The first half of this decade was dominated by a global war in which some 55 million people were killed. With the ending of the war, the world was changed by the horrors of the holocaust (in which over 6 million Jews were killed) and Hiroshima. Once the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, the world was ushered into a new and frightening age - the dawn of the Nuclear Age. When the alliance forged by war between the Soviet Union and the Western Powers collapsed, an "Iron Curtain" descended on Eastern Europe. By the end of the decade, Mao Tse-tung's communists won control of mainland China. The "Cold War" - a confrontation between the Capitalist West and the Communist East - had begun. The new state of Israel had also been created at this time, which in turn sowed the seeds of conflict in Palestine and the Middle East.

German Panzers on the move	Japanese attack Pearl Harbor
Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin	Atomic Bomb dropped on Hiroshima
Cremation pits in Auschwitz	Judgement at Nuremberg

This decade had a dramatic impact on Australia. Before the Second World War Australia seemed in many ways to be just another part of Britain. When Japan entered the war everything changed. During the war mainland Australia was attacked - Darwin and Wyndham were bombed by the Japanese, and Sydney Harbour was attacked by submarines. The invasion of Australia itself was only just prevented in 1942 by the Battle of the Coral Sea. In the end it was Australian servicemen and women, with the vital support of the US armed forces, who saved Australia. After the war, Australia never again looked to Britain for support in defending the nation. Instead, the USA became Australia's most important ally.

Rats of Tobruk	Japanese air attack on Darwin
Prime Minister John Curtin	'Diggers' on the Kakoda Trail
Macarthur arrives in Australia	Australian POW survivors of Changi

To visit the School Archives for this decade,
simply CLICK on any one of the YEAR PLAQUES listed below.