michael McKernin said in a newspaper 'Auserity had a variety of defintions'

BAD GIRLS?

 Some people saw a moral crisis threatening the institutions that were the mainstay of
society's unity and cohesion - marriage and the family.
 Husbands and wives were separated through enlistment, evacuation and work.
 Women were doing male jobs and some were even receiving (almost) a male wage.
 The divorce rate increased during the war, desertion and adultery being the most common
causes.
 Women enjoyed freedom and economic independence.
 This colourful picture of wartime life in the cities was discussed and described at length in
the newspapers, which social reformers developed strategies to cope with the moral blight
they saw as descending on Australia
 Over a million American soldiers passed through Australia from 1941 as Northern Australia
became the base from which the Allies would launch their counter attack on the Japanese.
 Most encounters between Australians and Americans were fleeting and only took place in
major cities
 Initially Americans were greeted as saviours and heroes who would protect Australia from
invasion, but their relationship with the public soured after the Leonski Murders in
Melbourne in mid 1942.
 The presence of Afro-American troops and nurses from the segregated American forces also
caused anxiety in white Australia
 Many troops were sent to the remote north and in the cities their movements were
segregated along racial lines
 Americans were often blamed for the corruption of Australian womanhood during war time
 Strikes broke out primarily between poorly paid military workers primarily in Melbourne and
Brisbane. Between Australian and American troops
 Teenage school girls performing stripteases for soldiers in city alleyways, girls as young as 12
and 14 sitting until one or two in the morning on the St.Kilda beachfront with Americans,
women had affairs with 'yanks', these stories filled the newspapers.
 From 1942 civilians could be arrested and forcibly examined for a sexual disease and jailed
for treatment.
  The Americans, working women, absent fathers, poor mothering, greed and access to
contraceptives were all blamed for the perceived collapse of moral standards in Australia
during war time.
 The intense atmosphere of war time had people living for the moment.
 Marilyn Lake's examination of diaries shows that most women were looking for romance
and glamour rather than casual sexual encounters during the war.
 A girl who had sex before marriage lost her reputation. The options if she got pregnant were
marriage, abortion or adoption which was both illegal and dangerous. Parents were terrified
their girls would 'get in trouble' and often kept them under extremely strict supervision.
 Dorothy Hewitt, in her autobiography recounts tales of a Western Australian woman being
rushed to hospital after her nipple was bitten off in a fountain of champagne challenge while
frolicking with Americans.
 Pregnant girls as young as 13 were being made wards of the state in the Children's court in
Perth, deserted by their American boyfriends.
 The venereal disease legislation was created in 1942
 Postwar planning was seen as vital for ensuring that Australia returned to its traditional
Australian values that were threatened by the disruption and dislocation of war.

A NEW AUSTRALIA

 The experiences of depression and war motivated the government to plan for a postwar
society that was prosperous, equitable and stable.
 Labor's failure to gain a 'yes' vote in the 1944 referendum which would have handed over
more power to the federal government from state governments in the post war Australia
slowed down the reform process and allowed its opponents to manoeuvre.
 Citizens expected the government to take an active role in ensuring employment, economic
stability, housing and social security.
 Benefits they provided from 1942 included; the widow's pension, maternity allowance,
unemployment, sickness and health benefits.
 Uniform taxation legislation introduced in 1942 was when the government imposed tax
across society raising more revenue.
 Both the depression and war highlighted the poor condition of housing and a lack of
accommodation in Australia.
 Australia lacked on 350,000 houses by 1945
 Melbourne's kitchens had no water installed, fewer than a fifth had hot water installed and
less than eight percent owned a refrigerator.
 After the allied victory there was a boosted morale and when families were tolerating
difficult living conditions.
 It was seen as the democratic right of every Australian and a priority of the Department of
Post War Reconstruction

BACK TO THE (NEW) KITCHEN

 The government wanted to see women leave their wartime work and return to the home to
resume their primary role as wife and mother.
  Compiled by the government in 1944 recommended that women be weaned from the
corrupting influence of fashion and Hollywood to return to the home to produce five or six
children
 Invasion fears expressed at the time of federation were strengthened since 1942 and
Australian's were encouraged to 'populate or perish'
 For the post-war Australia, the government envisaged a return to traditional family values.
Things such as the fear of invasion and the hope for a decent standard of living articulated at
the time of federation, still resonated within Australia

POPULATE OR PERISH, OR NOT

 Marriage continued to soar and the baby boom that followed kept the family unit firmly in
the centre of Australian society.
 Over 12,000 women married American service men, suggesting that love and romance
rather than sin and immortality fuelled most of the relationships throughout the war.
 The view to keep relationships romantic was to only have 3 or 4 children, opposed to the
governments view that wanted 5-6.
 In responses to a questionnaire on birth control sent around in 1943 many women felt that
the more children you had, the les romance remained in the marriage.
 Memories of mothers struggling during the depression to feed larger families and the desire
to enjoy the consumer goods now available made a fourth or fifth child less likely in post-
war Australia.
 The desire for a better standard of living saw the rate of women in the workforce never
return to pre-war level.
 Equal pay and childcare, two issue identified in the Women's Charter of 1944, became
important ambitions for feminists who drew upon the experience of war to argue their case.

MIGRANTS

 The department of Immigraion was set up in 1944 with the desire to increase Australia's
population by two percent annually and provide the workers needed to help build Australia's
industrial base.
 All political parties still strongly believed in the White Australia Policy and, as in the past,
British migrants were targeted.
 Arrangements were made in 1944 to go northwest Europe as it was believed that these
people might adapt more easily to the Australian way of life and assimilate.
 By 1965 Australia's population had risen to 11 million and included migrants from all over
Europe.

PEACE

 Almost 600,000 men and women serving in the military were demobilised and had returned
to civilian life by 1946.
 As promised throughout the war, they were offered education, loans, repatriation benefits
and land-settlement schemes.
 Munition factories were closed down and gradually replaced with car manufacturing plants
and white goods manufacturers.
 After seven years of battles, shit work, shortages, blackouts, rationing and restrictions,
which had followed a devastating depression, Australians craved security, employment and
peace.
 ' a sufficient unity was created in the Second World War to make it all seem worthwhile ' -
Stuart Macintyre, 1999