Today is an almost forgotten day

[Pressman]

The formal announcement of Japan's surrender was 75 years ago today. The actual surrender documents were signed on 2 September.


VJ Day.

[Minerat]

Thanks Pressman, my dad was in the Pacific theater on a LST. The flag will go up for sure today.

[bullet maker 57]

Thanks for the reminder. My FIL was in the Pacific during the war.

[bedbugbilly]

Thanks Pressman . . . . we need to be reminded of these anniversaries and take a few quiet moments to say a prayer for those that sacrificed to achieve victory.

My uncle, my mother's brother, was on the U.S.S. Cimmaron - ship's doctor and I believe he and his ship were in Tokyo Bay at the time of the surrender.

Just before my mother passed away, I was talking with her one night as i sat up with her and I asked her about where she was when she heard about Pearl Harbor. She couldn[t recall that but she said she can still remember VJ Day. Her first husband had been killed in a car accident in 1940 just a few months after they were married. During the war, she worked as executive secretary to the President of Red Motors in Lansing, MI. fOr course Rea Motors was in full swing for war production like every other factory . . . one of her duties was to organize bond drives for Rea and promote support for eh war effort. She lived in a small apartment within walking distance of the plant and she said that she remembered that before they had even received the news at the plant, all of sudden every church bell and car horn was blowing in the city. People were celebrating in the streets most of the night. As she left the plant for the night, she walked to a nearby diner where she often ate and she remembered that she had a ham sandwich that night and the only people in the diner were her, a waitress and a cook. I asked her if she went out and celebrated and she just smiled and laughed. She saiid that her job often required her to work 12 hours a day seven days a week and she had just finished working a 12 hour day and all she wanted to do was go home to bed - but that she felt a great feeling of relief at the news. She said she went home, went to bed and said a prayer and fell asleep wondering where her brother was at.

God bless their generation.

[mickbr]

My grandfathers on both sides of the family fought the Japanese. One was a survivor of the Porton Plantation Massacre, a very bungled military offensive the Aussies put on to impress Macarthur. The japs efforts were failing in that area, supply lines down, the policy was to let them starve out in that particular region. But the big guy was doing the rounds, so a few of our commanders decided to put on a show of hitting Porton with a beach landing and shoot up what was left of the japs. Turned out the japs werent as 'scarce, starved nor demoralised' as intelligence suggested. Furthermore the landing craft were beached coming in on a sandbank and the coral reefs, the fellas had to swim in under heavy fire by the japs support weapons from what turned out to be a sizable land force. Real Saving Private Ryan type stuff, except they never took the beach. My grandfather holed down for the night with whoever else made it until the tide turned and set what was left of the landing craft free.... and then they swam back out again under fire! No one knows what Gen Macarthurs reactions were to that as the bungle was covered up in our media for 50 years. The operation was only brought to light when a daughter of an officer who died in it decided to research just what happened and wrote a book.

My grandfather never hated the japs after the war. When he saw the footage of Hiroshima and Nagasaki years later, particularly the effects on the kids, he remarked "they are people just like us"

[varmintpopper]

I am old enough to remember the celebration that went on that day, the streets were full of people dancing around , confetti flying out the office windows, kissing and hugging , church bells , car horns, shooting into the air, smiles on everyone's face, shaking hands with everyone , It was a wonderful feeling and such a relief for the War to be over.

Good Shooting

Lindy

[salpal48]

I was born Alter the war, My father and his 2 other brothers served went in Jan, 1941. Later i found out appox 30 of my relatives , some blood and some Via mariage served as well. Some made it , Some did not. My older cousin , Spent the war in a japanese POW camp .He made It ,but was never right again.
God bless all who Served

[curiousgeorge]

My dad was in the battalion engineers attached to Patton's 3rd army. Battle of the Bulge, Bastogne, putting a bailey bridge across the Rhine one night with 88's coming down on them, and a visit to one of the death camps. After that they put him on a troop ship headed to the Philippines. They had just gone through the Panama Canal when they were told about the bombs and the surrender. He always would say that the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were a terrible thing to happen to the Japanese people, but so would a 10 year invasion of the Japanese islands.

Thanks Ken for reminding us of an important day to remember.

[fatnhappy]

My uncle Jack, my uncle Jim and their best friend Wolfie (2nd generation german immigrant) all enlisted together after Christmas 1941. They all went to the European theater. My uncle Jack was the only one to survive, mainly because he earned an Army appointment to West Point in 43. Chances are pretty good that had we not dropped the bombs he’d have been killed during invasion X.

My maternal uncle Earl served on the smallest tin can in the pacific from March of 42 to VJ Day. . He got lucky.


They were both eternally grateful to Truman.