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VICTORY IN JAPAN DAY ( V-J DAY)
In 1945 the End of World War II was celebrated on
Victory in Japan (VJ) Day
There
was much joy and celebration around the world when on
15th August 1945 US President Harry S Truman declared
the day as Victory in Japan Day, at a White House press
conference.
President Truman announced that the Japanese Government
had agreed to comply in full with the Potsdam
Declaration demanding the unconditional surrender of
Japan.
To
crowds gathered outside the White House, President
Truman said: "This is the day we have been waiting for
since Pearl Harbor."
The end
of war was to be marked by a two-day holiday in the UK,
the USA and Australia.
At
midnight, the British Prime Minister Clement Atlee
confirmed the news in a broadcast saying, "The last of
our enemies is laid low."
The
Prime Minister expressed gratitude to Britain's allies,
in 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".
The
following evening King George VI addressed the nation
and the Empire in a broadcast from his study at
Buckingham Palace.
"Our
hearts are full to overflowing, as are your own. Yet
there is not one of us who has experienced this terrible
war who does not realise that we shall feel its
inevitable consequences long after we have all forgotten
our rejoicings today."
Historic buildings all over London were floodlit and
people crowded onto the streets of every town and city
shouting, singing, dancing, lighting bonfires and
letting off fireworks.
But
there were no celebrations in Japan - in his first ever
radio broadcast, Emperor Hirohito blamed the use of "a
new and most cruel bomb" used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
for Japan's surrender.
"Should
we continue to fight, it would not only result in the
ultimate collapse and obliteration of the Japanese
nation but would lead also to the total extinction of
human civilisation."
What
the Emperor failed to mention however, was that the
Allies had delivered Japan an ultimatum to surrender on
28th July 1945.
When
this was ignored, the US dropped two atomic bombs on
Hiroshima on 6th August and Nagasaki on 9th August, the
day that Soviet forces invaded Manchuria.
The
Allies celebrated victory over Japan on 15th August
1945, although the Japanese administration under General
Koiso Kuniaki did not officially surrender with a signed
document until 2nd September.
Both
dates are known as VJ Day.
If VJ
Day marked the end of World War II, what of the six long
years of bitter conflict that would ultimately lead to
these celebrations?
The
timelines below present the major events of each of
these years, from the German invasion of Poland in 1939,
to the evacuation from Dunkirk in 1940, and on through
the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941, followed
by Montgomery’s famous victory at El Alamein in 1942,
and onto the Allied landings at Salerno in Italy in
1943, the D-Day landings of 1944, and into the early
months of 1945, crossing the Rhine and then on to Berlin
and Okinawa.
Click on the year for major events of that year
1939 –
1940 –
1941 –
1942 –
1943 -
1944
– 1945
©
HUK
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