The US fighter plane flew through USS Missouri on September 2, 1945. Photo Credit: Everett Collection/Shutterstock
Eighty years ago, unfamiliar voices wafted through the airwaves of Japan. For the first time in history, Emperor Hirohito spoke in official, old-fashioned Japanese. His words were cautious and almost poetic. The war “doesn’t necessarily develop based on Japanese advantages.” Behind the court’s phrase is a simple truth, and Japan surrendered.
In the UK, August 15th, 1945, was VJ Day, and they won on Japan’s Day. The bell rang across London, the flags flapped from the rooftop, and strangers hugged them in the streets. But behind the celebration was a year of unimaginable struggle, especially for men who fought in the slow Burmese jungle on the Volcanic Pacific Islands, or for men who rode an open ocean career. Among them was my own grandfather, Commando Luck Richard Stanley Grace, of Raff. He participated in D-Day at European theatres and was shipped from Normandy to the Pacific Theatre in Burma in August 1944. He rarely talked about war when he returned, but what he witnessed there plagued the Japanese for the rest of his life until his death in 2014.
The Japanese were unique and formidable enemies. They were ruthless, brutal, merciless, and often were willing to die rather than surrender. On islands in the Pacific Ocean, Japanese soldiers launched banzai charges at night, throwing them all together into the Alliance line with rifles, bayonets and hand-rena bullets. The established defenders transformed caves, tunnels and pillboxes into deadly fortresses, making every advance an expensive test. They often fired poses relentlessly throughout the night, awakening the troops, fraying nerves, exhausting, and tired soldiers before facing the front line. Their cruelty extends to prisoners, and their psychological warfare, combined with relentless combat tactics, made them an enemy unlike what Allied soldiers had previously faced.
The war in Europe ended a few months before Germany surrendered on May 8, 1945, but the Pacific Ocean remained a crucible of fire and mud. The so-called “forgotten troops,” the British and Federation forces conducted a relentless campaign by steaming jungle, monsoon rains and sickly terrain. The Japanese used the jungle to their advantage. They ambushed the supply line, sniping from hidden locations, and launching a sudden banzai fee. All advances meant hacking thick vegetation, walking flooded trucks, facing fatigue, hunger and illness.
At the heart of this effort was the field before William Slim, whose gentle leadership and strategic insights became despair. Under his command, the 14th Army stuck with Imphal and Kohima, halting Japan’s advances towards India and began charging through Burma. Among his soldiers were extraordinary individuals, such as Captain Michael Allmand and Li throughout George Albert Cairns. It operated deep behind the enemy lines, survived with jungle rations and air-dropped supplies, hindering communication, and terrified enemies that the jungle thought could no longer enter.
All over the Pacific Ocean, the US military faced a different kind of Inferno. Japanese attacks were often ruthlessly raided throughout the night, awakening the troops, fraying nerves, exhausting, and exhausting soldiers before raiding the beach. In Guadalcanal, Marine Corps machine gun John Basilon restrained the waves after the attacker’s waves, his barrels glowed red, putting everything in danger and protecting his comrades. In Perelliu, Eugene’s sledge withstanded the unburied bodies on all the ridges, constant sniper fires and the foul smell of death. In Okinawa, Medic Desmond Dos, who refused to carry weapons, bravely rescued 75 men by repeatedly fired enemy fires, and then dropped them one by one from the cliff to safety. After being shot down the Pacific Ocean, Louis Zamperini appeared as a sign of human durability, drifting on a raft for 47 days before enduring brutal Japanese prisoners.
The Japanese were uniquely formidable both in the land and in the sea. Infiltrated with Bushido’s ideals, they thought of bringing stigma and death to shine. Kamikaze’s pilots threw it on the Alliance ship with the resolve of a man who has nothing to lose, artillery and night bombardment denied sleep, and the enhanced positions made all the progress a fatal test. Even the ocean was dangerous. Large naval battles like Leyte Gulf and the Philippine Sea saw fleets collide over hundreds of miles, torpedoes ripping their hulls and the sky was blazing with tracer fire.
The British Pacific Fleet joined the Americans during the 1945 Okinawa Campaign and was integrated with the US Fifth Fleet. Although not leading the land, the indomitable British airlines like HMS, the indomitable airlines like HMS launched key airline attacks, protecting allied ships from Kamikaze attacks, and closely assisting the army with the army. Their presence marked an adjustment to the alliance, adding another layer of resilience to one of the war’s biggest naval operations.
Finally, after the Hiroshima atomic bombs entered the war on August 6, 1945 and the Nagasaki atomic bombs on August 9, 1945, the Japanese leaders became tolerant. Six days after Nagasaki, Emperor Hirohito’s surrender broadcast ended the Pacific War. In the US, VJ Day will be marked September 2nd. Missouri. In the UK, the celebrations are tied to the day the announcement reached London and on August 15th, when peace returned after years of global conflict.
Today, VJ Day serves as a moment that reflects not only victory, but also the courage, endurance and sacrifice of those facing unimaginable odds in the jungle, beaches and the ocean. It reminds us of the resilience of the human mind, bonds surrounded by adversity, and the cost of freedom. We honor all the men and women who served in theatres of the Pacific and European countries. Their legacy lives on and we remember them. Not only as a living will of history, but also of courage and sacrifice. Most importantly, VJ Day reminds us that war is coming at a terrible cost and that humanity must learn from its mistakes. Every life where all the battlefields endured are lost should guide us towards a world where conflict can be prevented, a world where diplomacy is won and peace is truly valued.
Don’t forget.
