Reception for the 80th Anniversary of the End of World War II

United Service Club President, Major General Darryl Low Choy AM MBE RFD; Queensland Military Historical Society President, Major Kate Drews; Royal Historical Society Queensland President, Dr Rebecca Ling; Royal United Service Institute Queensland Vice President, Mr Richard Jeffreys OAM; members of your respective organisations; veterans; distinguished guests; ladies and gentlemen.

I begin by acknowledging the Original Custodians of the lands around Brisbane, the Turrbal and Jagera peoples, and pay my respects to Elders past, present and emerging, and to any First Nations people here this evening.

Graeme and I are delighted to welcome you here this evening to celebrate the 80^th anniversary of the end of World War II with representatives of Queensland organisations for which that event was particularly significant – and of which we are proud to be Patrons, Graeme as Patron of the Military Historical Society and myself as Patron of the United Service Club, the Royal Historical Society of Queensland and the Royal United Service Institute Queensland.

It was an honour and privilege for us both to be in Townsville on the 15^th of August to be part of the multiple celebrations of the day, 80 years ago, when the Prime Minister, Ben Chifley, began his historic speech with the simple words “Fellow citizens, the war is over”.

I suspect that very few people would have heard the remaining five minutes of Chifley’s speech that day. The public reaction was immediate. Here in Brisbane, they danced in King George Square, but the sense of relief and sheer joy reverberated across the State.

Authorities were so concerned that celebrations would get out of hand that they closed the pubs the day after the victory announcement, but while the jubilation continued, by the second of September, when General MacArthur accepted Japan’s formal surrender on the deck of the US battleship Missouri, Australians were beginning to count the sobering cost of those six long years of conflict.

Almost a million Australians had served in the War; over 30,000 were taken prisoner; and more than 39,000 had died in theatres of war as different as the deserts of North Africa and the jungles of New Guinea.

The names of those places and events became etched in our national memory: El Alamein, the Battle of Britain, and the Siege of Tobruk; Milne Bay, the Kokoda Track, and the bombing of Darwin; and finally, Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

This evening, as we recall the celebrations that marked the end of the War, we acknowledge the contribution of everyone who served, the suffering of those who carried the physical and psychological scars for the rest of their lives, the sacrifice of those who didn’t return, and the pain of the loved ones who never saw them again.

Australia emerged from the shadow of World War II into an era of economic growth and social change that produced a more confident, independent nation with a stronger sense of identity and a growing awareness of its place in the world.

Eight decades on, memories of the conflict are fading and the number of surviving World War II veterans is declining rapidly, but we will always remember the courage with which those men and women served to defend our nation, our values, and our way of life.

Lest we forget.