Without looking it up could you say when VJ Day was ?

Discussion in 'War Against Japan' started by Owen, May 8, 2013.

  1. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    Whilst walking to school this morning with my youngest I was musing on memorable dates to do with the war.
    If asked I'm sure most people with an interest in the war could tell me when VE Day was but then I thought ok what about VJ Day ?
    I know it was in the month of xxxxx in 194x but at first couldn't remember the date.
    It was the xx wasn't it ? I thought.
    I got home & checked & I was right thankfully.
    (Well going by the British VJ Day date I see the Americans use a different date.)

    Right so being honest , WITHOUT looking it up who could tell me when VJ Day was ?
    I've XXXed out the answer so no cheating who's honest enough to say they don't know?
     
  2. Ron Goldstein

    Ron Goldstein WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    Owen

    Without looking it up ?

    I look everything up if I want to get it right and that would include VJ Day. :ph34r:

    What I don't have to look up is my army number which is 14302560........or was it 1431250....or perhaps 14303062..........

    Just hang on a second while I look it up. :rolleyes:

    Ron
     
    Roxy likes this.
  3. sol

    sol Very Senior Member

    Yes, I can, both dates whan Japan capitulate and when the capitulation was signed. But as my primary interest is Burma that isn't suprising.
     
  4. Dave55

    Dave55 Atlanta, USA

    I'll take a WAG. Aug 28 ?
     
  5. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    I'd have said 'August-ish' for VJ, and 'May' for VE.
    I'd never remember the actual dates.
     
  6. wtid45

    wtid45 Very Senior Member

    Like you Adam dates are not my strong point,but I have always known that today is VE day as my Mums tenth Birthday was 8 May 1945, as for the query about VJ day had to look and I was three days out.........its Aug 15th and my brain said 18th.....dont tell the Burma lads :wink: :redface:
     
  7. Slipdigit

    Slipdigit Old Hickory Recon

    I can, as it directly affected many men that I knew, including my grandfather, my wife's grandfather, enumerable uncles and a lot of other men from my youth and early adulthood.
     
  8. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    I said 8th Aug to myself. Not bad I thought considering I switch off before the end of 1940 :lol:
     
  9. Joe Brown

    Joe Brown WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    Just knew it was August but not sure about the actual date. My son who lives in a little village in SW France close to the Spanish Border told me on our daily Skype call that he along with 25 other villagers had attended a Remembrance Service at the War Memorial this morning. I should add, it is a general holiday.

    Joe Brown.
     
  10. Ron Goldstein

    Ron Goldstein WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    My mob was in Austria on the 15th August and VJ Day almost passed un-noticed.

    The Regimental War Diary ignored it:

    12/8/1945
    After a shooting incident in ADMONT DP camp the camp was searched and found a considerable quantity of arms and ammunition. B Sqn moved to LEIZEN.
    13-16/8/1945
    Patrols.

    although I can see that 2 days later we were still chasing war criminals:
    17/8/1945
    70 NCOs and men posted to UK on PYTHON. Following arrests carried out:-Johann Fric (Czech) of KLAM for hiding large quantities of Wehrmacht equipment. Hollinger of LASSING for same. Primoschitz, Hitler Youth organiser LEIZEN area. Anton Kowar, Orstgruppenleiter from GRAZ area. An SS man holding an FSS pass.

    My Personal diary also ignored it:

    Wednesday 8th. August 1945
    Working on the Staghounds. Letter & Parcel from home. Blighty leave party back.
    Sunday 19th. August 1945
    Moved off at 7.15 am through Salzburg, Munich, Dachau, Augsberg & arrived in Ulm about 6'ish. Had dinner, shower & went to canteen where I met Dizzy.


    I did, however, remember listening to the BBC on the day and once wrote about it on this very forum:

    Wednesday 15th August 1945
    BBC News - VJ Day marked in UK ceremonies

    I remember the day well even though I’ve long since lost the original diary entry.

    Our Squadron was in Trieben in Austria at the time ,controlling the roads leading into Germany and I had just come off the road-block guard in the early afternoon.

    I was changing from my guard uniform into more comfortable gear when I heard the wireless in the next room creating quite a racket. I went next door to see what was going on and found myself the only one there.

    I realised that my mates were probably eating dinner in the mess-hall and that they must have been listening earlier and had then left the set on.

    It was VE Day all over again.

    The announcer back in London was describing the noisy scene as tens of thousands of jubilant servicemen and civilians swarmed the streets. As on VE Day I felt no emotion at all, if anything, I probably felt like a kid who had not been invited to a party and who was now watching the lucky ones coming home with their party bags.

    The short explanation was that the end of the war had come too late for my older brother Jack, G-d rest his soul.

    On the 11th of May, just three days after VE Day, I had received a letter from home telling me that Jack, who was an Air-Gunner, had been shot down over Nuremberg on the last such raid of the war

    The loss to his widow, his two young children and to all of our family was as incalculable then as it is today some fifty odd years later and our family was never to never to be the same again.


    Ron
     
  11. TijgerB

    TijgerB Member

    No problem in remembering 15th August '45 as I had read it in plenty of diaries and book. But then Far East is my area so it might be natural
     
  12. Uncle Jack

    Uncle Jack Member

    Was not sure of VJ day but Uncle Ronnie was released from POW Camp Hakodate on 9th September ....
    R
     
  13. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    Cheers for the replies.
    Does this mean we remember dates connected to the war with Germany more than the war with Japan ?
    Or does this mean the dates dont matter as long as we remember ''something happened'' ?
     
  14. beeza

    beeza Senior Member

    Depends where you were. I am sure VJ was celebrated more vigorously in OZ than VE day, which was only

    part one of a long wished duo.

    David
     
  15. spidge

    spidge RAAF RESEARCHER

    I remember both dates very clearly. (from research of course)

    I call it VJ day however politics have pushed the name to VP day. (Victory in the Pacific)

    The end of the war in Europe was proudly celebrated in Australia as the concentration was now to be on the total defeat of Japan.

    While our ground forces were all in the Pacific theatre with most of our Naval forces, Air Force member deaths had still been high over Germany which can be seen by newspapers of the day.


    Geoff
     
  16. Biggles Prime

    Biggles Prime Junior Member

    Was VJ day the date of the broadcast of surrender by Emperor Hirohito, 15th,August 1945, or was it the signing of the surrender document aboard USS Missouri, 2nd September 1945 by newly appointed Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu and Gen. Yoshijiro Umezu?

    John Toland's 1970 Pulitzer Prize winning book The Rising Sun gives a most detailed and entertaining account of the day of signing.
     
  17. Shiny 9th

    Shiny 9th Member

    Just to add a bit of info recorded by a 9th Battalion, Royal Sussex man in his diary . His entry for Tuesday 14th August reads " Got it at last. Japs officially accept surrender, and we try to take stock of a world where there is no war" . The following day he played cricket after working in the morning. His Company V Party was held on Sunday 14th August. The Company were at Coimbattore in India preparing for Operation Zipper at the time. Here where I live now, I am hoping to go to the local Burma Star Memorial on 15th in memory of all those who did not make it home.
    Sylvia
     
  18. bexley84

    bexley84 Well-Known Member

    i noted the 68th Anniversary Victory Parade in Moscow yesterday (9th May)being covered on Russia Today (ch 512 on Sky)...quite a number of veterans in attendance.

    I guess the time shifts play a part in the commemorative dates as well - as with Pearl Harbour / Far East landings.
     
  19. spidge

    spidge RAAF RESEARCHER

    The Americans celebrate/remember on the 2nd of September, Most other countries remember on the date of surrender.
     
  20. spidge

    spidge RAAF RESEARCHER

    It may have been the Forgotten Theatre, but we will remember!
     

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