Today is the 60th anniversary of Victory in Japan Day, when Imperial Japan announced its surrender to end World War II. The BBC reported it this way in 1945:
Japan has surrendered to the Allies after almost six years of war.There is joy and celebration around the world and 15 August has been declared Victory in Japan day.
The end of war will be marked by two-day holidays in the UK, the USA and Australia.
After days of rumour and speculation, US President Harry S Truman broke the good news at a press conference at the White House at 1900 yesterday.
He said the Japanese Government had agreed to comply in full with the Potsdam declaration which demands the unconditional surrender of Japan.
Supreme Commander General Douglas MacArthur will receive the official Japanese surrender, arrangements for which are now under way.
Later, in an address to a crowd that had gathered outside the White House President Truman said: "This is the day we have been waiting for since Pearl Harbor. This is the day when Fascism finally dies, as we always knew it would."
But he warned that the task of creating a lasting peace still lay ahead.
At midnight, the British Prime Minister Clement Atlee confirmed the news in a broadcast saying, "The last of our enemies is laid low."
He expressed gratitude to Britain's allies, in the Dominions of Australia and New Zealand, India, Burma, all countries occupied by Japan and to the USSR. But special thanks went to the United States "without whose prodigious efforts the war in the East would still have many years to run".
Last week, Newsweek published a decent article about the Pacific War: "War without Mercy," a title which certainly describes that harsh, costly campaign.
A willingness to die is nothing new in warfare. Men have given their lives and commanders have willingly sacrificed their men since they were fighting with stones and spears. But no nation has ever intentionally, methodically sacrificed its soldiers on the scale of Japan in World War II, and no nation has ever responded more purposefully or with such overwhelming force as the United States. Americans remember World War II as the Good War and its veterans as the Greatest Generation. But especially in the Pacific, where America was up against an island empire that refused to give in short of death, it was a brutal, vicious war.Thanks in part to the film "Saving Private Ryan" and a series of moving anniversary celebrations, Americans tend to focus on D-Day and the liberation of Europe from Nazi rule. But a bloodier, more brutal battle was fought at Okinawa between April and June 1945, and that engagement, which cost some 12,000 American and 200,000 Japanese lives, was a mere skirmish compared with the carnage that would have been wreaked by an invasion of Japan, scheduled to begin in the fall.
Don Dencker, an Army infantryman who carried a mortar on Okinawa, was shocked to see that the captain played by Tom Hanks in "Private Ryan" wore his captain's bars on his helmet at D-Day. At Okinawa, says Dencker, "we stripped our insignia, including the red crosses on medics." Captains and medics just made for more tempting targets. "It was a war without mercy. It was kill or be killed—no prisoners," Dencker, now 80, recalls to Newsweek. "Our chaplain carried an M-1 rifle, and he used it."
Japan apologized again today for its crimes.
Japan's leader apologized for Tokyo's wartime colonization and invasions on the 60th anniversary of the country's surrender on Monday, after other Asian nations marked event by honoring their dead and demanding compensation for their losses.Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi pledged that Japan would never forget the "terrible lessons'' of the war, and expressed his ''deep reflections and heartfelt'' sorrow for the damages.
The anniversary of Japan's surrender - Aug. 15, 1945 - inspired commemorations across Asia on Sunday and Monday, including a rare joint event by North and South Korea.
Koizumi, in a written statement marking his second apology for the war to Asian neighbors this year, recognized the suffering his nation inflicted. "Our country has caused great damages and pain to people in many countries, especially our Asian neighbors, through colonization and invasion.''
He added: "We will not forget the terrible lessons of the war, and will contribute to world peace and prosperity.''
Later, many Japanese held a moment of silence as Emperor Akihito and other officials gathered to express sorrow and pledge to work toward peace.
Millions died or suffered unspeakably. Many have not forgiven Japan to this day.
"I can accept the fact that the young generation of Japanese is not to blame. It was their fathers and grandfathers. But until they own up, they'll always be a pariah nation,'' said 84-year-old Baden Jones, an Australian.He was among former POWs who honored fallen comrades at a ceremony in Kanchanaburi, Thailand, Sunday where many of the 12,000 prisoners who died building Japan's jungle railway were buried.
VJ Day brought an enormous sense of relief around the world, especially for the weary troops poised to begin the bloody assault of Japan itself.
If you are ever in central Texas, plan to spend at least a half-day visiting the National Museum of the Pacific War, also known as the "Nimitz Museum," in scenic Fredericksburg. It not only provides excellent museum exhibits but also collects and displays a large variety of personal items (letters, medals, souvenirs, mementos, etc.) donated by Pacific War veterans and their families. It's both educational and moving.
Posted by Alan at August 15, 2005 06:08 AM