Victory over Japan Day
August 15, 1945, marked Victory over Japan Day or V-J Day, taking a name similar to Victory in Europe Day, which was generally known as V-E Day. In Japan, the day is known as, Shusen-kinenbi, which literally means the "Memorial day for the end of the war". The day marks the end of the Burma Campaign, the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Pacific War with the U.S., and other military conflicts in Asia. This is commemorated as Liberation Day in nations such as Korea, partly due to participation of her exiles in War against Japan over 40 years. See Surrender of Japan for historical circumstances surrounding Japan's surrender.
At noon Japan standard time on that day, Emperor Hirohito's announcement of Japan's acceptance of the terms of the Potsdam Declaration was broadcast to the Japanese people via radio. Earlier the same day, the Japanese government advised the Allies of the surrender by sending a cable to U.S. President Harry S. Truman via the Swiss diplomatic mission in Washington.
Since Japan was the last Axis Power to surrender and V-J Day followed V-E Day by three months, V-J Day marked the end of World War II.
The formal Japanese signing of the surrender terms took place on board the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on September 2 1945 and at that time Truman actually declared September 2 to be VJ-Day. [1]
V-J Day is now sometimes referred to as V-P Day (Victory in the Pacific Day) to bring it in line with V-E Day where the major enemy power, Germany, was not singled out in the way V-J Day did to Japan. However, since no other power was an Axis belligerent in the Pacific, such alteration of nomenclature seems unnecessary to many.
In the United States, V-J Day is commemorated on August 14 since the news of the surrender broke on that date in U.S. time zones.
V-J Day is still a state holiday in Rhode Island. The holiday's official name is "Victory Day," and it is observed on the second Monday of August.
In Australia, the name V-P Day was used apparently from the outset. The Canberra Times of August 14 1945, clearly states reference to "VP Day" celebrations, and a public holiday for "VP Day" was gazetted by the government in that year according to the Australian War Memorial. Nevertheless, the use of "VP Day" is a subject of controversy in Australia and is seen by some as an instance of political correctness.
Famous photograph
One of the most famous photographs ever published by Life Magazine was shot in Times Square on V-J Day. Alfred Eisenstaedt was in the square taking candids when he spotted a sailor "running along the street grabbing any and every girl in sight," he later explained. "Whether she was a grandmother, stout, thin, old, didn't make any difference. I was running ahead of him with my Leica looking back over my shoulder... Then suddenly, in a flash, I saw something white being grabbed. I turned around and clicked the moment the sailor kissed the nurse." Eisenstadt was very gratified and pleased with this enduring image, saying: "People tell me that when I am in heaven they will remember this picture."
The participants in the kiss were never confirmed by Eisenstaedt, whose notes on the photo were not found after his death in 1995. Life, however, accepted nurse Edith Cullen Shain's claim to this honor in a handwritten letter to Eisenstaedt 35 years later. Shain was twenty-seven on V-J Day. Over twenty men have claimed to be the sailor, but none has been positively identified. The sailor was identified by the Naval War College in August 2005 as George Mendonça, of Newport, Rhode Island, although many other men have claimed the honor. [2] However, Shain herself has said she believes the man to be former New York City police detective Carl Muscarello.
See also
External links
- Life magazine: V-J Day Kiss
- V-J Day Proclamation, 1945 — from the State Library and Archives of Florida.
- VJ Day in New Zealand