Australian
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This clip shows the arrival of US servicemen in Perth and Fremantle, Western Australia, in 1942. It includes archival footage and a series of interviews with people who were living in Perth at the time. They describe their feelings of relief, excitement and curiosity when the Americans established their presence in the west, and the way in which women were attracted to their exotic accents and stylish uniforms. Leo McKern narrates the clip.

Educational value points

• Between the years 1942 and 1945 of the Second World War, the port city of Fremantle was used as an Allied submarine base, hosting more than 200 submarines, which made Fremantle second in size only to Pearl Harbor as a submarine base. Some of the submarines were Dutch (following the fall to the Japanese of Surabaya in Indonesia) and more than 30 of them were British, but the majority were US. Fears of an attack on Fremantle resulted in the US Navy establishing an auxiliary submarine base at Albany, south of Fremantle on the WA coast.

• Australia’s fear of a Japanese invasion during the War was greatly increased by Japan’s territorial gains as far south as New Guinea, and its attacks on Darwin in the Northern Territory and Broome in northern WA. Australia entered the War in 1939 as an ally of Britain, sending troops to fight in Egypt, Libya, Greece and Crete, but with the War at a distance Australians felt safe on their own soil. By January 1942, however, Japanese-held territory had extended as far south as Rabaul in New Guinea, and many believed it was only a matter of time before Australia too was invaded. On 19 February 1942, a few days after they took the British colony of Singapore, the Japanese conducted an air raid on Darwin, which resulted in the loss of 243 Australian lives, and later another air raid on Broome, which cost a further 70 lives.

• People interviewed in the clip describe the relief they felt at the arrival of US servicemen. While Australians were worrying about an invasion from Japanese forces, they were welcoming an 'invasion’ of a different sort. An estimated 6,000 US submariners, either stationed in Australia or taking leave from their duties in the Pacific, had descended on Perth and Fremantle.

• Australia’s close defence relationship with the USA has its beginnings during the War. When the Japanese took Singapore in February 1942, Australian Prime Minister John Curtin declared that 'the fall of Singapore opens the battle for Australia’, and turned his attention to defending Australian shores. Australia looked to the USA for assistance, and later that same month, US President Franklin Roosevelt made Australia the main US base in the south-west Pacific, under the command of US General Douglas MacArthur. This relationship has continued until the present day, with Australia supporting the USA in wars such as Vietnam and Iraq, and the presence of US bases in Australia.

• The advance of the Japanese forces marked a significant turning point in Australia’s foreign policy. The Labor government declared war on Japan before Britain did, and in January 1942 Curtin made his historic speech, 'Without any inhibitions of any kind, I make it quite clear that Australia looks to America, free of any pangs as to our traditional links or kinship with the United Kingdom …’. Australian relations with Britain deteriorated further when British Prime Minister Winston Churchill refused to allow the return of Australian troops from Europe to defend Australia. Australia completed its independent stance later in 1942 when it ratified the Statute of Westminster, which gave equal status to the self-governing dominions (including Australia).

• During the War, almost 1 million US servicemen visited Australia, and inevitably courtships and marriages took place between them and Australian women. It is estimated that more than 12,000 Australian women set sail for the USA in the years directly following the War to be reunited with their husbands or fiancés. This figure represents the largest-ever mass migration of Australians.

• Most film stock before the 1950s was black and white, but colour film was available and was occasionally used during the War, as seen here. Film processing and gauges were still being developed at this time, so colour film was expensive and not commonly used.

This clip shows the arrival of US servicemen in Perth and Fremantle, Western Australia, in 1942. It includes archival footage and a series of interviews with people who were living in Perth at the time. They describe their feelings of relief, excitement and curiosity when the Americans established their presence in the west, and the way in which women were attracted to their exotic accents and stylish uniforms. Leo McKern narrates the clip.

Leo McKern, narrator The people of Perth and Fremantle were to experience an invasion, not from the Japanese, as they had feared, but from an equally overwhelming force.

Jack Seabrook A funny little vehicle that I had never seen before pulled up alongside me. It had an American flag on the radiator cap, and a man, obviously an American, in uniform, said to me, 'Say, buddy.’ He said, 'Can you tell me where the CML building is?’ and I told him, 'Two streets along to the right.’ But by the time I had walked up to Milligan Street to my flat, I had passed numerous big trucks and motorcars, all olive green with the white American star on them. I felt that the weight had lifted off my soldiers and I felt six inches taller.

Woman Might as well have said, 'Our saviours have arrived’.

Man Everybody was feeling that sense of relief. Of course, there were young women who were already grabbing them by the lapels, fascinated by their stylish uniforms and exotic accents and so on. That becomes an important part of the reaction, I guess, their sex appeal or something. But initially, it was this sense of relief. They really were seen as saviours.

Woman 2 I used to look at them and think, you know, they always looked so smart in their uniform and there was so many of them around, and it gave you a sense of security, because we did go through a period, or in my own mind, I went through a period where I didn’t feel terribly secure about the situation, because they had talked about evacuating Western Australia and fighting the Japanese on Australian soil, and that was scary.