[Music] what the Japanese invade Australia well for all the panic among these civilian population of Australia concerning a Japanese invasion in mid 1942 the Japanese never intended to carry out such an operation only on one occasion late in the war did Japanese troops come ashore in Australia by January 1944 Japanese naval intelligence suspected that the United States was constructing a new naval base at admiralty Gulf on the northwestern shores of Western Australia the Navy made a request to the closest military forces to Western Australia to conduct a reconnaissance to confirm or deny their suspicions based on Ambon Ireland the Japanese 19th Army contained a special commando style unit called the mat-su chicken or pine tree under the command of captain Musashi Yamamoto the mat-su keikain contained graduates of the army intelligence school at Nakano in Japan they formed an elite reconnaissance force captain Yamamoto detailed one of his subordinates leftenant Souza he Co mitsuno to put together a small team ready for insertion into Western Australia leftenant mitsuo's party departed on their mission from KO pang in timor part of the Japanese occupied Netherlands East Indies aboard a tiny 25 tonne fishing vessel called the hiroshi maru on the 14th of January 1944 the rest of mitsuo's team consisted of two sergeants a superior private who had act as a radio operator six Imperial Japanese Navy sailors and 15 local temari's disguised as fishermen the Timur EES would sail the vessel to Australia and if any Allied aircraft or ships encountered the hiroshi maru their presence would hopefully deter a more thorough investigation of the boat the first attempt to conduct the mission was a failure however as the tiny fishing boat was caught in a ferocious storm that forced mitsuno to scrub the operation and return to base on the morning of the 15th of January the Japanese waited the storm out and then departed again on the evening of the 16th strangely although the Japanese had already disguised their activities with the addition of the Tim Murray's they now tuck the contradictory step for providing the Hiroshi Maru with air cover for the voyage any allied plane or ship that encountered a small fishing boat with its own dedicated aerial cover would arouse suspicion 19th Army Headquarters instructed the Seventh Air Division at Caen dari to release an aircraft for the operation and staff sergeant al Numa found himself flying his type 99 light bomber on circuits around the Hiroshima row as she motored towards Australia on the 16th of January as the fishing boat approached Cartier islet al Noma spotted a submarine running on the surface undoubtedly allied al Norma decided to dissuade the submarine from making a close inspection of the Hiroshi Maru and dived into attack lookouts aboard the submarine had already spotted the Japanese aircraft and the submarine immediately crashed I've followed under the waves by two bursts of machine-gun fire from the type 99 as onuma passed over the white water marking where the submarine had vanished he dropped 650 kilogram bombs the bombs detonated underwater an owl numa circled over the spot several times later reporting that the submarine had probably been damaged the type 99 light bomber continued her mission of flying cover for the Hiroshima Roo as the vessel approached the Australian coast radar system monitor the airspace over the coastline forcing the Japanese aircraft to drop down low al Numa located Cartier islet returning to guide the hiroshim arrow in the first landfall made by the Japanese was at 9:00 a. m. on the 17th of January when they reached east island the island is actually a coral reef that is exposed from low tide 24 hours later the Japanese reached Brow's Island and here leftenant matsuno and his men went ashore browse contain nothing except a ruined watchtower where the island did provide the Japanese with a suitable laying up position timing his mission carefully mitsuna wanted the force to land on the mainland in the early morning of the 19th of January after three hours on browse the Hiroshima row weighed anchor and sailed through the night to the mainland entering an inlet on the coast of Western Australia at approximately 10:00 a.
m. the first Japanese troops to land in Australia a light mists concealed the Japanese landing party as they quietly collected tree branches with which to camouflage the hiroshi maru then the men ate a cold breakfast before beginning their mission Matsuno now divided his command into three parties tasked with exploring different areas of the wilderness mid sono commanded one while the two sergeants Marita and four Ohashi each led another and it was agreed that all parties would rendezvous back at the boat after two hours Mizuno even had an eight millimeter movie camera with him to record anything of interest that was discovered the Japanese were to discover nothing of any military interest all parties reporting only finding old campfires after a night aboard the boat mitsuno ordered another series of patrols on the 20th of January that by 2:00 p. m.
