Crowd celebrating in street
Melbourne has probably never seen such an outbreak of spontaneous public rejoicing, across all age groups, as it did on 'VP' Day (Victory in the Pacific), 15 August 1945. This marked the end of the war with the Japanese in the Pacific. War in Europe with the German forces had ended some months earlier.
Photographer unknown, 1945
Accession number: H98.101/321
From the State Library of Victoria's Pictures collection. Gift of The Age (Melbourne, Vic.), 1976