
On 15 August 1945, the Japanese Empire surrendered to the Allies, ending hostilities in the Pacific – World War II was over. 3DB announcer Eric Welch ventured onto the streets of Melbourne to capture the historic moment as millions gathered to celebrate victory.
What this recording captures – more than the newsreels or newspaper accounts of the day – is the sense of unrestrained joy felt by the ordinary Australians who can be heard in the background: laughing, cheering and told repeatedly by Welch himself not to jump onto the outside broadcast van lest it fall over.
History is captured as it's happening, a rare quality among radio broadcasts of the period. It's that for that reason, as much as the event itself, that this recording is of such historic significance.
The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia acknowledges Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work and live and gives respect to their Elders both past and present.