Australia Declares War on Japan
(December 8, 1941)
One hour after Japanese bombers struck at Hawaii
on the morning of December 7, 1941, Prime Minister John Curtin of Australia
declared that "from one hour ago, Australia has been at war with
the Japanese Empire." War was formally declared at 11:15 A.M., December
9, Australian time (8:15 P.M., December 8, American E.S.T.). Announcing Australia's recognition that a state
of war existed, Prime Minister Curtin said at 7:30 A.M., American E.S.T.,
December 8:
The Australian Government and its representatives
abroad have struggled hard to prevent a breakdown of this kind. We did
not want war in the Pacific. The Australian Government has repeatedly
made it clear, as have the Governments of the United Kingdom, the United
States of America, and the Netherlands East Indies, that if war came
to the Pacific it would be of Japan's making. Japan has now made war.
The hands of the democracies are clean. The discussions
and negotiations between Japan and the democracies were no mere bandying
of words on the democracies' part. Since last February it has been the
aim of the democracies to keep the peace in the Pacific. The best brains
of the democracies were brought to bear for this end. It is on record
that the President of the United States and Secretary of State, Cordell
Hull, and the British and Dominions Governments worked untiringly and
unceasingly. Yet when the President of the United States decided to
communicate direct with the Japanese Emperor in support of an appeal
for Imperial intervention on the side of peace, the war government of
Japan struck. That war government, bent on aggression, and lusting for
power, and acting in the fashion of its Axis partners, anticipated the
undoubted weight of the President's message and shattered the century-old
friendship of the two countries.
For the first time in the history of the Pacific,
armed conflict stalks abroad. No other country than Japan desired war
in the Pacific. The responsibility for this actual resort to war is
therefore upon Japan.... Australia goes to its battle stations in defense
of its very way of living.
Sources: Inter-Allied Review, (December 15, 1941); ibiblio
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