Victory in the Pacific - 75th Anniversary

Victory in the Pacific Day (VP Day) is celebrated 15 August. This day is also known as Victory over Japan Day (VJ Day). This date commemorates  Japan's acceptance of the Allied demand for unconditional surrender 14 August 1945. For Australians, it meant that the Second World War was finally over. In August 1945, Australian governments gazetted a public holiday as VP Day and most newspapers reported it as such. However, the governments of Britain, the United States and New Zealand preferred VJ Day. It is not true, as some have claimed, that the day was originally called VJ and that the name was surreptitiously changed later.

Read the Heritage Centre publication Victory in the Pacific 75th Anniversary