Pearl Harbor and the Fall of Singapore The British did not abandon Singapore.

The British did not abandon Singapore. The British forces in Malaya, including
Hitler’s great success in Europe encouraged the Japanese to move south and the Australian 8th Division, tried to hold the advancing Japanese but were
take territory they felt was vital for Japan’s survival. Only the United States forced back across the Strait of Johore to Singapore itself. The island was, in
had the naval and military power to stop them. In 1941 the Japanese military fact, reinforced to the point where the Allied soldiers outnumbered the
leaders drew up plans for a Japanese attack on the United States Pacific fleet advancing Japanese. However, Singapore had little air defence and Japanese
at Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands, to be followed by a Japanese push air attacks caused widespread panic and loss of nerve. The Japanese air
south to Malaya, Singapore, the Philippines and the Dutch East Indies. A force was able to bomb the island and defence was poorly planned. Australian
Japanese attack force of six aircraft carriers and twenty-four warships sailed nurses were evacuated and the injured were treated in makeshift hospitals,
under strict radio silence from its base in Japan in late November 1941. By including inside Singapore’s St Andrew’s Cathedral.
the morning of 7 December 1941 the fleet had sailed undetected to within 400
kilometres of Pearl Harbor, and at dawn it launched its airborne attack. Seven On 15 February the British commander of Singapore, General Percival,
United States battleships were either sunk or damaged and over 2400 men surrendered. It was the largest surrender in British history, with 130 000 Allied
were killed. Fortunately for the United States, all four aircraft carriers were at soldiers, including 15 000 Australians, surrendering to the Japanese. Most of
sea on the morning of the attack and thus were undamaged. these Australians would endure the rest of the war in Japanese prison camps
and many thousands would die.
Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, which brought the United States and
Australia into the war against Japan, the Japanese began a swift advance
southwards. In the same week as Pearl Harbor the Japanese bombed Hong
Kong, Singapore and the Philippines, and a Japanese army landed in
northern Malaya and southern Thailand. On 10 December 1941 Japanese
aircraft sank the British battleship Prince of Wales and the battle cruiser
Repulse off the coast of Malaya. On Christmas Day Hong Kong fell and the
Japanese began their march down the Malay peninsula towards the vital
British base on the island fortress of Singapore.

The importance of Singapore for Australia’s security

Australia had always regarded the British naval base at Singapore as vital to
Australia’s security and as the front line of its defence. It was supposed to be
impregnable (unable to fall). Singapore was in fact well-defended for any
attack from the sea, but the Japanese advanced down the Malay peninsula
and approached Singapore from its undefended landward side. The island
was defended by over 130 000 British and Empire troops, and in early 1941
Australia had sent 15 000 men of the 8th Division AIF to assist in the defence
of Malaya and Singapore.

On 21 January 1942 the British prime minister, Winston Churchill, seriously

considered evacuating Singapore and concentrating British forces in nearby
Burma. The Australian government strongly opposed this idea. John Curtin,
who had become prime minister in October 1941, made the point clearly in a
dispatch to Churchill.
Reaction to the fall of Singapore
The fall of Singapore caused great concern in Australia. ‘Our honeymoon is
finished,’ said John Curtin. ‘I demand that every Australian everywhere realise
that Australia is now inside the fighting lines. It is now work or fight as we have
never worked or fought before. There must not be a man or a woman in this
Commonwealth who goes to bed tonight without having related his [or her]
period of wakefulness to the purpose of war.’

Australians had always feared invasion from the north, and they had always
believed that Britain would come to Australia’s aid if ever this fear became a
reality. Suddenly in 1942 the possibility of an attack on Australia or an
invasion appeared very real. The great British base at Singapore had fallen
and there was nothing to stop the Japanese advance.

Britain, strained to its limits in the war with Germany, was in no position to
help. Australia was also in a weakened position for its own defence. The
Australian navy had already lost three of its five cruisers in battle, three AIF
divisions were still far away in the Middle East, and 15 000 men of the 8th
Division had been captured by the Japanese in Singapore. Australia had its
Citizen Military Forces (militia) for home defence, no tanks, inadequate
weaponry, and a small air force that had been supplying pilots for the British
war effort. In 1942 Australia was isolated and not well defended.

5. What do these two

sources tell us about
the fall of Singapore?