Pearl Harbor; The fall of Singapore; Curtin's fights with Churchill; The bombing of Darwin; POW camps; The battle of Midway; Kokoda; Buna; Kamikaze pilots; Hiroshima. These words alone are enough to convey the terror, courage and drama of the Pacific War, when the balance of power stood on a knife-edge and when the future of Australia was on the brink - threatened by Japanese aggression on the one hand and British deception on the other. After a conflict that took an unimaginable number of lives and ended with the unleashing of the most powerful weapon the world had ever seen, the Allies emerged victorious. Australia, however, was criticised by Churchill and his generals for showing cowardice in the face of the enemy and for not caring about the fate of other nations. The endorsement of these claims by several military historians today shows that the smear has not gone away. Until now.