It is 70 years since the young sailor was in the city while his ship was finishing up a refit.

"I can remember being in town when the news came that the war was over," he said.

"They call Adelaide the city of churches and normally the people were pretty staid. [But] not on this day. They were even kissing the police horses."

Mr Holyoake said peace had come as a surprise to him.

"We knew, of course, that the bombs had been dropped and that they were very powerful," he said. "But we had nothing to compare it against; we didn't know what an atomic bomb was."

It wasn't until years later, when he was based out of Japan, that Mr Holyoake got to visit Hiroshima.

"Then you could see why," he said. "They had got the trains running but you could see where the buildings had been (completely) destroyed. There were many people with terrible scars from the blast and the burns."

Mr Holyoake can't say whether or not the use of the atomic weapons on Japan was justified.

"You would need to have read a lot more about this and be a lot cleverer and wiser than I am to say one way or the other," he said.

"I know what happened; I saw the aftermath and it was terrible. On the other hand you have to look at what would have happened if the Allies had been forced to invade the main islands of Japan. That could have been even more terrible."

Mr Holyoake, whose age was put up by his father so he could join the navy in 1940, spent most of the war aboard the HMAS Hobart, a cruiser and the sister ship to HMAS Sydney and HMAS Perth.

He saw action in the Mediterranean, the Battle of Coral Sea and across the Pacific before joining HMAS Rockhampton in 1944.

Canberra is marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War Two with a range of separate events and observances at the Australian War Memorial this Saturday.

Karl James, the AWM's senior historian, will be hosting the temporary installation of a Japanese jungle tank, a Type 95 Ha Go at the parade ground.

A Victory in the Pacific war and art symposium is to be held at the memorial from 10.15am. It will examine the creative response to the war.

Canberra's major V-P Day observance, the wreath laying ceremony in the western courtyard, is to be held at noon.

The Chief of Navy, Vice Admiral Tim Barrett AO CSC; Chief of Army, Lieutenant General Angus Campbell DSC AM; Chief of Air Force Air Marshal Leo Davies AO CSC and AWM director Dr Brendan Nelson will be in attendance.

The Chief of Defence Force, Air Marshal Mark Binskin AC, is to attend the Last Post Ceremony at 4.45pm in the main commemorative area of the memorial.