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On the morning of 15th August 1945, the Emperor of Japan announced that Japan would accept the Allies ultimatum to surrender.
For Australians, this meant the end of the Second World War. A war that had seen nearly 1 million Australians serve in the armed forces. Of those, over 30,000 Australians were taken prisoner and 39,000 did not return to their loved ones. A legacy which is still felt today.
Each year and in 2024, 79 years later, on 15 August 2024 join RSL NSW and RSL Sub-Branch around Australia remember and respect all those Australians that served during the Second World War; those who gave the ultimate sacrifice; those who returned and were forever scarred; and those who cared for our veterans.
Avalon Beach RSL Sub-Branch holds a Commemorative Service on August 15 each year, with the Legacy Widows their VIP's for the Service and a luncheon held afterwards.
This year Vice President of the Avalon Beach RSL Sub-Branch Tamara Sloper-Harding OAM conducted the Service, which was attended by Mayor Sue Heins and other special guests.
Tamara Sloper-Harding:
Good morning, my name is Tamara Sloper-Harding, I am Vice President of the Avalon Beach RSL Sub Branch and I would like to welcome you to our commemoration of the Victory of the Pacific.
Due to the weather we are holding this short ceremony here undercover but it should not detract from the solemnity of this special occasion nor the reflection on the joy and relief felt by our fellow Australians 79 years ago today at the end of the war in our region.
Unfortunately, our President CDRE Richard Menhinick AM, CSC was sprung with another urgent commitment yesterday and I as the junior officer offered to step in for today’s service! You will be relieved to know however, that Richard had already drafted one of his magnificent speeches and I have the honour of reading that to you today.
Victory in the Pacific Day, 2024
Today marks 79 years since the end of the Second World War. In Europe they don’t focus as much on this date but more on Victory in Europe Day - or 'VE Day' on the 8th May each year – this signalled the end of almost 6 years of fighting against Germany in 1945 and before that Italy. The signing of an unconditional surrender by the German High Command took place on 7 May 1945. The surrender took effect from midnight on 8th May.
For Europe, this brought an end to the war against Germany and its European allies. Most Australians back then read the news in local newspapers; with Headlines such as Germany Capitulates: Unconditional Surrender.
The reality for Australia was, that although Australians serving overseas celebrated the victory, as did their loved ones back home, the celebrations as a whole were dampened by the knowledge that the war in the Indo-Pacific against Japan was still to be won.
Here the Allies were drawing a noose around the Japanese home islands. But there were ominous signs that Japan’s fierce resistance would continue. The battles for Iwo Jima and Okinawa during the first half of 1945, the fierce fighting in New Guinea and Burma, and the Kamikaze attacks at sea to name just a few were marked by spectacular carnage, and the Allies were chastened by the knowledge that Japan had never surrendered to a foreign power and that no Japanese military unit had surrendered during World War II.
At Potsdam Germany on 26th July 1945, the leaders of Britain, the United States and China called for the unconditional surrender of Japan. This declaration defined the terms for Japan’s surrender and made dire warnings if the country failed to put down its weapons. The Allies were also worried that Stalin and the Soviet Union would invade Manchuria and Korea to grab land, leading to the installation of totalitarian communist governments and that this would be dire for the post-war world.
Hoping that the Japanese would “follow the path of reason,” the leaders outlined their terms of surrender, which included complete disarmament, occupation of certain areas, and the creation of a “responsible government.” However, it also promised that Japan would not “be enslaved as a race or destroyed as a nation.” The declaration ended by warning of quote “prompt and utter destruction” if Japan failed to unconditionally surrender.
Japan declined to do this and on 6th August 1945, the United States dropped the first atomic bomb over Hiroshima, ultimately killing as many as 140,000 people. Two days later, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan and in a shocking and needless act of aggression, invaded Manchuria, Korea and northern islands off Japan. Then, on 9th August, the United States dropped a second atomic bomb over Nagasaki, ultimately killing approximately 70,000.
The Japanese government accepted Allied surrender terms without qualifications on 15th August 1945. As soon as the news of Japan’s surrender was announced, celebrations erupted across Australia.
Without considering the global, societal and political impact of the War itself, the raw human statistics of the Second World War are staggering. It proved to be the deadliest international conflict in history, taking the lives of 60 to 80 million people, including 6 million Jews during the Holocaust. Civilians made up an estimated 50 -55 million deaths from the war, while military comprised 21 to 25 million of those killed. Millions more were injured, and still more lost their homes, property, country and liberty. It:
- ushered in the Cold War,
- it signalled the end of colonial rule in Africa and Asia,
- it expedited the demise of Britain as a world power,
- it led directly to ruptures throughout the Middle East and South Asia, and
- it facilitated via Soviet aggression, the appalling reality that most of Eastern Europe, China, northern Korea and other parts of Asia were under communist totalitarian rule.
The world as we know it is shaped by this conflict and the forces it unleashed.
For Australia, from a population of just seven million people, 575,799 served overseas and 39,429 were killed and 66,563 were wounded.
21 Victoria Crosses were awarded, the most recent just in 2020 to Ordinary Seaman Edward (Teddy) Sheean of HMAS Armidale.
How and why the war occurred and how it was conducted could take an entire university course to just touch the surface, or in my case eight volumes of Orbis’s circa 1970s World War II encyclopaedic weekly series.
We all know that the First World War had been called the ‘war to end all wars’ but by the 1930s tension throughout the world was becoming increasingly dangerous. Mussolini had assumed power in Italy with plans to restore Italy to the status enjoyed by the Roman Empire. In Germany, anger at the Versailles Treaty provisions festered while the Great Depression brought about extreme hardship leading to support for Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party who openly advocated the expansion of German territory, lebensraum or living space as it was coined –through military conquest. Japan had also started on a campaign of conquest in Korea and China, with a view to creating an empire in Asia and the Pacific. Throughout the late 1930s, Germany, Italy and Japan pursued their totalitarian and expansionary plans.
The invasion by Germany of Poland on 1 September 1939 led Great Britain and France to declare war on Germany. Australia moved quickly to support Great Britain and also declared war. This time, there was none of the enthusiasm and joy that had greeted the news of the outbreak of the First World War. Everyone knew that this would be a bad one.
One million Australians, both men and women, one in seven of our population, served in the Second World War – and as I have mentioned just shy of 580,000 went overseas. They fought in campaigns against Germany and Italy in Europe, the Atlantic, Mediterranean and North Africa, as well as against Japan in south-east Asia, the Indian and Pacific Oceans. The Australian mainland came under direct attack for the first time, with Japanese aircraft carrier launched planes bombing towns in northern Australia and Japanese midget submarines attacking Sydney Harbour.
Australians were serving in British ships from before 1939 and they continued to throughout the war, including in the fight against the German battleship Bismarck. The Royal Australian Navy itself was involved in operations in the Mediterranean Sea, including famous actions such as that of HMAS Sydney in the Battle of Cape Matapan and evacuating army personnel from Greece, whilst also supplying the Rats of Tobruk in 1941 for the many months of their defiance of Rommel and his Afrika Corps. With the threat of war against Japan becoming clear, the Navy departed the Mediterranean for home waters in late 1941 and fought until 1945 throughout the Indian and Pacific Oceans, as well as keeping our ports clear of mines and protecting merchant shipping in a complex convoy system off our coasts.
Australians flew in the Battle of Britain in August and September 1940 and then many thousands were in Bomber Command, for the rest of the War, with some flying the famous Dam Buster raid of 1943. In our region the RAAF expanded to become the fifth largest air force in the world by 1945, engaging the Japanese throughout the entire northern regions around New Guinea and beyond.
The Australian Army joined operations in the Mediterranean and North Africa. Following early successes against Italian forces, the Australians suffered defeat with the Allies by the Germans in Greece, Crete, and North Africa. In June and July 1941 Australians were part of the successful Allied invasion of Syria, a mandate of the French Vichy government. 14,000 Australians held out against repeated German attacks in the Libyan port of Tobruk, where they were besieged between April and August 1941 known as the “The Rats of Tobruk”. After being relieved at Tobruk, the 6th and 7th Divisions departed for the war against Japan. The 9th Division remained to play an important role in the Allied victory at El Alamein in October 1942 before it also left for the Pacific.
Australian armed forces were involved in the Malayan Campaign in 1941-2 and the defence of Singapore. After the fall of Singapore, 15,000 Australians became prisoners of war, along with soldiers from India and Britain. Australians repelled Japanese attacks on Port Moresby in the Battle of the Coral Sea as part of the United States led naval force and subsequently via the famous Kokoda Track in mid-1942 and by 1943 had divisions fighting in New Guinea. Thereafter, Australians fought with the Americans in an island-hopping campaign.
For us today, what does it mean, 79 years on? I have spoken previously on the United Nations and the legacy that the generation that fought in the Second World War and then who forged the peace and grew this country have left us.
It is fitting today to remember that just under two weeks ago, on 3rd August this year, Tom Pritchard, Australia's last “Rat of Tobruk”, died aged 102. In fact, just last Saturday at the Warringah Rats rugby home game against Southern Districts at Pittwater Park, they honoured him with a moments silence before the game with the Australian Flag flying at half-mast at the ground throughout. You may not realise that the Warringah Rugby Club took the name “Rats” to honour the Rats of Tobruk and there is a memorial at the southern end of the ground.
Keeping things local, as I mentioned last year, just behind me on the other side of the hedge are three plaques, one of which commemorates the 60th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. It is dedicated to those who served and to those who paid the supreme sacrifice “We Will Remember them” is inscribed on it. One of the plaques also has the nominal roll of World War II Avalon enlistments. On that plaque is listed the names of 28 men and 2 women. That at a time when the permanent population of this lovely suburb must have only been in the low 100s at the most, so essentially one in seven of the population.
As we gather here today, therefore, please cast your minds back and let us again consider the sacrifice of everyone who served in World War II and also those who remained at home, supporting the war effort, working for our country and keeping family life going. They are our parents and grandparents, our uncles and aunts, our neighbours, school teachers and fellow citizens. The vast majority have been touched in some way by the Second World War.
It is personal for all of us. In my case I both parents, four uncles and an aunt all serving in the Navy, Air Force or in my dad’s case, the British Merchant Navy. Many of our loved ones are commemorated with memorial plaques in this, our beautiful and poignant memorial. It really is a conflict that had and still has immense impact on us all and our country as World War II affected an entire generation, and for literally millions of Australians the effects and tragedy lasted their entire lifetime. It also shaped our country in a profound way with massive post war immigration enriching us and making us the place we call home today.
It is also worth considering that World War Two was the last time that Australia as a society and nation in its entirety mobilised for a single mission, to defend itself and to win a war. Today, society and governments at the Federal, State and Local level spend far too little time considering how they would again mobilise and prepare Australians for a similar event. What facilities would be useful as an example. What would Navy, Army and Air Force need immediately? What about food supply chains, internet access, banking, health services etc. Satellites would be expected to be the first casualty so how does society operate without satellite timing, telecommunications and navigation services.? How do we mobilise and prepare our society, industry and people and maintain cohesion if the worst happens again? What are our critical supply points and just how would we do it?
One thing both sides of politics agree on is that our strategic situation is more dangerous and unpredictable than it has been since 1945. As I said last year, the basic reality that no government of ours can change, whether Liberal or Labor, is that communist, fascist and fundamental religious state systems do not respect us, nor do they believe in the right of individuals to free thought, expression, movement or religion, nor do they hold that each life is precious.
79 years on, one of the understated legacies of the Second World War and the generation who fought in it, is that the global governance system put in place immediately after it, while imperfect, is essentially all we have under international law to limit the impact of these regimes and to try and bring a degree of fairness to the world.
Today in these northern beaches of Sydney, let us recommit to remember that sacrifice is personal, that friends really matter, and that being a loving and gracious community, committed to a free and democratic society, with an amiable level of give and take, is really what those who have gone before us would want and expect.
Thank you.
Richard Menhinick AM, CSC, Commodore RAN (retired) and current President of Avalon Beach RSL Sub-Branch, heading ashore from HMAS ANZAC – Turkiye April 2005 with the Hon. Bronwyn Bishop (Member for Mackellar), Senator Santo Santoro and Mark Baker MP (Member for Braddon)
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