Today marks the 79th anniversary of the end of the Second World War.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Known as Victory in the Pacific \u2013 or VP Day – it commemorates Japan\u2019s acceptance of the Allied demand for unconditional surrender.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Australia had been at war for five years, 11 months and 11 days when on 15 August 1945, news broke that the war was finally over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Australian forces were engaged in campaigns across the Pacific \u2013 in New Guinea, Bougainville, New Britain, Borneo, and in the Philippines \u2013 and Australian prisoners of the Japanese were spread throughout Asia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A number of commemorative services are being held across NSW and around the world to commemorate this day and acknowledge the service of our veterans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Second World War veteran Don Kennedy was the guest speaker at the VP Day commemoration held at the Cenotaph in Martin Place Sydney. He had his first experience in the Merchant Navy in February 1944 at the age of 16, cruising out through the Heads on the Seirstad, destined for the Atlantic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although Mr Kennedy wasn\u2019t trained to fight in the war or even acknowledged as a member of the services at the time, the commitment he and others made in the Merchant Navy was no less significant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was one of many veterans who shared their story in 2020 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. View the veterans\u2019 stories here: https:\/\/www.warmemorialsregister.nsw.gov.au\/nsw-stories\/theme\/75th-anniversary-stories<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Minister for Veterans David Harris said:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cToday on VP Day we come together to remember all those men and women who served during the Second World War, in our Navy, Army, Air Force, the Merchant Navy and nursing, and thank them for their sacrifices, through conflict and, for many, long periods in captivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe honour the nearly 1 million Australians who served, and the 39,000 Australians who made the ultimate sacrifice for the cause of peace and the freedom we enjoy to this day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAugust 15 is a date our nation will never forget, as it brought an end to the war that was fought so close to our shores.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Second World War veteran Don Kennedy said:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI tell people I was 17 months in the war. There was only half an inch of metal between you and the sea if a torpedo struck the ship. We did what we could to help protect our nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cKeeping watch on board at night was a nerve-wracking experience for crew. All ships navigated without any lights at all on the outside to avoid detection by the enemy. You couldn\u2019t even smoke outside on the deck at night.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Today marks the 79th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. Known as Victory in the Pacific \u2013 or VP Day – it commemorates Japan\u2019s acceptance of the Allied demand for unconditional surrender. Australia had been at war for five years, 11 months and 11 days when on 15 August 1945, news broke … Continue reading “Second World War veterans remembered on VP Day”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nswnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28461"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28462,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28461\/revisions\/28462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}