Trollie wrote:... We should never have saved those chickenshit ozzies (sic).

kurohinge1 wrote:"You didn't, Charlie.

Charles wrote:We Americans ... fought and died to save you, at the very same time your diplomats were trying to sell out the Allies.

kurohinge1 wrote:Nope - wrong again Charlie. The fighting and dying by the Aussies' American brothers-in-arms happened after negotiations by both the USA and Oz with Japan failed.

Either you have enormous difficulty with reading and comprehension or you just proved my point about being out of touch with reality. I suspect both.

I also suspect that 99.9% of the brave Americans who died as part of the allied effort would have been ashamed to call you a countryman. I'm ashamed to call you a human!

Take the pills, Charlie, and have a lie down.

Charles wrote:We Americans bailed out you cowardly ozzies when the Japanese were kicking your asses across the Pacific. You'd all be slaves in Japanese iron mines if it weren't for the Americans who fought and died to save you, at the very same time your diplomats were trying to sell out the Allies.

Hanakuso wrote:Are you just trying to stir ppl up or are you really a nutcase?

Ketou wrote: ... Australia could never have been held even if invaded.

... Warren Cowan was an Australian pilot flying Hudson bombers against the Japanese during the Second World War, and he would have remained in obscurity but for the efforts of the Japanese air ace who fought against him. Saburo Sakai never forgot the heroism of his unknown Australian opponent. He was determined to win recognition for Warren Cowan and the events of 1942 in the skies over New Guinea . . .

HENRY SAKAIDA, Sakai's biographer: The Zero pilots, they just did not expect Cowan to fight back. I mean, they thought he was a sure kill. They were going to gang up on this one lone bomber and they were going to shoot it down. And so when Cowan became the attacker, that's when they just went to pieces. It was totally unexpected. It was a very audacious thing for this guy to do.

All they could talk about for the next few weeks was the tenacious Australian Hudson pilot. Everyone talked about it. "Watch out for these Aussies, these Hudson pilots - they'll turn on you. Very dangerous, and they've got plenty of guts." Nine to one, the guy wouldn't quit . . . more

...Bob Wurth has written an extraordinary book about a remarkable period of history, focusing on the relations between Kawai and John Curtin, the then prime minister, and other prominent Australians, such as High Court judge Owen Dixon. The book has reopened debate about Curtin's standing. Admirers rate him among the very best prime ministers, largely for the way in which he prosecuted the war. Opponents believe he was an appeaser for much of his life. Alexander Downer, the Foreign Minister, leapt on the book to accuse Curtin of not being prepared to confront tyrannical regimes. Downer's attack makes one wonder whether he had read the book - he has, after all, plenty to do these days.

There is no question that Curtin was an appeaser of Japan before the war. In April 1941, eight months before Japan entered the war, Curtin as Opposition Leader met Kawai and agreed that trade was vital if relations between their two countries were to heal. Curtin said Australia could lift its ban on iron ore exports from Yampi Sound, "but Japan must guarantee Australia's safety". Wurth has written: "Prime Minister Robert Menzies was, of course, the worst appeaser of all." And: "The warnings about Australia's danger issued by [Arthur] Fadden and Curtin were undermined by Menzies in London." This was not long after Menzies, as Attorney-General, forced waterside workers to load pig iron for Japan, thus becoming "Pig Iron Bob". Menzies and Curtin were men of their time, trying to lead a country with a historical fear of invasion. There was little sign that the US would join the war and growing signs that Britain could not help.

On November 29, 1941, nine days before Pearl Harbour, Curtin asked Kawai: "Is it to be war?" Kawai replied: "I'm afraid it has gone too far; the momentum is too great." Kawai said the war broke his spirit. Curtin, however, "exploded into a frenzy of activity" to fight the war. He had girded the government to prepare for the possibility of war with Japan when Australia's attention was firmly fixed on helping Britain. "If anything, Curtin's reputation as war leader is enhanced by the revelations of his dealings with Kawai," Wurth writes...

dimwit wrote:If one wants to talk about appeasers the names Kennedy, Lindberg and Ford have to be pretty high up on the list.

Charles wrote:The obvious difference being that none of them were Prime Ministers. They were in no position to appease anyone.

dimwit wrote:Bull. They were powerful enough to keep the US out of the war for two years.

Charles wrote:You have a highly exaggerated estimate of the power of some relatively minor figures in US history.

gboothe wrote:They may have been minor in the long run but they certainly had clout during and after the Roosevelt years!

Charles wrote:None of them had the power to keep the US out of WWII, as you claim.

Charles wrote:You'd all be slaves in Japanese iron mines if it weren't for the Americans who fought and died to save you, at the very same time your diplomats were trying to sell out the Allies.

Buraku wrote:Go Hitler ! screamed IBM and the rich Klan corporations of the US.

Buraku wrote:so many of them were friendly with Hitler by default, they didn't give a fuck about dying jews and hoped the Nazis would turn east and destroy the pinko commies ( the USA's more feared/despised enemy ).

America was brave when they fought Hitler/Hirohito, they showed great courage and helped liberate much of the globe

They were also unwilling to fight as US families didn't want to loose any more kids fighting ze-germans in Europe ( WW1 killed lots ) and many of America's companies wanted to sit on the fence while selling loans, guns, bonds et cetera to both sides,
Of course Pearl Harbor changed all that, forced them to pick a side and dragged them kicking and screaming into the war