VJ Day, or Victory over Japan Day, is commemorated on August 15 each year and marks the date in 1945 when Japan surrendered to the Allied forces, bringing World War II to an end after nearly six years.
King Charles III and Queen Camilla, along with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, attend a special VJ Day remembrance service at the National Memorial Arboretum in Alrewas, Staffordshire. During the national service of remembrance, the King and Queen laid flowers in tribute. Around 33 men, now aged between 96 and 105, who served in the military in the Far East and Pacific, were the guests of honour at the event.
Meanwhile, Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako attend a memorial service marking the 80th anniversary of Japan's surrender. In a national ceremony at Tokyo's Nippon Budokan Hall, about 4500 officials, bereaved families, and their descendants from around the country observed a moment of silence at noon - the time when the then-emperor Hirohito's surrender speech began on August 15, 1945.
In the United States, VJ Day is officially acknowledged on September 2, the day of the formal signing of the Instrument of Surrender aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Japan's Tokyo Bay.
Thank you for drawing attention to these historical dates! I recently finished reading a nonfiction book set in WWII that really laid bare the horrors of the war.
ReplyDeleteWhat did you read? I'd love to check it out. I read a lot of World War II non-fiction in college; my degree was in History.
DeleteIt's called The Lady in Gold by Anne-Marie O'Conner. The first portion of the book relays the Jewish wealthy and art patronizing high society Viennese. One family in particular had a member pose for Gustav Klimt- and was the lady in gold in his masterpiece of the same name. When Austria surrendered to Hitler, the Jews in Vienna had to give up their possessions and leave or else face death. Thanks largely due to wealth, some members of one family made it out and to America. Later, the Austrian government insisted that much of the artwork that the Third Reich accumulated was given voluntarily to the Germans so it no longer belonged to the Jewish families that fled. One woman of the family who posed for Klimt was in her late 80's and living in California when a lawyer convinced her to try to reclaim the portrait as hers and not Austria's since her entire family either fled or were killed by the Germans. The book was so well written- I'm not super into art and didn't know much about Klimt but I enjoyed this book a lot. I think you'd like it!
DeleteThey made in into a movie - Woman in Gold with Helen Mirren. It was excellent but there will be so much more in the book. I'll have to look for it, thank you.
DeleteVery interesting reminder of this not so long ago history. My mother lived through all of this and I never asked her what she remembered.
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