World War II

When war came again in Europe in 1939, Australia dispatched (отправила) its small armed forces to assist in Britain’s defense. Australia entered World War II on the side of Britain on Sept. 3, 1939. It sent troops to fight German forces in mainland Greece, Crete, and northern Africa.

During World War II, the Japanese flew 64 raids (налёты, авиаудары) on Darwin and 33 raids on other targets in Northern Australia. Darwin, being the largest town in the north of Australia, was as a key defensive position against an aggressive Japan. Darwin was a key port for the ships, planes and forces defending the Dutch East Indies (Ост-Индия), so the Japanese decided to attack Darwin to overcome these defences.

On 19 February 1942, Japanese warplanes attacked Darwin in two waves. This was the same fleet that had bombed Pearl Harbor. The attack killed at least 243 people and caused immense damage to the town. These were the first of 64 raids on Darwin and the most serious attacks on Australia in time of war.

From the first raid on 19 February 1942 until the last on 12 November 1943, Australia and its allies lost about 900 people, 77 aircraft and several ships. Many military and civilian facilities were destroyed. The Japanese lost about 131 aircraft in total during the attacks.

By early March, Japanese troops had landed in New Guinea and were threatening to invade Australia. Again Australian industry was transformed by the needs of war. The economy was redirected toward manufacturing, and heavy industries ringed the capital cities.

About 925,000 men and about 65,000 women served in Australia's armed forces during World War II. Over 29,000 Australians died in battle or as prisoners of war.

Australia, during World War II, had a population of 7,000,000. Almost 500,000 were engaged in munitions (военное снаряжение), or building roads or airfields, and over 1,000,000 joined the armed services.

The postwar years

Immediately after World War II, Ben Chifley (Prime Minister of Australia from 1945 to 1949), established the Federal Department of Immigration and launched a large-scale immigration program. Chifley commissioned a report which found that Australia was in urgent need of a larger population for the purposes of defence and development and it recommended a 1% increase in population through increased immigration.

The first Minister for Immigration, Arthur Calwell, promoted mass immigration with the slogan "populate or perish". 182,159 people were sponsored by the International Refugee Organization (IRO) from the end of World War II up to the end of 1951 to resettle in Australia from Europe -- more than the number of convicts transported to Australia in the first 80 years after European settlement.

Some 6.5 million people have migrated to Australia from other countries since 1945.

Australia became a member of the United Nations (UN) in 1945 and began to play an increasingly active role in world affairs.

Militarily, Australia fulfilled its commitment to the Western alliance by fighting in the Korean War from 1950 to 1953 and the Vietnam War as an ally of the United States (from 1964 to 1972).

Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War began on the 3^rd of August 1962 with 30 military advisors being sent to assist in training South Vietnamese Forces. Its commitment ended in June 1973 with the withdrawal of the last Australian Troops. The Vietnam War was the longest war Australia was ever involved in. Over 50,000 serving Australians, 520 Australian deaths, 2,400 wounded Australians and many more irrevocably (безвозвратно) changed lives is the human consequence of the Vietnam War.

The prosperity of the 1950s encouraged new efforts in education. Almost overnight the number of universities in each state increased threefold, the governments providing free university-level education to all those who were qualified.

During the 1960's-1970's. The White Australia policy was gradually discarded (избавляться от чего-л.), and since the early 1970s the entry of immigrants has been based on criteria other than race.

The 'death' of the White Australia policy is usually dated to 1973 when a series of amendments prevented the enforcement of racial aspects of the immigration law.

However it was not until the 1978 review of immigration law that racism was entirely removed from official policy. During the 1980s all forms of racial discrimination were made illegal in a series of anti-discrimination Acts.

In the 1960s, government and private attempts were made to integrate Aborigines socially and culturally, including granting them the right to vote in 1967. A national referendum in 1967 granted full citizenship to Aboriginal Australians.

Australia generally enjoyed economic growth and prosperity. It resulted chiefly from the discovery of vast mineral deposits in the 1950's and 1960's. The export of bauxite, coal, iron ore, and nickel added greatly to the country's income.