Remembering Anzacs and not forgetting HMAS Sydney

Despite the importance and controversy of this event, since 1941 consecutive Australian governments have archived documents relevant to it and have not inquired into the event in such a way that would tell relatives and friends of the Sydney crew where, why, and how they died.

With the passage of over 65 years since the loss of HMAS Sydney and a stable peace between the nations involved, surely anything of national importance that may have initially warranted secrecy has passed. Yet, the Howard Government has archived the records relating to the incident for a further 20 years, depriving thousands of Australians of knowledge of what happened to their loved ones and leaving a gaping and painful hole in their personal and Australian history.

On the international scene at the time, Churchill was desperate to bring the United States into the war and had to draw Japan into it to prevent Japan’s desired domination of world trade.

Churchill’s two desires were to come to fruition in the form of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour. However, knowledge of the engagement of HMAS Sydney with HSK Kormoran, and the involvement of Japan, 18 days prior to the planned attack on Pearl Harbour had the potential to prevent it, and alter the course of the war. Hence, the initial need for secrecy: the Allies could not afford to let Japan know that they were decoding their secret messages and knew of the planned attack on Pearl Harbour. If Japan knew that the Allies knew their war strategy, then they would not have carried it out.

If Japan did not take military action against the United States directly, then the USA would not enter the war. Without the help of the USA and Roosevelt’s Manhattan Project, the atomic bomb, history would be entirely different and we would not have the world we have today.

Research by John Doohan of the available historical records shows that UK cryptographers had deciphered Japanese codes revealing their intention to bomb Pearl Harbour on December 7, 1941. Britain did not want to reveal that it knew the codes, and Churchill wanted the attack on the USA to go ahead so that America would enter the war and save Britain and its empire.

Churchill implored Roosevelt to bring USA into the war but Roosevelt would not involve the USA until he enjoyed the support of USA citizens to do so, which would not be gained until the USA itself was directly affected by the war. Churchill and Roosevelt had to allow Pearl Harbour to be bombed not only for the American peoples’ mandate to join the war, but to justify their use of the atomic bomb, which may not otherwise have been countenanced by the American public.

Hence, when Sydney was sunk, its attackers could not be named or retaliated against for fear Japan would not orchestrate its long-planned attack on Pearl Harbour, and Churchill and Roosevelt’s war plans would not be enacted.

This knowledge explains the initial need for secrecy about the sinking and murder of Sydney’s men, but it does not suffice for the period after the war. Especially, it does not suffice to explain why Australian governments refuse, deny, cover, and lie about it to this day. Their chosen, contrived version of events allows Australian people to deny Sydney’s men their rightful, honourable, memorable place in our history, in our hearts, and in our Anzac tradition and spirit.

Along with others, I thought that public awareness of the Sydney story had been raised nationally and internationally with the recent location and exhumation of a Christmas Island grave said to be the burial site of a HMAS Sydney sailor. There was a bullet in the skull of the exhumed skeleton. At the time, John Doohan, a prolific Sydney researcher, writer, and campaigner said that:

The bullet in the skull aspect of the Christmas Island Carley float passenger (the remains exhumed on Christmas Island) is causing official concern right now. The location of the grave, like other aspects of the Sydney story, has a history that includes official deception of the Australian public, disinformation reproduced by the media, and interferences by ASIO (Australia’s intelligence agency) and Australian Federal Police. Generally, Australian citizen’s have no idea the lengths their governments have gone to to keep the truth secret. We just hope that the recent finding of the grave and the bullet will spur the Australian people, and people worldwide, to demand the truth now.

On October 22, 2006, the Sydney Morning Herald reported on the exhumation saying that: