In secret, the Japanese had decided that they lacked the manpower to occupy a landmass as large as Australia. But in the spring of 1942, MacArthur was not alone in viewing the continent as ripe for the taking. The country had denuded its own defenses by sending the best of its men overseas to fight with the British, and the 25,000 Americans whom MacArthur found upon his arrival could not make up the deficit.
