For the post-war son of a sailor, August 14th is always a sobering and a glorious day as I remember my mother and a nation who listened on the radio as President Truman announced the unconditional surrender of Japan.

We can debate the actual VJ date, it was the 15th across the date line or September 2nd when the documents were formally signed on the deck of the USS Missouri, but for our family and the nation today is the day the surrender was announced and a united country breathed a coast to coast sign of relief.

The flag flies proudly outside ...


... and Dad's "Navies" hang at the front door.


Ever grateful. Never forgotten.

Thank God for your dad and all the others like him.
Mike

A very important day in history for me.

My dad was shipboard en route Okinawa to be cannon fodder for Olympic.

The Japanese had finally seen the light, actually two very bright lights.

We're supposed to feel shame about that.

I feel nothing but admiration for those responsible for bringing that conflict to a conclusion when they did.

It's the very reason I'm here.

Literally tens of millions of Americans and Japanese can say the same thing.

Are we? Can't say that I've ever heard that we should, nor have I ever felt any shame for that. Those two bombs easily saved 10X more lives than they took.

Mom was 15 when she heard the news. She ran home to be with my grandmother awaiting to hear news of her brother Tom's release from capture. He was crew on a B-25 Mitchell of the Air Apachees which was shot down on a mission over Wewak, New Guinea, on October 16, 1943. Radio Tokyo announced his capture with his home address given. At the time, the DOD (Department of War at the time) didn't have the new address so my grandparents knew he was alive at the time of the radio broadcast heard by ham radio shortwave listeners in the NW. He was never heard from again. Gil

Great tributes guys. I am really impressed with how the Japanese honored the surrender, but I am no fan of that mentality that could carry out a Bataan death march. Hat’s off to those great patriots who served the greatest nation.

I just read a long opinion essay in a major Canadian newspaper less than 2 weeks ago specifically suggesting we should feel shame as Canadians for helping to create the bombs that were used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And that as a country we should apologize to Japan for our role in those events. The uranium was enriched not 1 mile from where I sit and type this right now.

So this is how it starts. Don't imagine that there aren't those who work daily to discredit the good that came from the careful use of those bombs at that time.

Thankfully the comments in reaction to the opinion piece were wildly in favour of the author education themselves and shutting up.

But this crap will continue to surface. That's what the left does. Attempt to discredit all institutions and re-write history.

I like what he said “ Ever grateful. Never forgotten.“ Amen Brother!

As above.
Surely, surely. Great depth of gratitude owed to Truman and US citizens.

If you ever spent some time really talking,and especially LISTENING, to a WW2 Vet Marine or Army Veteran who spent the war island hoping in the Pacific you could never feel shame for ending the War ASAP. We owe all of our Veterans a huge debt of gratitude. I salute them all!

Speaking of Canadians, VJ day was monumental for them also as the last few hundred POWs who had survived 4 1/2 years of torture, starvation, and disease were finally released. They had been prisoners since 1940 when the Japanese captured Hong Kong.
My ex-father in law, Col. E.E. Denison was among the group that lived to see freedom once more.

I saw that article CB, written by Sean Howard I think. That guy is a useless peacenik.

Yet still the best way to assure that the "nukin Japan twice was wrong" "movement" gains momentum is to talk about how luny it is.

Likewise the best was to end it is to assure that history is well taught to students. All of it. The good, the bad, the ugly and what you are scared to confront. Don't sugar coat it. Teach it like it was.

I wonder if Sean knew how the intentionally heinous treatment by the Japanese command of POWs, the Chinese, any female, indigenous peoples and so on was done by policy, if he would feel differently about the efficacy of these bombs.

I wonder if he was taught how the Japanese command ordered their own civilians to death to avoid capture on Okinawa, and that in turn lead the US military to anticipate the exact same result on mainland Japan, and favor the use of the bombs to prevent such a catastrophic loss of life.

This kind of stufff is the result of not properly educating people.

Uh oh, there's a revisionist scholar in the house. I came seeking links to snopes, cnn and npr, but I'm left still searching.

Is there? Please, point out how the Japanese acted differently? Any why I would need a snopes article for that?

However, if you are looking fo an example on how a "revisionist" history has been incorrectly taught, historically, then kindly refer to the following;

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/ar...slavery/552098/

and it seems its been that way for a while.

https://richmond.com/discover-richmond/h...6fce52328f.html

Gotta admit, those text books kinda sugar coats things.

I already did. I never would have thought for a moment that two man US outposts scattered through the Japanese country side, right after the war, would have operated in complete comfort and safety. So much so that many troops returned to the US with Japanese brides.

What I do not care at all for is the horrendous brutality and torture suffered by US and Allied POWs at the hands of the 'imperial army' with a faux bow of respect when the US patriot finally took their last breath.

But, that's nothing new. I like to point out the content of your character, the hypocrisy of your snake oil, and the results of your vote. Okay?

Oh, back at this again, eh? I recall you once posting that you thought I was the enemy of your children's future.

I doubt that's changed much, but at least since then I do have a better understanding as to why you don't want me to get those old timey text books out of their hands. Such a bright future for them indeed.

I corresponded with a man, Captain Murphy, who was a POW held by Germans and then transferred to the Japanese where he was a slave laborer in Burma working on the Burma-Thailand railway. As in my mother's family, his family had news of his capture through one of the shortwave radio listeners who monitored Radio Tokyo for news of captured Americans.
He was US Merchant Marine on a ship sunk by a German Q-boat and transferred to a submarine that took him to the Japanese. One of the other prisoners from his sunken ship was separated from him when he was taken to Japan. Years later while vacationing with his wife in England at the height of anti-war, anti-nuke demonstrations in the UK, he watched an interview on TV of the man with whom he was captured. The man said his body was covered with tumors. He had been near ground zero at Nagasaki when the bomb exploded. Despite being riddled with cancerous tumors as a result of the bomb, he was glad the bomb was dropped as at least he was still alive, unlike many of the other slave workers he knew that were killed by the Japanese. Captain Murphy met with the man for drinks during his stay in the U.K. Interestingly, Gen. Curtis "Bombs Away" LeMay opined that had the U.S. lost the war, he undoubtedly would have been tried as a war criminal. Gil

I had the good fortune to attend a presentation by Richard Cole, Doolittle's copilot, at the museum on Ford Island, Pearl Harbor. He had some assistance from a niece as he must have been older than ninty at the time, but he was sharp as a tack. He had extremely interesting and captivating first hand accounts of the operation.

One of my uncles was part of that group.

Canvasback there is a book on the Hong Kong saga and I am sure he would be mentioned. My ex brother in law has a copy. Many died while building Kai Tak airport by hand.

Grew up with many family, friends, neighbours etc who spent time fighting the Japanese, or in their captivity after Singapore fell. Plenty of extraordinary relics and souvenirs are held by individuals and museums; plenty of extraordinary stories told; or never a word breathed about them again. A couple of my own deployments - to East Timor and the Solomon Islands - were on former battelfields, and tangible and intangible reminders persist to this day. Very few of that most revered generation left now.

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we will remember them.