With the bombing of Darwin anniversary looming on February 19 , here is a bizarre story about the fearful days in Australia following the Japanese attack. It comes from a book, The Catholic Knights of the Southern Cross (KSC) –The Queensland Story , by Jack Woodward ,1984, 429pp, a copy of which was bought by Little Darwin in a Townsville op shop. Coverage of the WW11 period includes the claim that the United Protestant Association of Australia , Brisbane branch, issued an odd pamphlet , the text of which was run in full in the KSC December 1944 monthly newsletter. Woodward said it was not known if the item had been included for comic relief in a grim year or for straight-faced consumption.
Headed THE STORY OF A LITTLE PAPAL FLAG AND THE THREATENED JAPANESE INVASION OF AUSTRALIA, paraphrased , it told how the nation had been warned that it must be prepared to defend the country from invasion after the bombing of Darwin. Frantic preparations were made to build air raid shelters, desperate efforts were made to get our armed forces into shape. People”scurried “ from their homes in Brisbane and other coastal towns; in Brisbane , people talked nothing but invasion for weeks.
The pamphlet claimed children attending Roman Catholic convents and schools were given a small flag “with a strange device”. It was not a miniature Union Jack, nor a small Australian flag .One half was yellow, the other part white. On the white section was a picture of St Peter’s Church, Rome. It was felt the flags could in some way protect Catholic Children in the event of a Japanese invasion of Queensland, as it could not be mistaken for the Union Jack or the Australian flag.
While there was a Japanese Ambassador at the Vatican and a papal representative in Tokyo, it was not generally known that the children of the Japanese Emperor were being educated at a Roman Catholic convent in Tokyo, the newsletter item declared . In the event of a Japanese invasion, Catholic children would use the flags to indicate they belonged to a church which was on friendly terms with the Nipponese government . The strange report ended : “The Japanese did not get as far as landing –had they done so, Queenslanders might have been amazed to see the number of Catholic children to escape the barbarities of the invaders –so long as they carried the little papal flag.”
