Second World War II veterans gather at Kings Park to mark 80th Anniversary of Victory in the Pacific Day

Bugles cried out across the Swan River from the State War Memorial as one of the final opportunities to commemorate the historic day with some of the 100 living Second World War II veterans in WA. A crowd of soldiers, veterans and their families and officials bowed their heads to remember the moment Imperial Japan’s unconditional surrender brought an end to the Second World War in 1945. Among the mass stood 22 living veterans of the Second World War — the final torchbearers of a generation who witnessed the unimaginable. RSL WA State president Duncan Anderson said he felt a mixture of pride and sadness knowing it could have been one of the last ceremonies with WWII veterans in attendance. “(I feel) really, really proud,” Mr Anderson said. “Also really, really sad, because it is the closing of a chapter, so yeah, mixed emotions. “There’s still a very healthy number of World War two veterans around in Australia, and to have 20 odd here today was just special.” WWII veteran Frederick Marshall, 100, said he felt “happy” to see so many people gather at Kings Park to honour VP Day, but said nothing would ever compare to finding out Japan had surrendered. “I was at a holding unit in Cumberland in England, waiting for a ship, and we were in bed,” he said. “Somebody on the ground yelled out, the war was over and the mess is open. “So we went down to have a little celebration.” Before war broke out in 1939, Mr Marshall had been working on a farm at Kojonup driving teams of horses behind a plough. He enlisted in the air crew reserve when he was 17 in 1941 and in November 1942 went into the Royal Australian Air Force full time. When he graduated he was still considered too young to be sent overseas, so he was posted to air observers school in South Australia as a staff pilot. Mr Marshall said becoming a staff pilot was the reason he was still alive. “I would have been dead if it wasn’t for my age, I got it easy,” he said. “Everything happened for a reason.” Mr Marshall said coming home to Perth was very “satisfactory” when the war ended. “It was different, it was back to civilian living,” he said. “It was very very satisfactory . . . I was lucky, I had my family to come home to.” Mr Marshall’s father served in World War I, and his son went on to serve 30 years in the Australian Army. “I wouldn’t say he inspired me to join, but he certainly encouraged me,” his son David Marshall said. Hilton Doust, a former Army veteran and one of the oldest attendees at 101 years old, stepped forward to recite The Ode. Stewart Campbell, another 100-year-old WWII veteran, travelled all the way from Bunbury to attend the service in Perth on Friday. Surprisingly, Mr Campbell looked back on his time as an air gunner in the war fondly but he did have one complaint. “The beer supply was poor,” he said. “But, yes, it was scary at times.” Across the country, Victory in the Pacific Day commemoration services were also held at Martin Place in Sydney, the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne and the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese attended the event in Sydney, where in a speech he said: “As we gather in the very place so many Australians celebrated that day, we reflect on what victory meant — and what it cost.”