Why didn't the Japanese attack Australia during WW2?

Answer 1

They did - they bombed Darwin harbour

What they didn't do was invade Australia. The idea was suggested by certain officers in the Japanese Army but it was decided that the logistical demands of supporting an army large enough to occupy Australia would place the Japanese military and economic infrastructure under excessive strain and would require the withdrawal of troops from China.

The defeat of Japan's attempt to capture Port Moresby and conquer New Guinea at the Battle of the Coral Sea ensured that Japan was never in a position to seriously contemplate such an action after May 1942

Answer 2

The major reason was that except for small naval forces used much like our Marine Corps and a very few Japanese Army divisions, almost ALL of the Japanese Army was involved in a very large and bloody war in China. Most of what was left of the Army was held on the Manchurian border with the USSR to prevent the USSR from grabbing Manchuria. Even after the political reaproachment between Japan and the USSR in 1940 after the border war, there was no love lost between them and even less trust.
To conquer the huge land mass of Australia would need the Japanese Army to release many divisions to the control of the Navy, and the Army just could never seem to find the divisions, the logistical support for those divisions, or the desire to give the Navy control over what would be a significant portion of their men and officers. The Japanese Army and Navy spent as much time fighting for control of the other as they did fighting the actual war against the Allies.

Answer 3

They did.
On 19 February 1942, Japan brought death and destruction to Australia's shore for the first time in its history as a nation when 188 Japanese aircraft bombed the northern port of Darwin. Darwin would be bombed by the Japanese sixty times between 19 February 1942 and 12 November 1943. While Japanese bombers were striking Darwin and other northern towns, the Japanese Navy was attacking mainland cities on Australia's eastern coast and sinking Australian ships.

Answer 4

Because who wants to take over a land of convicts? LOL. Just joking, I love Australians, as often as I can.

Invading Australia was not an option until they controlled New Guinea. And they lost there, the first major defeat for the Japanese in the war. The other factor was in most of their other conquests, even in China, they had a certain amount of support from the natives of the country they attacked. In Australia, it would have been a long, hard fight to take it over and the sheer size was against them. To be realistic, before they had any chance, they had to take out China, India an destroy the US Pacific fleet.

Answer 5

I think there are a few reasons.

The first was the New guinea option which was a loss for them. They needed that area for a staging point in invading Australia. The second issue was that the army was stretched thin at that point, espically in the continuing war in China, the introduction of the USA attacking islands. The IJN (Imperial Japanese Navy) also was stretched very thin. With the IJN having issues, keeping the invasion force in Australia supplied would be difficult. An army runs on its logistics.

Answer 6

Australia was too large an area to easily administer by land
occupation, had few recognized resources for which Japan
was seeking to modernize its industrial capabilities, but most
importantly it did not fall into immediate war plan objectives (which, in hindsight), they being too vast for protection. Their
economic strategy was called 'The Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere'. First Class citizens were Japanese. Second Class
were Korean who were subordinate only to First Class.
Third Class, all other foreign nationals, existed by the mercy of two higher classes. 'Mercy' was ill regarded by Japanese and Koreans because lesser races had yet to demonstrate their value and loyalty to superiors. The Japanese regarded Australia as a hostile land that could be beaten, starved, and lightly garrisoned at the few ports permitted to function without blockade. The military infrastructure and shipping centers would receive the brunt of Naval attention.

Answer 7

Following the Japanese attacks on South East Asia in late 1941, Australia was attacked itself during the Air raids on Darwin, February 19, 1942, resulting in at least 243 civilian and military deaths. Australian troops were sent home from the Middle East to defend the country from a feared Japanese invasion of Australia. This invasion did not occur, however, and the Japanese did not ever intend to invade the Australian mainland.

The air raids on Darwin demonstrated how unprepared the RAAF was for the defence of Australia. Some RAAF squadrons were transferred back to Australia and to address the shortages of fighter and ground attack planes, US-built P-40 Kittyhawks were acquired and CAC Boomerang, an Australian designed fighter/close support aircraft, was manufactured.

Between February 1942 and November 1943, during the Pacific War, the Australian mainland, domestic airspace, offshore islands and coastal shipping were attacked at least 97 times by aircraft from the Imperial Japanese Navy and Imperial Japanese Army Air Force. These attacks came in various forms, from large scale raids by heavy bombers, to torpedo attacks on ships, to strafing runs by fighter planes.

In the first — and deadliest — attacks, 242 planes hit Darwin on the morning of February 19, 1942, killing at least 243 people, causing immense damage, making hundreds of people homeless and causing the abandonment of Darwin as a major naval base. (See the main article: Air raids on Darwin, February 19, 1942.)

These attacks were opposed by — and often aimed at — units and personnel from the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), Australian Army, Royal Australian Navy, United States Army Air Forces, US Navy, British Royal Air Force and Royal Netherlands East Indies Army Air Force. Japanese aircrews also targeted civil infrastructure, including harbours, civil airfields, railways and fuel tanks. Many civilians were also killed.

Answer 8

I think that they would have but their forces were put on the defense before the plan materialized. The US forces were able to decipher messages and began winning battles.

Answer 9

The Japanese were interested mainly in natural resources which they had a short supply of.Australia was probably better defended than the countries in the Indochina area.

Answer 10

They would have, but chose to attack New Guinea first, and were defeated there.