It's an Australian wartime story that's been largely kept a secret for more than seven decades - until now.
Actress-turned-author Judy Nunn filled A Current Affair in on the forgotten piece of military history - involving the US Army, a mutiny and future American president. It forms the setting for her new book, Khaki Town.
In World War II, after the fall of Singapore, the bombing of Darwin and the Japanese submarine attack on Sydney, it was feared northern Australia was about to fall to Japanese invaders.
Thousands of cattle were moved south so they wouldn't provide fresh food for the Japanese when they landed. Road signs were taken down and people were even told to get rid of road maps.
Townsville was flooded with US soldiers, but our government's White Australia policy sparked some trouble.
"The Australian government said to Franklin D Roosevelt, President of the United States, 'yes, we want your soldiers, we need your soldiers, we're probably going to be invaded. But we don't want the black ones, only the white ones,'" Nunn said.
"Isn't that amazing? To which Franklin Roosevelt, good luck to him, said, 'okay, you want American soldiers? If you don't get black ones, you don't get any American soldiers'."
Despite the government's policy, the Queensland locals were grateful to the black US soldiers and saw them as saviours.
"The black American soldiers were amazed that everybody welcomed them," Nunn said.
"Everywhere they looked, there were no signs saying 'blacks only' or 'whites-only', they were accepted."
In contrast, the Australian military put out a shocking edict concerning Indigenous Australians.
Nunn said in the event of invasion, Aboriginal men were ordered to be the first people shot, under the "ridiculous" assumption they would join the Japanese invaders for tobacco.
The racial divide was to come to the forefront on a lonely field outside Townsville in May, 1942, where black US troops had been sent to build an airfield.
"These men are stranded out here, used as slave labour, building airfields," she said.
Equipped only with picks and shovels to build an airfield for bomber jets, forbidden any rest and relaxation, the troops were barred from town and permitted no alcohol, no dancing, and no music.
Pushed to the limit, 600 of the US troops mutinied, turning their guns on their white officers. Armed Australian troops were sent to quell the uprising.
"Very few people know about it, very few people will ever know about it," Nunn said.
"As far as specifics go, as to how many people might have been killed during this riot, what happened to the bodies - it's all been zip."
In a further twist, a 34-year-old US officer sent to Townsville to investigate the circumstances of the uprising was one Lyndon Baines Johnson, who in just over 20 years would become President of the United States.
"A true story kept secret for over 70 years - until now," Nunn said.
Khaki Town, Judy Nunn's 15th novel, is out now.
(Source: Nine News- 4/10/2019)
