65th Anniversary of VJ Day 1945
Wednesday, 15th August 1945 was VJ Day, Victory over Japan Day.
Today we know it as VP Day, Victory in the Pacific.
The war in the Pacific began almost four years before then on Sunday 7th December 1941 with the Japanese bombing of the United States Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbour and the Japanese invasion of Malaya.
VJ Day followed three months after VE (Victory in Europe) Day on 8th May 1945, and nine days after the dropping of the atomic bomb, “Little Boy” on Hiroshima on Monday 6th August and six days after the dropping of the second atomic bomb, “Fat Man” on Nagasaki on Thursday 9th August 1945.
The formal surrender ceremony took place aboard the American ship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay eighteen days later on Sunday, 2nd September 1945.
For Australians, it meant that the six year long Second World War of 1939 – 1945 was finally over.
With the surrender of the Japanese taking place throughout the South-West Pacific and Asia, thousands of Australian servicemen and women now began returning home and surviving prisoners of war were released and repatriated, including at least 365 Hunter Valley men and one nurse captured by the Japanese in New Britain, Malaya, Singapore, Java and Indonesia.
During six years of war, between 1939 and 1945, almost a million Australians had enlisted.
31,650 Hunter Valley men enlisted in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Merchant Navy and Volunteer Defence Corps for Part Time Duty.
1,850 women enlisted in the Army, Navy and Air Force, many in the medical and nursing services, and many others manned radar stations, anti-aircraft gun batteries and searchlights around the city and region. Many others enlisted in the Women’s Land Army.
The Roll of Honour at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra records the names of more than 39,000 Australian men and women who gave their lives during World War Two.
Among the 39,000 Australians killed on active service were almost 1,000 Hunter Valley men and women.
The first Hunter Valley serviceman to die in the Second World War was L/Cpl Mervyn Lloyd James, 6th Division AASC, a 21 year old motor engineer of 18 Lindsay Street, Hamilton who died as result of an accident on 23rd December 1939 and is buried in the Presbyterian Section of Sandgate Cemetery.
The last Hunter Valley serviceman to die in the Second World War was Pte Joseph Walter Drane, 47th Infantry Battalion, a 20 year old labourer of 19 Sketchley Parade, New Lambton who was killed in action on 9th August 1945 at Bougainville and is buried in Port Moresby (Bomana) War Cemetery.
217 Hunter Valley men died in the war against Germany and her allies in North Africa, Crete and Greece and eighteen Hunter Valley men were lost at sea aboard HMAS Sydney when the ship was sunk by the German raider Kormoran off the Western Australia coast on 19th November 1941.
In the South-West Pacific theatre of war 745 men and 5 women from the Hunter Valley died in the war against Japan.
Of these, 210 men and 2 women died as prisoners of war.
The following is a breakdown on a service basis of the 750 Hunter Valley fallen in the South-West Pacific theatre of war:
Army:
558 men and 3 women, who are commemorated or buried in the following countries:
130 in Australia including ten Hunter Valley men of the 2/12 Field Ambulance and one Nursing Sister who were drowned when Hospital Ship Centaur was sunk by a Japanese submarine off the Queensland coast on 14 May 1943.
14 in Indonesia
4 in Japan
125 in Malaysia
32 in Myanmar (formerly known as Burma)
147 in Papua New Guinea
85 in Singapore
25 in Thailand
RAN:
11 men who were killed in action aboard the following ships:
4 on HMAS Perth – sunk 1 March 1942, Sunda Strait, Java
1 on HMAS Kuttabul – sunk 31 May 1942, Sydney Harbour
1 RAN and 2 attached RAAF on HMAS Canberra – sunk sixty six
years ago yesterday on 9 August 1942, Battle of Savo Island
2 on HMAS Armidale – sunk 1 December 1942, off Timor
1 on ‘Matafele’ – lost 20 June 1944, off northern Australia.
2 on HMAS Australia – killed in action 6 Jan 1945 in the Lingayen
Gulf, Philippines
RAAF:
78 men and one woman, commemorated or buried in the following countries:
49 in Australia
7 in Indonesia
2 in Malaysia
19 in Papua New Guinea
2 in Singapore
Merchant Navy:
47 men who were all killed in action aboard the following ships:
1 on MV Neptuna – sunk in Darwin Harbour, 19 February 1942
1 on Hospital Ship Manunda – bombed and damaged in Darwin Harbour, 19 February 1942.
8 on SS Iron Chieftain – torpedoed and sunk 3 June 1942 east of Sydney by Japanese submarine I-24. Twelve crewmen lost.
17 on SS Iron Crown – torpedoed and sunk 4 June 1942 off Cape Howe, Victoria by Japanese submarine I-27. Thirty eight crewmen lost.
19 on SS Iron Knight – torpedoed and sunk 8 Feb 1943 off Eden, NSW south coast by Japanese submarine I-21. Thirty six crewmen lost.
1 on SS Kowarra – torpedoed and sunk 24 April 1943 off the north Queensland coast by Japanese submarine I-26.
Hunter Valley Prisoners of War of the Japanese:
574 men and 3 women were POWs of the Japanese.
There were 3 nurses, 1 RAN man; 1 Merchant Navy man; and 572 Australian infantrymen, artillerymen, machine gunners, engineers and medical men.
210 men and 2 women died in captivity:
11 in Indonesia.
25 in Thailand.
13 in Singapore.
107 in Malaysia.
16 in Rabaul, New Britain.
32 in Myanmar (Burma).
5 in Japan.
For about the past ten years there have been services held in Newcastle for the Battle of Coral Sea, the Merchant Navy and “The Battle for Australia”.
In 2008 the Federal Government’s then Veterans Affairs Minister, Alan Griffin, announced that the 3rd of September each year is to be known as Merchant Navy Day and that the first Wednesday in September each year will be known as Battle for Australia Day.
The Minister for Veterans Affairs is quoted in a media release as saying: “Battle for Australia Day’ will commemorate the service and sacrifice of all those who served in defence of Australia in 1942 and 1943 when we faced the gravest threats to our nation. Prime Minister John Curtin announced the Battle for Australia when Singapore fell on 15th February 1942. However, the first Wednesday in September has been chosen by the veteran community as it represents the first defeat of Japanese forces on land in the Battle of Milne Bay.”
Here in Newcastle ‘The Battle for Australia’ service is supported and funded by the Newcastle City Council and the Newcastle District Council of RSL Sub-Branches and other organizations.
I believe that it is indeed a great tragedy that the commemoration of Victory in the Pacific Day has been allowed to be replaced by ‘The Battle for Australia’ service.
Today let us remember what many others appear to have forgotten.
Copyright David H Dial OAM
