Victory over Japan in Singapore in 1945

On August 15, 2025, many countries will commemorate the 80th anniversary of Victory over Japan (VJ) Day, which marked the end of World War II. It was a conflict which, in the Asia-Pacific alone, cost over 25 million lives, wrought devastation and heralded the start of civil wars. This year’s commemorations will be orderly and predictable. A far cry from the first VJ Day in Singapore in August 1945.

On 15th August 1945, Emperor Hirohito announced that the Imperial government would accept the terms of the Potsdam Declaration in which the Allied powers demanded Japan’s unconditional surrender. He spoke at length in classical Japanese to an audience unfamiliar with his voice and his arcane language. Prudently, he did not utter the word ‘surrender,’ but this confused the listeners. Indeed, it fell to a radio announcer to clarify that Japan had surrendered.

In some quarters, the Emperor’s decision was received with outrage and insubordination.  Okamura, Commander of the China Expeditionary Army said, “Such a disgrace as the surrender of several million troops without fighting is not paralleled in the world's military history, and it is absolutely impossible to submit to unconditional surrender of a million picked troops, in perfectly healthy shape.”  General Yamada of the Kwantung Army in Northern China countermanded the order to cease fire and continued fighting until August 24th.

Meanwhile, thousands of miles away in Europe, the news was greeted with relief and jubilation.

August 1945 – VJ Day crowds dancing in Oxford Circus, London. Courtesy of IWM (EA75898)

Spontaneous singing and dancing erupted on the streets of London, a joy unmatched in Singapore for fear of retribution against the Prisoners of War (POWs) and civilian internees. 

At that time, there were 12,000 POWs in Changi camp, a further 4,000 elsewhere on the island and 4,500 civilian internees in Sime Road Internment Camp.

On 15th August, General Seishiro Itagaki, commander-in-chief of the Seventh Area Army, had 60,000 troops under his command in Singapore. He was a hard-liner and, like his superior officer, Field Marshall Count Terauchi, was reluctant to comply with the Emperor’s command to surrender.

Inside Changi, the POWs had hidden radios so they were aware of the surrender and there were rumours circulating in the civilian camp. However, there were no official announcements from their captors and life largely continued as normal. As time wore on, the situation became farcical and confusing. 

On the 18th August for instance, George Peet, a civilian internee at Sime Road, recorded : “Last Thursday a POW officer was said to have shouted over the fence that the war was over and that the relieving troops would arrive on the 25th… Yesterday afternoon a couple of lorries with Asiatics passed the camp and their occupants were said to have shouted the same news. Today we heard that work on the tunnels had stopped… there would be no more outside fatigues… the sawmill has stopped work… the remaining 300-odd Red Cross parcels have been released… But alas! While we were eating our midday meal the deep drone of one of our planes was heard, and ack-ack all over the island."

Changi POW Captain Jack Ennis, a doctor in the Indian Medical Service, heard it too," writing, “At 1245hrs one of our bombers came over low, he was heavily fired on from all over, north and north-east of us. Fighter planes went up after him. Koreans lined up by “Y” at 2030hrs and told that the War was over, but Japan had not surrendered unconditionally.” 

Sime Road camp. Internees queue up for a meal. Courtesy – IWM London (HU66243)

Britain’s South-East Asia Command needed to establish whether or not Itagaki would abide by the surrender or fight on, but he would not co-operate and requests for information were ignored. It therefore fell to Captain O’Shanohun, a British staff signals officer, to parachute into Singapore on 19th August to find out in person.

In the meantime, Field Marshall Count Terauchi had been persuaded to obey the Emperor’s order by one of his emissaries, Prince Chichibu (Image/Flickr CC).

On 18th August, Terauchi subsequently ordered Itagaki to accept the surrender and co-operate with the Allies. This was communicated to O’Shanohun on 19th, and the same day the POWs were officially informed that the war was over.

However, it was not until 24th August, that the civilian internees were officially told and simultaneously warned ‘that every care should be exercised to avoid…any incident which might lead to misunderstanding and trouble between internees and Nipponese troops who will guard the camp until the arrival of British troops.’  The internees own leaders therefore told them to stay put and carry on as normal, an instruction unpopular with some behind the wire.  

Freddy Bloom was a nine-day bride when she was interned in Changi jail, and her new husband,  Major Philip Bloom, carted off to Changi POW camp. She was devoted to him, so when told of the surrender, Freddy, and another military wife, decided they had to see their loved ones. She wrote in her diary, “We were told to stay where we were until the situation had been clarified. This was a sensible idea but it did not suit me… so one day in the last week of August, Katherine and I put on our very best dresses which we had saved for just such an occasion, and with John Dobie… crawled under the barbed wire and out of the Camp.

With studied sang froid… we hailed a taxi and told him to drive us to the Changi POW camp….at Changi gates John left us. The man on duty…controlled himself long enough to tell us that the hospital was at the end of the avenue to the left... Philip was not there and nobody knew where he might be. Then somebody remembered that he had gone to see an old friend and rushed off to fetch him, and I was taken to the room he shared with a dozen other doctors. His bed was pointed out to me… He had a sheet on it. The sheet was clean…but it had been mended with different coloured threads in the most incompetent cobbling stitches… I looked at that sheet and began to cry. Then he came in and put his arms around me. I buried my head in his chest and sobbed all over him.” 

Stanley Durstan, POW and his wife, a civilian internee with their daughter, Barbara who was born in Changi goal. September 1945. Repatriation Ship. Courtesy IWM

The celebrations that had swept through Europe on 15th August were long gone by the time the POWs and internees eventually returned home. Yet, they did not need singing and dancing.

Their quiet victory over Japan was their survival in mind and body, and their determination to rebuild their lives.

Asia Media Centre