A wreath is laid at the Second World War memorial inside the Moree and District War Memorial Education Centre during a service commemorating the 81st anniversary of Victory in the Pacific. Image: Lila Fisher.
A small service at the Moree and District War Memorial Education Centre has commemorated the 81st anniversary of Victory in the Pacific and remembered those who served during the Second World War.
The service was held at the Second World War memorial inside the centre, where a wreath was laid in remembrance.
Victory in the Pacific Day, known as VP Day, is commemorated in Australia on August 15. On August 15, 1945, prime minister Ben Chifley announced Japan’s surrender and the end of the Second World War.
The announcement came after almost six years of war. The Department of Veterans’ Affairs says almost one million Australians served in the Navy, Army, Air Force and Merchant Navy during the Second World War, and approximately 40,000 lost their lives.
The Moree and District War Memorial Education Centre has its own lasting connection to that history. Its memorial alcove contains an illuminated Book of Remembrance commemorating those who served in the Second World War, together with a sword and two red Flames of Remembrance. The Book of Remembrance includes a roll of honour for those who fell in the 1939–45 war.
More than eight decades after the war ended, the small Moree service continued the tradition of remembering those who served and those who did not return.
