7 communication and that the formal event was scheduled for September 2. In his announcement of Japan's surrender on August 14, President Truman said that "the proclamation of V-J Day must wait upon the formal signing of the surrender terms by Japan". Since the European Axis Powers had surrendered three months earlier (V-E Day), V-J Day would be the official end of World War II. In Australia and most other allied nations, the name V-P Day was used from the outset. The Canberra Times of August 14, 1945, refers to VP Day celebrations, and a public holiday for VP Day was gazetted by the government in that year according to the Australian War Memorial.
Death march to Sandakan The story below is reproduced from the Launceston Examiner on 11 Aug 2012. Ed MANY of the Tasmanians who ended up in the Sandakan prisoner of war camp were caught in the fall of Singapore in 1942. Records show nearly 1500 prisoners of B Force were taken from Changi in Singapore to Sandakan. They arrived on the tramp ship Ubi Maru in Sandakan Harbour on July 18, 1942, to build an airstrip. The Australian War Memorial website records that the prisoners were initially treated reasonably well. "Gradually, however, rations were reduced and bashings increased,'' the website said. As the war progressed, the Allies pushed towards Borneo and the Japanese decided in late 1944 that they would send 2000 Australian and British prisoners west to the island's rugged interior. Their destination was to be the town of Ranau, 260 kilometres away along jungle tracks _ a murderous task for men weakened by disease and ill treatment. A further tragedy of Sandakan was that the atrocities occurred when the end of World War II was in sight. ``Many died on the way, their bodies never recovered,'' the war memorial site records. ``Those unable to continue were killed; those too weak to march had been left behind in Sandakan, where all died or were killed. ``Only six Australians out of about 1000 sent to Ranau survived the war. ``The Sandakan death march remains the greatest single atrocity committed against Australians in war.'' August 15 was chosen as Sandakan Day because it was the date of the 1945 Japanese surrender.