eightieth anniversary of Victory within the Pacific

Eighty years in the past, Prime Minister Ben Chifley started his tackle to the nation with a sentence of excellent simplicity – and infinite energy:

Fellow residents, the conflict is over.

The signing of the give up was some weeks off, however the darkness that had engulfed the world – and made its final stand within the Pacific – was ultimately lifted.

Here in Sydney – as they did in cities and cities throughout Australia – crowds poured into the streets. They sang and danced amid a joyous blizzard of paper.

Chifley, who had seen his pal and predecessor John Curtin worn down by the gravity of conflict management, turned his phrases to all who had fought the darkness – however not lived to see the sunshine.

“Let us remember those whose lives were given that we may enjoy this glorious moment and may look forward to a peace which they have won for us.

Let us remember those whose thoughts, with proud sorrow, turn towards gallant, loved ones who will not come back. …  Nothing can fully repay the debt we owe them nor can history record in adequate terms their deeds”.

Chifley spoke, too, of the house entrance, the women and men who had “performed miracles of production … so that the battle of supply could be won”.  

Between us and that extraordinary day, eight a long time now stretch. At this distance, the story of World War II has change into set in our reminiscences.

The Allied victory over tyranny has, on reflection, taken on a really feel of inevitability.

Part of the debt we owe to all who served our nation is to remind ourselves how shut historical past got here to taking a distinct path.

And to recollect and honour each Australian – and each pal and each ally – who gave all the pieces to make sure it didn’t.

Across Europe and North Africa.

Across Asia and the Pacific, and even throughout our personal shores.

We consider all of the tales of braveness. Of resilience and exhaustion, of concern and elation, and an infinite eager for the house that so many by no means noticed once more.

These usually are not tales rendered in bronze or marble, however written in flesh and blood.

Stories of strange folks going through the extraordinary.

Facing loss, securing victory.

Stories of mateship tempered within the fireplace of fight.

We consider all we owe to each Australian who served in our identify.

Every Australian who fell, and each Australian who got here dwelling however might by no means go away the battle.

Every household that felt the delight and weight of a liked one who placed on the uniform. Every household that knew the grief that had no ending, solely a starting.

As we collect within the very place so many Australians celebrated that day, we replicate on what victory meant – and what it price.

Every life and dream and future swallowed in that vortex of insanity and cruelty, from each battlefield and each burning metropolis, from the prisoner of conflict camps to the unprecedented horror of the focus camps.

These had been nightmares made actual – not by monsters however by human beings in a grotesque perversion of humanity.

Yet, as we really feel that weight, our hearts are lifted by each Australian who stood towards it.

Amid the shadows of conflict, the facility of their braveness and the energy of their character is a lightweight that may be a beacon to us nonetheless.

They confirmed us what it’s to stay true to ourselves, it doesn’t matter what.

They confirmed us what it means to face shoulder to shoulder with buddies and allies.

And collectively, they turned the tide.

As we stand right here immediately, consider everybody who gathered 80 years in the past.

Think of the noise of their elation.

And, hanging within the air simply past the sound of their happiness, the silence of those that by no means got here dwelling.

A silence that touched each nook of our continent, from the largest metropolis to the smallest nation city.

As we do, we return to a different sentence whose simplicity is matched solely by its energy:

Lest we overlook.