Like so many late Baby Boomers, I grew up with the tales and furphies of my parents’ generation who were convinced a Japanese invasion of Australia was averted at the last minute. We were saved by the stoic nationalism of Prime Minister John Curtin and our heroic boys, who stopped the Japs in their tracks at Kokoda. Or so I was told.

I’ve lost count of the many octogenarians I’ve upset by echoing the official Australian War Memorial line – that no formal plan to invade Australia ever existed and that even the Imperial Japanese Army described the notion as “gibberish”. One vehement old darling even insisted the “Nips” had landed and chased everyone out of Darwin almost as far as Katherine.

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