I have been looking to see if anyone else was going to remind us that today is VJ Day. I actually went to a small local memorial service this morning. Not many there as the local branch of Burma Star Assoc has had to close. Sylvia
Always remembered by Dad, but just a visit to the local church. This is the day that many of the POWs noticed the Japanese guards started to behave "strangely". Many slaving routines changed, and guards relaxed their brutality. Rumours abounded, but few had anything confirmed for several days. Just the beginning of the end. Hundreds still died through starvation and disease over the next few weeks though. That must be one of the hardest facts to know that a loved one died after the war was over. Several even died when the Americans dropped oil drums with emergency food supplies, and the parachutes failed to open. On Formosa one drum crashed through a hospital roof and killed 3 men. Mike
I have been flicking through some RAAF unit histories (ORBs) recently and attached are a few pages showing the reactions at a couple of squadrons to the end of hostilities.
It does not sneak by for those who remember the original VJ Day, just as we shall never forget the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki days previously: Brothers and sisters, we must watch and take care That the third atom bomb never comes. Ishigu Astu, translated by Ewan McCall
This, from my original posting on the BBC PEOPLE'S war; VJ DAY Tuesday 14th August 1945 I remember the day well even though I’ve long since lost the original diary entry. Our Squadron was in Trieben in Austria at the time, ,controlling the roads leading into Germany and I had just come off the road-block guard in the early afternoon. I was changing from my guard uniform into more comfortable gear when I heard the wireless in the next room creating quite a racket. I went next door to see what was going on and found myself the only one there. I realised that my mates were probably eating dinner in the mess-hall and that they must have been listening earlier and had then left the set on. It was VE Day all over again. The announcer back in London was describing the noisy scene as tens of thousands of jubilant servicemen and civilians swarmed the streets. As on VE Day I felt no emotion at all, if anything, I probably felt like a kid who had not been invited to a party and who was now watching the lucky ones coming home with their party bags. The short explanation was that the end of the war had come too late for my older brother Jack, G-d rest his soul. On the 11th of May, just three days after VE Day, I had received a letter from home telling me that Jack, who was an Air-Gunner, had been shot down over Nuremberg on the last such raid of the war. The loss to his widow, his two young children and to all of our family was as incalculable then as it is today some fifty odd years later and our family was never to be the same again. Ron
74th Anniversary of VJ Day and also the end of WW2. Hope you're all not forgetting. Tim Edit: Sorry Clive just noticed you remembered on another thread. Mod edit: Merged threads
We will Remember them , or do we, Have not seen a mention of VJ Day except on here. The only WW2 survivor I met who actually spoke about the war was a workmate captured in Singapore. I wish I had asked more questions. He hated all things Japanese and said he would never forgive them. He would not get into a Japanese Car and could not understand why anybody else would.. He resigned from the local serviceman's Club when they had Mitsubishi air-conditioning fitted and never returned. He was bewildered by his capture having believed our propaganda Japanese were. Almost dwarfs. Short sighted wearing bottle end glasses. Therefore could not aim a rifle. Did not understand mechanical things. Could not fly aircraft as they were carried on their mothers backs as babies??? Said his first shock when he was captured by a 6 foot plus member of the Imperial Guard.. Was shipped out on the .....Maru ( I think he said this was sunk or attacked ? not sure) His guards were brutal Koreans On being freed they strangled headguard with his own tie as relieving troops looked on.. But that is all in the past and seldom mentioned nowadays.