Skip to main content
Exhibition
EXHIBITION '1945: From Hot War to Cold War'

Assembly Hall, Ground Floor

17 March 2020 8:00pm - 25 February 2021 3:00am
Free
'1945: From Hot War to Cold War' remembers the last year of the Second World War, 75 years on. Using the three principal victory celebrations VE Day, VP Day and VJ Day we examine the experience of Australians in the final phases of the war in Europe, in the campaigns in New Guinea and Borneo, Australia’s role in post-war Asia and the recovery and return to civilian life of Australian service personnel and the domestic wartime economy.
Brad Manera, Senior Curator and Historian, Anzac Memorial
Visit the '1945' Virtual Gallery

The exhibition has been designed to be viewed chronologically. To do this, start at the right side wall and use the prompts to move anti-clockwise around the space. The tour's contents contain audio (indicated by gold rings) and text (indicated by grey rings).

 

The Second World War lasted nearly six years and cost the lives of millions. It also brought huge privations to civilian populations across the globe. '1945: From Hot War to Cold War' showcases the men and women from New South Wales who served in all theatres of the war and also exhibits what life had been like for those left behind at home.

For many, the end of the conflict and the declaration of peace in 1945 brought celebration and rejoicing because the intense strain of the war was finally over. For others who had lost loved ones, there was immense relief, but little to rejoice. Undeniably everyone's lives had irrevocably changed.

The political, economic and social repercussions of the war were felt long after Germany and Japan surrendered; and the post-war world would bring new challenges and conflicts in the guise of what became known as the Cold War.

This exhibition has been generously supported by the British Commonwealth Occupation Force (BCOF) Veterans Association of NSW.

The BCOF force totalled 45,000 personnel from Britain, India, New Zealand, and Australia. Close to 16,000 Australians served in BCOF, including infantry, air force and 130 Australian General Hospital personnel. The Royal Australian Navy also had a presence in the region as part of the British Pacific Fleet.

Their primary objective was to enforce the terms of the unconditional surrender that had ended the Second World War. BCOF was required to maintain military control and supervise the demilitarisation and disposal of the remnants of Japan's war-making capacity. By the end of 1946 the task of demilitarising Japan required less effort and the role of the occupying forces changed. Guard duties and training becoming the main focus. The RAN component of BCOF, with assistance from the RAAF, was responsible for patrolling the Inland Sea, to prevent smuggling and illegal immigration. 

At the peak of its involvement the Australian component of BCOF was responsible for over twenty million Japanese citizens and 57,000 square kilometres of country. By the end of 1948, BCOF was composed entirely of Australians. The force was dismantled on 28 April 1952 when the Japanese Peace Treaty came into effect.

Some of the treasures and the stories behind them, on exhibition in '1945: From Hot War to Cold War'
Members of the 467 Bomber Command at the Waddington RAF station in May 1945. By 1945 Nazi Germany was close to collapse. The RAAF continued the strategic bombing of German cities and industry
Colourful silk maps like this were carried by aircrew to aid their escape if they were shot down. Flight Sergeant (Later W/O) Keith Campbell souvenired this map at the end of the war. Keith was the only survivor of a Halifax bomber that was involved in a mid-air collision close to Stuttgart in November 1944. Campbell was saved by his parachute but was captured and spent the rest of the war as a POW in Stalag VII. He was liberated on 16 May 1945. (Gift of Keith Campbell OAM)
Douglas Millar trained as an air gunner then became an RAAF fighter pilot. He was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross in 1945 as a flight commander with 45 Squadron RAAF. Gift of Gwen Millar.
Guinea Gold - a 4-page printed newspaper was published daily from November 1942 to June 1946 Australian Soldiers with newspaper experience wrote world news stories by taking notes from shortwave radio bulletins.
This map marks where the Navy, Land and Air Forces fought during the war. It was featured in the Department of Information booklet 'While You Were Away; A Digest of Happenings In Australia 1940 – 1945'
When the Japanese armed forces surrendered, tens of thousands of troops were left starving and abandoned in isolated garrisons across the Pacific. Many were out of touch with headquarters or home, and so only learned of their nation’s defeat as a result of Allied aircraft dropping what became known as “surrender leaflets”. Flight Lieutenant Venning’s flying log notes a surrender leaflet drop sortie on 15 August
A photograph of F/L Venning. He was in No 7 Squadron, the first RAAF unit to drop surrender leaflets.
This is Cyril Robertson from Enmore. He had just turned 21 when his 58/59 (militia) Battalion went into action in the jungles of Bougainville in 1945.
These medals, including the Pacific Star (the campaign medal awarded to sailors, soldiers and airmen from around the British Empire who served in the South-West Pacific Area during WWII), were awarded to Private Robertson in recognition of his service with the 58/59th Bn. Although the campaign was an Australian victory, Robertson’s unit suffered a casualty rate of almost 25 per cent in the last months of the war. (Gift of Warren Robertson)
Hiroshima, Japan 1946 - the landscape the Australian BCOF contingent marched into.
This Japanese flag was taken from the ruins of the Japanese naval arsenal at Hiro by Private Ray Hore and his mates from the 66th Battalion, BCOF. The flag is signed by the men of A Company and a few RAAF personnel.
From left to right: armband, diary, documents, camp poster and magazine relating to Major John Champion de Crespigny (gift of ME Serisier); Burma Railway dog spike souvenired by Staff Sgt Thomas Cassidy (gift of John Cassidy); Japanese surrender souvenir leaflet; BCOF personnel information booklet (gift of EJ Collings); BCOF pay books and documents from Cpl James William Bedford (Lent by the Ingleburn Military Precinct Assoc.)
Five Australian former POWs relax with cups of tea and a newspaper after the Japanese surrender. Their thin bodies show the physical effects of captivity. (Courtesy of the Australian War Memorial
This Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) uniform was worn by teenage Lois Homan from Punchbowl. VADs played a vital role supporting military nurses and helping with the repatriation of Australia's sick and wounded prisoners of war.
Here is Miss Homan in her uniform in 1945. Lois's mother, Nellie Homan had served as a VAD during the Great War and went back into uniform for the Second World War. Mother and daughter served together briefly with VA Detachment 204 in Queensland. (Thanks to Lois's son Glenn Wright who gifted his mother's uniform and photograph to the Anzac Memorial Collection.)
Two airmen and a merchant naval officer join civilian revellers and pile on to a car in Sydney to celebrate the announcement of Japan's surrender in August 1945. Courtesy of the Sydney Morning Herald
Official war artist Stella Bowen had Private David Harris sit for this portrait in London while he waited to return home (AWM Art 26277) Wounded by shrapnel in Crete in May 1941, Harris had suffered four years in German prison and labour camps before being liberated. He was released from Stalag VIII-B in Germany in May 1945, but it was two months before transport could be found.
Australia’s home front had changed dramatically during the war. Industry had supplied not only the domestic but also Allied war efforts. Women had replaced men in the workforce to an unprecedented level. We had incarcerated our own and allied enemy aliens, and later POWs, from around the region. Wartime austerity and rationing had been introduced to manage the supply of essentials. At war’s end all of these changes had to be reversed, service personnel repatriated and war wounds nursed.

Other Events