It was in the Far Eastern combat zone where the Australians factored greatly in the upgrading of Allied operations. Australian Prime Minister John Curtin opposed the "dictum that the Pacific struggle must be treated as a subordinate segment of the general conflict." [The Melbourne Herald, December 27, 1941]

The Australians helped the Americans win the Battle of Bismarck Sea, annihilating a Japanese troop convoy (eight transports, four destroyers) moving from Rabaul to Lae on March 2-4, 1943. The 5th Australian Division took Salamaua, New Guinea from the Oriental fascists on September 11, 1943.

On May 1, 1945, Australian troops landed on Tarakan, Dutch Borneo to recover oil fields. Two months later, they were on Balikpapan in their last major amphibious operation of the war. By September 6, 1945, aboard the light carrier "Glory," Australian General Sturdee had already accepted the surrender of Nipponese forces of the Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea and of the Solomon Island Group.

The Australians had gone to battle stations in defense of their very way of living. On February 19, 1942, Nipponese carrier-based bombers from Admiral Nagumo’s Pearl Harbor Task Force attacked Darwin, sinking eight ships and killing 240 seamen, troops and civilians. Japanese imperial warplanes raided Broome on March 5, 1942, destroying several combat aircraft and eight flying boats, which were bringing civilian refugees from Java, and killing about 70 people. On May 31, 1942, two Japanese midget submarines penetrated Sydney Harbor and torpedoed a ferry used as a depot ship before they were destroyed by depth-charges. The Battle of Kokoda Trail, a.k.a. Battle of Ranges, in Papua New Guinea from July 21, 1942 to January 23, 1943 was a duel between Australians and Japanese.

The Australians’ defense of their home front during the Second World War required stamina and tenacity. A typical day in the life of a soldier belonging to the Sixth Motor Regiment of the Second Armored Division of the Australian Army (A.I.F.) went as follows: "Marching and digging meant leaving camp at 10:00 p.m. and moving out about 8-10 miles. There, we would dig in the tanks and Bren gun carriers till just the gun turrets were above the ground. These, we would camouflage with bushes and dig slit trenches for ourselves. This had to be ready one hour before dawn, then we had to stand guard until sunrise, fill in the holes and march back to camp." [Leonard Ernest Treasure. "Pride and Joy." Quezon City: JMC Press, Inc., 1999, p. 75]

Many Australians who were deployed in Southeast Asia as well as the China-Burma-India theater of operations paid a high price for upholding the principles of the Atlantic Charter. One of them was Les Atkinson who joined the Pacific War as a 17-year-old Signals Office dispatch rider assigned to the 2/15th Field Regiment of the Australian Imperial Force deployed in Malaya-Singapore. He and his mates were detained by the enemy when the British capitulated and they became the F. Force that survived slave labor on the notorious Thailand-Burma Death Railway.

They were "force-marched 300 kilometers (always at night) through the dangerous jungle to hack out this monstrous railway of human disaster." [Les Atkinson. "My Side of the Kwai: Reminiscences of an Australian prisoner of war of the Japanese." Australia: Kangaroo Press, 2001, p. 125]

Remarkably, when the tables were turned, the Japanese losing and becoming prisoners-of-war, the Australians relinquished their righteous reprisal. "The strangest thing was that nobody gave a thought to the Japanese shut away in their quarters. No thought of seeking retribution; it was as though they didn’t exist. After three and a half years of their brutality and bastardry, we never laid a hand on any of them." [p. 219]

Having deterred a projected Japanese occupation of their home continent, the Australians went on to build a progressive society that by the 21st century, their economy was ranked as the sixth most competitive. [IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook 2006]Australia has the lowest risk of political instability in the world and is ranked fifth globally in terms of consistency of government policy direction. [Angus Maddison. Monitoring the World Economy. Paris: OECD Development Centre, 1995] Due to its early adoption of technology, Australia is No. 9 in the world for e-business readiness, with its ICT industry the 11th largest on the planet. [Economist Intelligence Unit 2007 and Digital Planet 2004]

Australia’s evolution into one of the globe’s most cosmopolitan society began on January 26, 1788 when Captain Arthur Philipp took formal possession of the colony of New South Wales. By the 19th century, the anniversary of the white settlement of "terra australis" became "Foundation Day," traditionally marked with "drinking and merriment."

The southern continent was already populated by indigenous communities when the Europeans colonized it and it was only in the 1970s when the White Australia Policy ended. Today, the government in Canberra boasts that its Commonwealth is one of the world’s most culturally diverse, with a 2006 survey of 20 countries discovering that Australia is among the top three attractive destinations for the prospective migrants of Earth. [Angus Reid Global Monitor: Polls & Research, "Where to Resettle? U.S., Australia and Canada," November 2006]

Filipinos have been the eighth largest immigrant population in Australia, joining the Chinese, Vietnamese and Indians in celebrating Australia Day every January 26. [The 2006 Census, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australian Department of Immigration and Citizenship]

Filipino migration to Australia may be a recent trend in world history, but exchanges between the two have been a long time phenomenon. On one pole, in the 18th century, "a large number of Balignat hats (from Bulacan) are exported to the Australian colonies." [Robert MacMicking. "Recollections of Manila and the Philippines during 1848, 1849, and 1850." London: Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street, 1851] On the other, in early 20th century Manila, "most of the theatrical talent which wanders in and out comes from Australia." [Mary Helen Fee, "A Woman’s Impression of the Philippines"]