Friday, October 3, 2014

Kokoda

"The enemy has brought us into the war right on our own shore."  -John Curtin, Prime Minister of Australia 1941 - 1945

Hi all
For those interested in history, I have embedded links that will lead you to a 2 part documentary series (broken up into 8 parts on YouTube) about Kokoda during World War 2. It will give you a good idea of what World War 2 was like in Papa New Guinea and just how far south Japan's empire managed to extend. This was the only time in history that modern Australia was threatened to be invaded. The documentary is rated PG.

Part 1: https://m.youtube.com/watch?list=PL6D72B47309AA977C&v=BDgvy-SIBcM

Part 2: https://m.youtube.com/watch?list=PL6D72B47309AA977C&v=mdNb1Jz-n0Q

Part 3: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=A_wRxqWDSZU&list=PL6D72B47309AA977C

Part 4: https://m.youtube.com/watch?list=PL6D72B47309AA977C&v=4Vv_gwXXIQg

Part 5: https://m.youtube.com/watch?list=PL6D72B47309AA977C&v=ngPP22P98JE

Part 6: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BoxUJ8u3k2k&list=PL6D72B47309AA977C

Part 7: https://m.youtube.com/watch?list=PL6D72B47309AA977C&v=Xg8zUp8K7gE

Part 8: https://m.youtube.com/watch?list=PL6D72B47309AA977C&v=jmiXwTCUbAk

During World War 2 the Japanese killed 21 million civilians in the Asia-Pacific region. 19 Million were Chinese. Yet it took the deaths of under 3,000 American sailors in a relatively unsuccessful bombing raid on Pearl Harbor to decide the path that history would take.

Australia has participated in many wars in the last century to show support, providing aid to allied nations such as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (+Empire/Commonwealth) in Europe and Northern Africa during the World Wars, and the United States of America in Wars such as Vietnam and Iraq.

The war in the Pacific during World War 2 became personal. For the first and hopefully only time in history, Australia was not fighting to help another nation, but fighting for it's very survival.

6 comments:

  1. Thank you for sharing this very valuable knowledge, learning about this really helps me understand why there is so much tension between the Chinese and Japanese.

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    Replies
    1. Your very welcome Freddie!. Understanding history helps us understand why the world is the way it is today.

      The Japanese raided China's coastline on and off for centuries. Qi Jiguang, the man who came up with the idea of constructing The Great Wall of China, intended to extend the wall along China's coastline to defend China from the Japanese and Wokou Pirates (Wo refers to "Dwarfs" or "Japanese" and Kou means "bandit" or "pirate") . However, as the Great Wall was so successful in turning back Mongolian invasions in the north, and there were no Japanese raids along the coast at the time, the Chinese imperial government did not provide Qi Jiguang with the adequate funding to complete his vision. A vision of a fortified wall surrounding China that would protect it from all invasions, particularly from Mongolia and Japan.

      Qi Jiguang's Wikipedia page: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qi_Jiguang

      Anyway, have you had a look at Kokoda?. If you have, what do you think?.

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  2. Replies
    1. Thank You Steve. What do think of the documentary?

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  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  4. Hello there, i didn't realize you had an other post on regards history!!I thought you where having a go at Japan and what they did.So thats why i replied like that in my previous message that i deleted.Nice article a lot of research there.Good Job Ben :)

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