How different things could have been if the Netherlands in 1937 had decided to accept the Japanese offer to buy West New Guinea giving Japan five years to befriend locals or otherwise establish control in Merauke and the rest of West Papua. Instead of loosing some 200,000 troops trying to subdue New Guinea, even if limited to air supply, from Merauke they could have bombed and later captured Port Moresby, Cairns and Townsville.
Thankfully not only did Japan find Papua a difficult terrain but they also found the people less cooperative than Sukarno and his associates were.
I suggest that basically Japan miscalculated, instead of by-passing New Guinea it mistakenly thought Papua should still be the logical place from which to invade the southern Australian mainland. That mistake gave the US two years to build a larger carrier fleet and redirect some supply from its European theatre.

How different things could have been....
Daeron,
Well, if the British (Caucasion) invasion had not occurred when it did, there wouldn't be any Activism about Australian Indigenous & West Papuans now because they simply wouldn't be now !
This is what they need to consider when protesting of how bad things are.
I don't think there's a people who haven't been invaded or invaded others' territories.
I'm not happy about but I can't change history nor can anyone else no matter how different from fact it is now written !

Daeron,

I don't think the Chinese intend to make the same mistake the Japanese made.

We've all seen over the past year how China has tried to put the stranglehold on Australia using economic manipulation.

Just wait when it decides to really flex its muscles militarily and surrounds Australia with its forces all poised for a massive invasion.

Maybe we should change our name from Australia to Taiwan II.

Yes & all the hard work when we were alone, done by a bunch of kids, half trained using broom handles as guns, dumped up there without even the right uniforms, to try to contain an overwhelming force of battle hardened troops.

MacArthur's intelligence was so bad he thought the Jap force was less than a quarter of what it was. Arrogant fool.

Churchill was just as bad. He wanted to keep our troops in the middle east where they & the Kiwis were doing all the heavy lifting for the Poms.

Hasbeen,

At the outbreak of WW2 PNG just happened to be a post-WW1 mandated colony of Australia.

My understanding is that Australia was willing to sacrifice PNG to the Japanese and would have done so if the US hadn't stepped in and ordered them to do an about-face and head back up the trail to confront the enemy.

The Australian troops on the Kokoda Track were pretty much caught between the devil and the deep blue sea: The Japanese forces trying to push them back towards Port Moresby at one end and the American forces pushing them towards the Japanese from the other end.

Looks to me like they were caught in a trap from both ends and had no choice but to fight or die.

There's only one recognition to honour those who saved our butts & that is to introduce a National Service.