80th anniversary of Victory in the Pacific
Eighty years ago, Prime Minister Ben Chifley began his address to the nation with a sentence of perfect simplicity – and infinite power:
Fellow citizens, the war is over.
The signing of the surrender was some weeks off, but the darkness that had engulfed the world – and made its last stand in the Pacific – was at last lifted.
Here in Sydney – as they did in towns and cities across Australia – crowds poured into the streets. They sang and danced amid a joyous blizzard of paper.



