Remembering the fight in South-east Asia: Private ceremony at Kranji Memorial to mark 75th anniversary of Japan's WWII defeat

Japan. Noon, 75 years ago. Emperor Hirohito, in a historic speech broadcast on radio, told his people to stop fighting, ending nearly six years of global war.

In what is now known as the first time a Japanese emperor has spoken directly to his people, the defeated ruler explained the surrender in a four-minute address.

"It is according to the dictates of time and fate that we have resolved to pave the way for a grand peace for all the generations to come by enduring the unendurable and suffering what is not sufferable."

To commemorate the endurance and suffering of the other side, a private ceremony was held yesterday at Kranji War Cemetery.

It remembered the Singapore veterans and Allied soldiers who fought against the Japanese in South-east Asia in World War II, for whom the Emperor's speech marked a tentative end, not the beginning, of pain.

Yesterday, the British High Commission began a post on Facebook with "Lest we forget".

"We owe to them a debt of gratitude," it added, referring to "the men and women who fought for our freedom in WWII".

More than 24,000 Allied soldiers died fighting in the region, with no known graves.

Across the world, 75 million people, including 40 million civilians, perished in the most destructive war the world has ever experienced.

At the ceremony, attended by British High Commissioner to Singapore Kara Owen, defence advisers from Australia, Canada, India, Malaysia, New Zealand and Britain, as well as veterans from Singapore, a minute of silence was observed.

Wreaths were also laid.

On Sept 2, 1945, Japan finally signed the surrender documents at Tokyo Bay on board American battleship USS Missouri, ending World War II.

Ten days later, the Japanese surrender ceremony in Singapore was held. It was then, at the Municipal Building of Singapore, now known as City Hall, that the occupation of South-east Asia was brought to an end.