The stark reality of letting go of Britain
As the fallout of war continues, NZ realises it can no longer rely on the battered Brits for defence. While the shattered nations of Europe struggled to rebuild their industries, cities and social infrastructure in the immediate aftermath of World War II, Australia and New Zealand faced the stark reality of what it means to be isolated Pacific nations. While legally British, we could no longer be seen as part of Britain or Europe for defence purposes and our part of the world required a new approach to security. Threats would not, and never had, come from Europe. However, the development and evolution of communism, which spread from Russia into China after World War II, posed a perceived threat of unknown, and therefore sinister, magnitude.
Although Hitler’s dream of European dominance had been finally destroyed with the defeat of his Sixth Army in the bloody Battle of Stalingrad in 1942, it was another three years before the war in Europe finally ended. Like Napoleon 130 years earlier, Hitler had underestimated the severity of the Russian winter and the courageous tenacity of the Russian people to defend their homeland and famous city.
After five months of some of the bloodiest and most ferocious street fighting of the war Stalingrad had been almost reduced to rubble, hundreds of thousands had died and the German Field Marshal Paulus was forced to surrender the pitiful remnants of his 1 million-strong army.
American had joined the war, after the
Horrific: The atomic bombings of Hiroshima, left, and Nagasaki ended World War II. 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in Hawaii, and the complete defeat of Germany was just a matter of time but there were still powerful units to be driven out of Italy and France, and a negotiated peace was out of the question. The famous D Day invasion of France by the Allies in June 1944 was the final stage of the European war before America could turn her massive military resources on the Pacific theatre to take on the Japanese Imperial Forces on land, in the air and at sea.
During this time, Japan had defeated and occupied much of Southeast Asia, some Pacific islands, the strong British outpost of Singapore had been captured and there were plans for the occupation of the British dominions of Australia and New Zealand. The speed the ruthless efficiency of the Japanese advance created serious anxiety in New Zealand, with the majority of our military-aged men still fighting in Italy, and the chilling reality that Britain had neither the resource nor ability to come to our aid in the event of a Japanese invasion. In February 1942, Japanese aircraft bombed Darwin, destroying ships and airfields to prevent the America from using them as bases to launch attacks on Japanese held Timor and Java.
Then in June that year in the Battle of Midway, the American fleet destroyed Japan’s naval strength, sinking four of its aircraft carriers. It proved to be the turning point of the war in the Pacific which ended three years later with the horrific new American atomic bombs destroying Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and Nagasaki three days later.
The world had seen nothing like the devastation that this new weapon of mass destruction could unleash – and it has never been used again.
With the World War II finally over, New Zealand and Australia were forced to make new plans for their future security, particularly from the possible expansion of Chinese communism which had plunged a divided Korea into a new war by 1950. This was the first test for the five-year-old United Nations, which with the American involvement, supported the Republic of South Korea, while Communist China backed the North Koreans. World War II events, particularly the fall of Singapore, had shown we could no longer rely totally on Britain for our defence in time of war in this part of the world and the only option was to take responsibility for ourselves.
America was deeply concerned at the spread of communism into the Pacific and quickly moved to rebuild relations with Japan and reinforce ties with New Zealand and Australia. China was obviously supplying North Korean forces with arms and infantry, and there was a worrying possibility that Russia was also involved. This led to the possibility that the so-called Cold War – of spies, posturing and thinly veiled threats between Russia and America – could erupt in Korea into a nuclearpowered World War III. America needed a friendly Japan as an ally in the region.
New Zealand and Australia, however, were not comfortable with the idea that Japan would be allowed to re-arm so soon after the attempted and threatened invasions of our countries. Both governments agreed only when a propose three-way security treaty was accepted by the United States to be known as the Anzus Pact.
The resulting treaty was concluded at San Francisco on September 1, 1951, and entered into force on April 29, 1952. The treaty bound the signatories to recognise that an armed attack in the Pacific area on any of them would endanger the peace and safety of the others. The three countries agreed to ‘‘consult together whenever in the opinion of any of them the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the Parties is threatened in the Pacific’’. They also agreed to maintain and develop individual and collective capabilities to resist attack. Significantly, although consulted on the matter, Britain was not invited to be included.
The ripples of two world wars were still rebounding around the globe.
Want to get in touch with Tom O’Connor? Email him on tomoc@clear.net.nz.