'They were fifty miles to victory and defeat, fifty miles to collapse and renewal, and fifty miles to a new place for Australia among the nations of the world. They were among the most significant fifty miles in our history.'March, 1918. The young Australian nation is struggling to cope with the Great War, now in its fifth year – the strain of maintaining huge armies halfway across the globe, the bitter divisions over conscription, anxiety from the rise of communism in Russ...

‘For the first time Australia speaks, not for herself alone, but for the whole British Commonwealth.’So wrote a journalist about Australia’s leading role in the Allied program of war crimes trials which followed the end of the Second World War in the Pacific. An Australian judge, Sir William Webb, was president of the Tokyo Trial of Japan’s wartime political and military leaders, and Australia conducted hundreds of other trials throughout the Asia-Pacific region. The most tenacious ...