page_title: Battle of Brisbane
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Brisbane / Background
caption_attribution_description: United States servicemen march through King George Square, Brisbane, Australia, circa 1943.
context_page_description: The Battle of Brisbane was a riot between United States military personnel on one side and Australian servicemen and civilians on the other, in Brisbane, Queensland's capital city, on 26 and 27 November 1942, during which time the two nations were allies. By the time the violence had been quelled, one Australian soldier was dead and hundreds of Australians and U.S. servicemen had been injured. News reports of these incidents were suppressed overseas, with the causes of the riot not made evident in the few newspaper reports of the event that were published within Australia.
context_section_description: From 1942 until 1945 during the Pacific War, up to one million U.S. military personnel, which included around 100,000 African-Americans, were stationed at various locations throughout eastern Australia. These forces included personnel awaiting deployment to combat operations elsewhere in the Pacific, troops resting, convalescing, and/or refitting from previous combat operations, or military personnel manning Allied military bases and installations in Australia. Many U.S. personnel were stationed in and around Brisbane, which was the headquarters for General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Allied Commander, South West Pacific Area. Many buildings and facilities around Brisbane were given over to the U.S. military's use. Brisbane found it difficult to cope, starting in December 1941, as their population of roughly 330,000 increased by 80,000 during the peak period. The city was fortified, schools were closed, brownouts enforced, crime increased, and many families sold up and moved inland.
  At the height of the Pacific war, Australian Prime Minister John Curtin raised the roles of American journalists to spread enthusiasm from the U.S. for his country's defence. This showed a new side to how leaders of allied nations could expand American press interaction and influence the White House during the war. "As a former journalist, Curtin extended his candid press talks and the fledgling Australian radio and newsreel media to involve U.S. reporters in his campaign for an escalated offensive from America’s Southwest Pacific headquarters in Brisbane, Australia," says Coatney, who wrote about the subject in his journal. Curtin still lost American press support he needed in order to prevent some of Australia's troops from fighting in the Battle of Burma.
caption: U.S. servicemen march through King George Square, Brisbane, circa 1943.
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