Compiled by Archbishop Dr. Peter McInnes, AICA Primate, RSL Chaplain, www.aicaustralia.com

The Australian Prime Minister, of the day, Ben Chifley stated, “Fellow citizens, the war is over”. A salute of 101 guns was fired at the Royal Military College, Duntroon, and 34 United Nations flags fluttered above the Memorial. Commenting on The Hour of Victory, the Sydney Morning Herald said: “It is fitting that today, like yesterday, should be given over to rejoicing. No less than any other of the victorious peoples, Australians have survived the most pointed and deadly peril. With Britain and our sister Dominions we have, alone among the Allied nations, borne our full brunt of the war in both hemispheres and throughout its duration.

“The war… was won by the grit and intelligence of the nations whom the Japanese assailed with all the insolence and brutality of a barbarian horde relying on a momentum intended to be invincible… Japan’s defeat closes the most terrible and far-flung war in history”. Japan surrendered unconditionally to the allies on September 2nd, 1945, in a short formal ceremony on board the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. General Sir Thomas Blamey, Commander-in-Chief of the Australian Military Forces, signed on behalf of Australia.

It was significant that, on that day, not one senior Japanese commander wore his sword. In subsequent ceremonies across South-East Asia, however, these swords would play a major part in the surrender. The sword represented the soldiers’ social and military standing, a sentiment that went back to the days of the samurai for whom the sword was more than a weapon. It represented his authority over others, his self-discipline and his code of honour. The blades of the Japanese officers’ swords were often family heirlooms, carefully preserved and passed down the generations to be re-mounted for each new battle. This meant that giving up a sword had a greater symbolic and emotional effect on the Japanese than the ritual of surrender itself.

The Australians determined the place and form of the ceremonies. Lieutenant Colonel E.M. Robson insisted on the maximum humiliation by making the Japanese surrendering officer, Major General Uno, bow down and lay the sword at his feet, not on the table. Throughout the war, approximately 30,000 Australians had been taken prisoner of whom 8,591 were captured by the Germans – 1,941 AIF men in North Africa, 2,065 in Greece, 3,109 in Crete, 1,476 RAAF crew and some RAN and merchant seamen. Most of these, 97 per cent, survived the malnutrition, dysentery and ill treatment that were part of camp life. The remaining 21,467 were taken by the Japanese in Singapore and the Netherlands East Indies. But more than a third of those, 7,964 died in captivity from disease and brutalities. Almost 600 were executed and about 1,500 drowned when the ships transporting them to Japan were torpedoed.

Tragically, the worst single atrocity committed on Australian POWs occurred in north Borneo at the end of the war when, of about 1,100 allied prisoners were forced to march through the fetid jungle from Sandakan to Ranau, only six survived. The initial 2,970 Sandakan POWs, of whom almost 2,000 were Australians, had been shipped from Singapore’s infamous Changi POW camp and Java in 1942 and 1943 to build an airfield. At first, conditions were no worse than at most other camps, but by 1944 rations were woefully inadequate, causing sickness and malnutrition. Then brutality took its toll with the arrival of Formosan guards who systematically beat and bashed the prisoners, a favourite target being their ulcerated limbs.

For every joyous homecoming of the Australian servicemen and women, there were difficult adjustments to civil life. Some who had spent years in captivity could not make the transition and remained shattered, physically or emotionally, for the rest of their lives. For these people and their families, the war was a disaster, just as it was for the families of those who had been killed. These were the invisible scars borne with dignity and silence to this day by people for whom the war will never end. Australians looked forward with hope to the new nation that would emerge with peace.

Around Australia (at that time), 737 Repatriation Local Committees were set up, mostly staffed by volunteers, to investigate applications for pensions, medical treatment, job training, land settlement, business establishment, war gratuities, education and housing. The Returned Services League of Australia & many other Ex-service organisations continue this work today. While the living were taken care of, there remained the task of commemorating the 101,086 dead of both world wars in cemeteries and memorials around the world. The year was 1945. At the end of six years of global war. Australia was exhausted, thankful and proud to have endured her sternest test as a nation. Lest we forget.