OCCASIONAL DISPLAYS

PREVIOUS DISPLAYS

The entries below are reminders of some of our previous displays set up within the Room.

In the latter part of 2025, a display focused on the end of the war in the Pacific. Photos below show some of the newspaper front-page articles which were published during the first days of August 1945. There is also a photo of the Surrender document signed by the Commander of the Japanese forces in SE Asia and accepted by the Commander of the Seventh Australian Division. Click on either photo to access a closer view of each, on a separate page.

The Japanese surrender was a moment of extraordinary and special relief, for the thousands of soldiers who had been kept Prisoners of War for three and a half years. One of those was Cpl Vin McColl who was stationed in Singapore with many others on that fateful day, now referred to as The Fall of Singapore.

After many years of silence and with much difficulty, one evening Vin spoke about some of his experiences. His wife recorded them in the form of hastily written notes which have been transcribed below. Move the cursor over the document and click the small square at the top right of the document to open it in a new page for easier reading.