What is it about political correctness these days that not
only precludes us from telling the truth about telling the truth, but also
introduces this faux anti-hubris that somehow allows the retrospective falsifying
of history to become the current version of events?

Have I missed something in the
recent none-too-subtle shift from celebrating VJ Day (yesterday 15th
August) to this new-fangled VP Day? My Da joined the RAAF on the 20th
of February 1940, aged 19 years and three months. He was but a boy, but he spent
the next five years in the Pacific fighting “the Japs” – not “the Pacific” –
(just so he could come home in time to bump me into the early baby-boomer stats
for 1948). I take it that “Victory over Japan Day” (VJ) got its nomenclature to
separate it from “V-Day” (or Victory Day) which followed the “D-Day” invasion
and, only later, became known as “VE” (Victory in Europe) Day in the public
domain to distinguish the latter from the former. VJ Day, to this day, is
celebrated on August 15, in Europe, America, New Zealand and Japan – why not in
Australia any more?

I understand that the words “Jap” and “Nip” could be
perceived as derogatory in this day and age and are “old potatoes.” But, if you
look at the newspapers from 1945, you will find them in all the page one
headlines of the time. I don’t have a scintilla of anti-Japanese sentiment in
the bones of my body, but I reckon I owe it to my old dead Da to call VJ Day, VJ
Day, and not VP Day. I also highly recommend the recently published book by
husband-and-wife team – Ryoko Adachi and Andrew McKay – called Shadows of
War, where Second World War veterans like my father share their feelings
about the war, about the Japanese, and about relations between Australia and the
old enemy. Let’s start by getting the VJ Day name right.