Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-10-31T23:22:11.632Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 4 - The home front and the American presence in 1942

from Part 2 - Relations, politics and the home front

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2013

Peter Dean
Affiliation:
Australian National University, Canberra
Get access

Summary

It was in the military context of early 1942 that the Australian government swiftly brought in comprehensive and far-reaching controls over all aspects of civilian life as a means of encouraging and enforcing an ‘all-in’ war effort and social unity across existing class, generational and political divisions. Although Australia had been at war since September 1939, with the 2nd AIF fighting in Europe and the Middle East, the home front had been geographically distant from the military theatre. With conflict now in Australia’s immediate region, the relatively new Labor government of Prime Minister John Curtin was faced with the task of meeting the expanding requirements for labour and production so as to protect Australia in its ‘darkest hour’.

This chapter outlines many of the changes on the Australian home front during 1942, as the nation experienced profound economic and social disruptions in a time of crisis. These upheavals included the unsettling of pre-war expectations about the role of Australian women in the workforce and domestic sphere, as the demands of war created new opportunities for women and publicly censured private behaviours deemed to be morally inappropriate. The ‘friendly invasion’ of thousands of US military personnel in Australia from 1942 until the end of the Second World War was to contribute to the aberrant and ‘topsy-turvy’ experiences of the Australian home front in ways that were often fleeting, but were also profound and long-lasting. Certainly, the bilateral relationships that developed between the two governments and on personal levels between the two peoples were to influence understandings of Australia’s national identity and its sense of place within its region and the wider world in the postwar decades.

Type
Chapter
Information
Australia 1942
In the Shadow of War
, pp. 70 - 88
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Thomson, D.Petersen, N.Donald Thomson in Arnhem LandMelbourne University PressMelbourne 2003Google Scholar
Bevege, M.Behind Barbed Wire: Internment in Australia during World War IIQueensland University PressSt Lucia 1993Google Scholar
White, R.War and Australian SocietyMcKernan, M.Browne, N. M.Australia: Two Centuries of War and PeaceAustralian War Memorial and Allen & UnwinCanberra 1988 410Google Scholar
Johnston, G.Pacific PartnersWorld BookNew York 1944Google Scholar
Reynolds, H.Lake, M.Drawing the Global Colour Line: Whiteman’s Countries and the International Challenge of Racial EqualityCambridge University PressCambridge 2008Google Scholar
Bell, P.Bell, R.Americanization and AustraliaUNSW PressSydney 1998
Bell, P.Implicated: The United States in AustraliaOxford University PressMelbourne 1993Google Scholar
Campbell, R.Heroes and Lovers: A Question of National IdentityAllen & UnwinSydney 1989Google Scholar
Moore, J. H.Over-Sexed, Over-Paid, and Over HereUniversity of Queensland PressSt Lucia 1981Google Scholar
Phillips, D.Ambivalent Allies: Myth and Reality in the Australian-American RelationshipPenguin, Ringwood 1988Google Scholar
Ellis, L.Jenzen, R.7
Drake-Brockman, H.The Fatal DaysAngus & RobertsonSydney 1947Google Scholar
Franklin, M. 1952
Franklin, M.Laughter, Not for a Cage: Notes on Australian writing, with biographical emphasis on the struggles, function, and achievements of the novel in three half-centuriesAngus & RobertsonSydney 1956Google Scholar
Coates, D.Damn(ed) Yankees: The Pacific’s Not Pacific AnymoreAntipodes 2001 123Google Scholar
Cusack, D.James, F.Come in SpinnerAngus & RobertsonSydney 1951Google Scholar
Herbert, X.Soldiers’ WomenAngus & RobertsonSydney 1961Google Scholar
Connors, L.Finch, L.Saunders, K.Taylor, H.Australia’s Frontline: Remembering the 1939–45 WarUniversity of Queensland PressSt Lucia 1992Google Scholar
Darian-Smith, K.War Stories: Remembering the Australian Home Front during the Second World WarDarian-Smith, K.Hamilton, P.Memory and History in Twentieth Century AustraliaOxford University Press 1997 137Google Scholar
Campbell, R.Heroes and Lovers: A Question of National IdentityAllen & UnwinSydney 1989Google Scholar
Hall, R.The Black Diggers: Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders in the Second World WarAllen & UnwinSydney 1989Google Scholar
Barker, A. J.Jackson, L.Fleeting Attraction: A Social History of American Servicemen in Western Australia During the Second World WarUniversity of Western Australia PressNedlands 1996Google Scholar
Beaumont, J.Australia’s War 1939–45Allen & UnwinSydney 1996
Damousi, J.Lake, M.Gender and War: Australians at War in the Twentieth CenturyCambridge University PressMelbourne 1995
Darian-Smith, K.On the Home Front: Melbourne in Wartime 1939–45Melbourne University PressMelbourne 2009Google Scholar
Gregory, J.On the Homefront: Western Australia and World War IIUniversity of Western Australia PressNedlands 1996
Hasluck, P.The Government and the People, Volume 1: 1939–1941Australian War MemorialCanberra 1952 www.awm.gov.au/histories/second_world_war/volume.asp?levelID=67916Google Scholar
Hasluck, P.The Government and the People, Volume 2: 1942–1945Australian War MemorialCanberra 1970 www.awm.gov.au/histories/second_world_war/volume.asp?levelID=67917Google Scholar
McKernan, M.All-In! Australia During the Second World WarThomas NelsonMelbourne 1983Google Scholar
Neumann, K.In the Interest of National Security: Civilian Internment in Australia during World War IINational Archives of AustraliaCanberra 2006Google Scholar
Potts, E. D.Yanks Down Under 1941–45: The American Impact on AustraliaOxford University PressMelbourne 1985Google Scholar
Saunders, K.War on the Homefront: State Intervention in Queensland 1938–1948University of Queensland PressSt Lucia 1993Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×