Justice Sally Thomas, the Deputy Chancellor of Charles Darwin University, laid a wreath on behalf of the University at the annual ceremony to commemorate those who died in the bombing of Darwin on February 19, 1942.
Hundreds of people turned out for the ceremony at the Cenotaph, which this year commemorated the 65th anniversary of the day war came to Darwin.
Bombs began raining down on the waterfront about 10am on that fateful day, killing 243 people in two separate raids an hour apart. The first day of bombing saw 54 bombers and 188 Japanese attack planes take to the skies from Timor.
The Australian Government, alarmed at the effect on morale that the Fall of Singapore had already had on the public, announced that only 17 people had been killed.
About 300 soldiers and civilians were killed in the Japanese bombing raids across the Territory, which lasted until November, 1943.