V-J Day's 75th Anniversary: Victory Over Japan Day

[asu66]

It was 75 years ago today that Japan officially signed surrender documents ending WWII aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu led the enemy delegation that signed the Instrument of Surrender. Gen. Douglas MacArthur (USA), the Supreme Commander of Allied Forces--Pacific Theater, signed for the United Nations and US Naval Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz signed for the United States. The US is believed to have suffered some 125,000 military and civilian casualties in the conflict with Japan between Dec. 1941 and Sept. 1945. Foreign Minister Shigemitsu and a dozen other Japanese officials were later found guilty of having committed war crimes.

Once again, it was our "greatest generation" that stood tall throughout some of the bloodiest conflict known to mankind. God bless those brave and patriotic men and women.

[Stonewall]

Thanks to my Dad , and his buddies , many of who didn’t come back. The jungles of New Guinea and Luzon , street to street , house to house in Manila .Training for the invasion of Japan when he got the news. He was coming home. Alive.

[HighPointApp]

My Grandfather was a Navy Vet from WW2.

[Rick83]

My dad's unit had been on combat alert for 3 months preparing for the invasion of mainland Japan which they were dreading because it was going to be a bloodbath. Then they heard about the atomic bombs hitting, which they had no idea what they even were, then jubilation when Japan announced their surrender. Then trepidation again as his unit was assigned to occuppy Yokohama and moved in less than a week after the formal surrender document was signed. They weren't sure what they going to encounter when they started the occupation but the Japanese people were told by their emperor to stand down and they did. It became easy service at that point. Dad and his unit were shocked at the conditions they found and started handing out food and medical supplies. War is such a weird thing where one moment you hate someone and want to and plan to kill them as enemies and then in a matter of days/weeks you feel sorry for them and help them and then become friends.

[pop5app]

My dad's unit had been on combat alert for 3 months preparing for the invasion of mainland Japan which they were dreading because it was going to be a bloodbath. Then they heard about the atomic bombs hitting, which they had no idea what they even were, then jubilation when Japan announced their surrender. Then trepidation again as his unit was assigned to occuppy Yokohama and moved in less than a week after the formal surrender document was signed. They weren't sure what they going to encounter when they started the occupation but the Japanese people were told by their emperor to stand down and they did. It became easy service at that point. Dad and his unit were shocked at the conditions they found and started handing out food and medical supplies. War is such a weird thing where one moment you hate someone and want to and plan to kill them as enemies and then in a matter of days/weeks you feel sorry for them and help them and then become friends.

Yes, the US has always helped to rebuild after our we have destroyed a country. In the past we have cared for others even after fighting and killing them for, sometimes years. This has been a great policy and trait of the US and it’s people.

[mfrench]

Great stories to hear. My dad was B-24 pilot in 44-45 and lost many buddies. He passed 5 years ago at 93. Hats off to the greatest generation. The definition of patriots!

[Rick83]

Great stories to hear. My dad was B-24 pilot in 44-45 and lost many buddies. He passed 5 years ago at 93. Hats off to the greatest generation. The definition of patriots!

Where did your dad serve? My wife's grandfather was a tail-gunner on a B-24 and was shot down on their last mission before they were going to be sent home. Instead of heading back home he was taken prisoner and held in a POW camp in northern Poland. He then had to endure a death march as the camp guards moved the prisoners as the allied forces were approaching the camp. The march began in February of 45 and they were allocated one blanket and the march alone was filled with horrors which many men did not survive.
Although, unrecognized at the time, he clearly suffered from PTSD during the late 40s and 50s. He would do things like go out for a pack of cigarettes and not come back home for 3 or 4 months.
It's really unbelievable what those guys had to endure serving this nation, both physically and emotionally...assuming they survived at all.

[Gonzo]

My grandfather served with Merrill's Marauders, under General Merrill, fighting the Japanese in India/Burma. He passed away before I was born, but my dad tells me he would never talk about the war. I've read as much as I can about their campaign and it was apparently particularly brutal, even for the Pacific Theater.

What a privilege it is to live in todays world, tough as it may seem some times. The sacrifice those men made in the 1940's is unparalleled. I watch Band of Brothers and The Pacific multiple times a year just to remind myself (and it's the best war movie/series ever made).

To Victory!

[Stonewall]

Luzon , The Philippines,1945. A patrolling squad of GIs discovered the mutilated body of an American officer tied to a tree. His genitals had been cut off and crammed into his mouth.

[eggers76]

My dad spent nearly four years in the South Pacific serving in a Destroyer squadron. He got his release to come home right before Christmas and spent one last Christmas on a ship.

[Rick83]

Luzon , The Philippines,1945. A patrolling squad of GIs discovered the mutilated body of an American officer tied to a tree. His genitals had been cut off and crammed into his mouth.

My dad was at Luzon as well, but it was pretty much under control by the time he got there. The Japanese at the time believed that they were a superior race and whites, blacks, and even other Asians were looked down on and not valued as civilized humans.
I have a Japanese battle flag my dad brought back from the war hanging in my house and we used to, for many years, volunteer to house Chinese and Korean students who couldn't make it home during Thanksgiving breaks. They were boarding students at a local private high school. A couple of the Chinese girls were upset that I had the Japanese flag up and it's clear they still hate them to this day...they told stories from their grandparents where the Japanese would bayonet civilians. They were offended that I had the flag up until I explained that my dad helped defeat the Japanese and it was just a war souvenir.

[Oldlknapp]

My father was a medic with a "Tank Destroyer Battalion"in Europe. As a medic, he was in the second vehicle that went into one of the Nazi concentration camps. I still have the original photos he took of the mountainous piles of Jewish bodies/skeletons and the gas chambers.

After Germany surrendered, he returned (by ship) to the US, was given a short leave, and then put on a troop train headed to the west coast (and then on to Japan). He was on the train headed to the west coast when Japan surrendered.

[mfrench]

Great stories to hear. My dad was B-24 pilot in 44-45 and lost many buddies. He passed 5 years ago at 93. Hats off to the greatest generation. The definition of patriots!

Where did your dad serve? My wife's grandfather was a tail-gunner on a B-24 and was shot down on their last mission before they were going to be sent home. Instead of heading back home he was taken prisoner and held in a POW camp in northern Poland. He then had to endure a death march as the camp guards moved the prisoners as the allied forces were approaching the camp. The march began in February of 45 and they were allocated one blanket and the march alone was filled with horrors which many men did not survive.
Although, unrecognized at the time, he clearly suffered from PTSD during the late 40s and 50s. He would do things like go out for a pack of cigarettes and not come back home for 3 or 4 months.
It's really unbelievable what those guys had to endure serving this nation, both physically and emotionally...assuming they survived at all.

He served in the Pacific the entire time. Some of his missions included Balikpappan Indonesia refineries where Japanese had serious defense structure.

[Neer86]

My grandfather served with Merrill's Marauders, under General Merrill, fighting the Japanese in India/Burma. He passed away before I was born, but my dad tells me he would never talk about the war. I've read as much as I can about their campaign and it was apparently particularly brutal, even for the Pacific Theater.

What a privilege it is to live in todays world, tough as it may seem some times. The sacrifice those men made in the 1940's is unparalleled. I watch Band of Brothers and The Pacific multiple times a year just to remind myself (and it's the best war movie/series ever made).

To Victory!

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers....special people. Special Americans.

[Neer86]

Great stories to hear. My dad was B-24 pilot in 44-45 and lost many buddies. He passed 5 years ago at 93. Hats off to the greatest generation. The definition of patriots!

Where did your dad serve? My wife's grandfather was a tail-gunner on a B-24 and was shot down on their last mission before they were going to be sent home. Instead of heading back home he was taken prisoner and held in a POW camp in northern Poland. He then had to endure a death march as the camp guards moved the prisoners as the allied forces were approaching the camp. The march began in February of 45 and they were allocated one blanket and the march alone was filled with horrors which many men did not survive.
Although, unrecognized at the time, he clearly suffered from PTSD during the late 40s and 50s. He would do things like go out for a pack of cigarettes and not come back home for 3 or 4 months.
It's really unbelievable what those guys had to endure serving this nation, both physically and emotionally...assuming they survived at all.

I understand. Both of my grandfathers served in the European theater. Both came back physically healthy. One came back mentally healthy. My paternal grandfather came back an abusive alcoholic. He killed himself a few years before I was born.

It's important to realize the effects of war that don't show up in casualty counts when the war ends. Wars cause harm that last generations. Even for the victors.

[TractorApp]

Thank God for the Manhattan Project. Many of us would not have been born if that bomb was not developed and used. Never ceases to amaze me when people critique Truman for using the bomb. Can you imagine the outcry if we lost 500,000 Americans invading Japan and later it was discovered that they didn’t have to die if only Truman had dropped the bomb?

[Rick83]

Great stories to hear. My dad was B-24 pilot in 44-45 and lost many buddies. He passed 5 years ago at 93. Hats off to the greatest generation. The definition of patriots!

Where did your dad serve? My wife's grandfather was a tail-gunner on a B-24 and was shot down on their last mission before they were going to be sent home. Instead of heading back home he was taken prisoner and held in a POW camp in northern Poland. He then had to endure a death march as the camp guards moved the prisoners as the allied forces were approaching the camp. The march began in February of 45 and they were allocated one blanket and the march alone was filled with horrors which many men did not survive.
Although, unrecognized at the time, he clearly suffered from PTSD during the late 40s and 50s. He would do things like go out for a pack of cigarettes and not come back home for 3 or 4 months.
It's really unbelievable what those guys had to endure serving this nation, both physically and emotionally...assuming they survived at all.

He served in the Pacific the entire time. Some of his missions included Balikpappan Indonesia refineries where Japanese had serious defense structure.

Awesome. My wife's grandfather served in Europe...we have his bomber wings.

[Rekdiver]

Bud Kilby recently deceased owner of Yadkin Valley Ford Motors in N Wilkesboro was a ball turret gunner in 24’s in the Pacific, my father in law was in a B-29 wing in Karagpour, India and Singhin China he got to know Curtis LeMay very well flew with him to Tinnian, told me about Chinese soldiers taking Japanese prisoners in C-47’s over the Hump and throwing them off the planes. My wife’s uncle Dick died deaf in 2006 from the Artillery cannon they shot in the Battle of Luzon and Manila and my dad was a 5 inch gunner and a shipfitter who shipped out on the USS Samar from Newport News thru the Panama Canal alone to Pearl Harbor. Headed to Japan for the invasion the war ended the day they docked in Pearl. They went on to China for 6 months after the war to help repair damaged ships. Great men all and all gone.

[ah59396]

Thank God for the Manhattan Project. Many of us would not have been born if that bomb was not developed and used. Never ceases to amaze me when people critique Truman for using the bomb. Can you imagine the outcry if we lost 500,000 Americans invading Japan and later it was discovered that they didn’t have to die if only Truman had dropped the bomb?

There’s actually some pretty legitimate military voices on the other side of that discussion who believe we shouldn’t have.

From a historical and tactical perspective it’s actually quite a compelling discussion.

[NewApp]

Great stories to hear. My dad was B-24 pilot in 44-45 and lost many buddies. He passed 5 years ago at 93. Hats off to the greatest generation. The definition of patriots!

Amen, mfrench.