Victory In Japan Commemoration

Whilst VE Day marked the end of the war in Europe in May 1945, many thousands of Armed Forces personnel were still involved in bitter fighting in the Far East. Victory over Japan would come at a heavy price, and Victory over Japan Day (VJ Day) marks the day Japan surrendered on the 15^th August 1945, which in effect ended the Second World War.

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 the 8th May 1945.
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 in West HAnningfield have witnessed the toll the dreadful conditions and harsh treatment had on the Far East Prisoners of War (FEPOW).  Even so, some of those former captives considered themselves fortunate to have been alive as almost 30 per cent of the inmates of Japanese POW camps died and 11,000 were drowned when allied forces sunk Japanese ships transporting FEPOWS to Japan to work as forced labour in coal and copper mines.

The Kohima epitaph:

When you go home
Tell them of us and say
For your tomorrow
We gave our today

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