Nova Scotia/Nunavut Command of The Royal Canadian Legion www.ns.legion.ca 173 VJ Day and the end of the Second World War continued ... Employing the extensive powers, which the state had used in wartime, to improve the lives of its citizens, was termed “winning the peace”. People believed that the war had not only been fought to defeat the Axis powers, but also to usher in a fairer society. VJ Day: For many British people, the first knowledge they had of the war ending, was from newspaper headlines, which read “Japan Surrenders!” There were scenes of celebration redolent of those which Britain had experienced on VE Day, on 8 May 1945. The formal signing of the surrender terms by Japan did not occur until 2 September 1945, aboard the United States’ battleship Missouri – anchored in Tokyo Bay. The United States continues to commemorate VJ Day on that date. The news that Japan had surrendered, brought a feeling of relief, to Allied servicemen. They would no longer be risking death or injury in combat. Many who had been serving in the Pacific and Burma cherished the hope that they would soon be able to return home to their loved ones. Donald Lashbrook who was serving in Rangoon, Burma, recollected, ’VJ Day came and we heard that it was all over, the atomic bombs had been dropped. It was all over. Everybody was “we’re on our way home”.’ For many of the Allied prisoners of war held by the Japanese, the physical and emotional impact of a brutal captivity would continue for the remainder of their lives. Some of those former captives may have considered themselves fortunate to have been alive – almost 30 per cent of the inmates of Japanese POW camps died. Two cheering American servicemen supporting a girl wearing on her chest a newspaper announcing the Japanese surrender continued ...
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