Back More
Salem Press

Table of Contents

Encyclopedia of Invasions & Conquests, Fourth Edition

New Guinea, Japanese Invasion of

Because the island of New Guinea lies due north of Australia, its location, rather than any inherent value, made it a target for Japanese aggression at the opening of World War II. The Japanese military spread across the western Pacific, and forces under the command of Major General Horii landed on the north shore of the island early on 23 January 1942. As they had experienced elsewhere, the invaders had little serious opposition from the defenders—in this case, badly outnumbered Australian troops. The Australians withdrew inland, closely pursued by Japanese troops. At the same time, the Japanese secured the major port of Rabaul on the island of New Britain, the real prize in the area. New Guinea was to serve mainly as a guard for the bastion soon created at Rabaul. Japanese control of Rabaul made Allied possession of New Guinea vital as well, and brought the immediate attention of Douglas MacArthur, commander of Allied military forces in the Southwest Pacific.

The Japanese quickly secured the northern half of the island and established bases at Hollandia, Wewak, Madang, and Lae. Their next target was Port Moresby, on the southern shore of the peninsula forming the eastern part of the island. It was lightly defended and would have provided little difficulty for the invaders, but they never arrived. The Japanese force sailing around the eastern tip of the island met a combined American and Australian naval force in early May in the Coral Sea. The battle was unique at the time: It was the first naval battle in which ships never engaged one another. Instead, the battle was fought totally between carrierborne aircraft and enemy ships. For three days, opposing bombers and fighters fought it out over enemy shipping, and both sides lost roughly equal numbers of ships, including one aircraft carrier each. The battle was a tactical draw but a strategic victory for the Allies; it was the first time the Japanese failed to accomplish a mission. The Japanese fleet turned back and the tide of war began to turn.

Despite the naval reverse, the Japanese continued their victories on land, driving into the Owen Stanley mountain range that forms the spine of the island. They drove the Australians back across the range and to within a day’s march of Port Moresby, but could go no farther. Reinforcements of Australian and American troops massed along the southeastern part of the island, and the jungle through which the forces fought took its toll on the ill-supplied Japanese army. American aircraft arrived and achieved air superiority, which meant that Allied troops could get supplies into the mountains without the need of “humping” it through the extremely rugged terrain. The Australians fought their way back up the mountains via the Kokoda Trail, entering the town of Kokoda along the ridge line on 2 November 1942. The large numbers of dead attested to the Japanese inability to survive the jungle on meager supplies, and the Allied offensive picked up some steam heading down the northern slope. By January 1943, the Australian and American troops owned the northern shore of Papua, thereby controlling the eastern half of the island.

Through 1943 the U.S. Navy and Air Force dominated the area. The battle of the Bismarck Sea in March 1943 was a victory of American air-power over Japanese attempts to bring in large numbers of reinforcements. As Rabaul was sealed off by American sea power, MacArthur made plans to work his way west along the New Guinea coast. With the use of large landing craft, MacArthur’s forces made a series of landings along the coastline, capturing Japanese-held towns and airfields. They captured or bypassed all four Japanese strongholds, and established a bomber base on the island of Biak, just off New Guinea’s northwest corner. This not only gave them complete aerial domination over New Guinea, but also provided a major base for MacArthur’s ultimate goal, the U.S. invasion of the Philippines. By the autumn of 1944, the focus of the war shifted to the Philippines and farther north, but New Guinea was not completely quiet. Japanese forces fought on even after the war was over; not until mid-September 1945 did they receive word of the atomic bomb drops and their government’s surrender. The Japanese left behind a somewhat positive legacy with the construction of good roads and airfields, which remain in use even now. Though thousands of Japanese, Australian, and American soldiers were killed in fighting on the island, relatively few natives were directly involved. Over 50,000 were conscripted as laborers for the Allies, but very few engaged in fighting. However, they suffered from Japanese atrocities and sustained collateral damages from the fighting. The lack of men in native villages forced some hardships on those who remained, but the increased contact with the outside world had some positive side effects on the hitherto isolated island. Tribal enmity, already on the wane as more Europeans came to the islands in the first part of the century, diminished even more. The discovery of manufactured goods changed the lives of many in the mountains, for good or ill. In some remote areas, the first arrival of parachute-borne equipment seemed heavensent, and the rise of what came to be known as the “cargo cults” lasted for some years after the war (some natives became convinced that certain rituals would bring back the largesse provided from the sky).

See also: MacArthur, Douglas; Philippines, U.S. Invasion of the.

References:

1 

Mayo, Linda, Bloody Buna (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1974); Robinson, Neville, Villagers at War (Canberra: Australian National University, 1981); Vader, John, New Guinea: The Tide Is Stemmed (New York: Ballantine, 1971).

Citation Types

Type
Format
MLA 9th
, . "New Guinea, Japanese Invasion Of." Encyclopedia of Invasions & Conquests, Fourth Edition, edited by Paul K. Davis, Salem Press, 2023. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=GHInv4e_0233.
APA 7th
, . (2023). New Guinea, Japanese Invasion of. In P. K. Davis (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Invasions & Conquests, Fourth Edition. Salem Press. online.salempress.com.
CMOS 17th
,. "New Guinea, Japanese Invasion Of." Edited by Paul K. Davis. Encyclopedia of Invasions & Conquests, Fourth Edition. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2023. Accessed October 15, 2025. online.salempress.com.