Poster, 'He's Coming South'

On 7 December 1941, Japan launched a series of attacks on British and American territories in Asia and the Pacific. The attacks shocked the world, although fears about Japan's imperialist aims had in fact been growing for decades.

This poster refers to the threat and fear of Japanese invasion of Australia during the Second World War (1939-45). It was assumed that the Japanese would continue their southward advance and invade and conquer Australia. Japanese authorities did briefly consider invading northern Australia, but decided to pursue a plan of isolating Australia instead, as their military resourses would not have been strong enough to hold all their conquered territory.