WHEREAS this victory was dearly bought not only by unlimited expenditure of material and effort but also by a heroic sacrifice of life; and
WHEREAS it is fitting that our people should recall with pride the sacrifices which have been made and renew their devotion to the cause for which they fought; and
WHEREAS, although victorious in arms, we must not relax our determination or diminish our efforts for the attainment of the final goal - the establishment of a just and enduring peace.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, HARRY S. TRUMAN, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim Wednesday, August 14, 1946, as Victory Day; and I direct that on that day the flag of the United States be displayed on all Government buildings.
And I call upon the people of the United States to observe Victory Day as a day of solemn commemoration of the devotion of the men and women by whose sacrifices victory was achieved, and as a day of prayer and of high resolve that the cause of justice, freedom, peace, and international good-will shall be advanced with undiminished and unremitting efforts, inspired by the valor of our heroes of the Armed Services.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States of America to be affixed.
DONE at the City of Washington this 2nd day of August in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and forty-six and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and seventy-first.
HARRY S. TRUMAN
By the President:
DEAN ACHESON, Acting Secretary of State.
Shhhhhh . . . not supposed to dwell on this horrible slaughter of these poor Asians . . . America bad/Japan misunderstood . . . American GIs were ill-advised to hurt all these freedom loving Japs. Shhhhh . . . American screwels will not touch this!!!
I guess we should all hang our heads in shame....../s
The day my dad realized that he was going to survive WWII.
We kicked their ass up and down the Pacific. They don’t teach it, but after Midway and Coral Sea, it was defense for them all the way until the clock ran out. We lost a lot of good boys in that, but my guess it was a about a 200+ - 1 loss for them.
God bless all those who brought America a decisive Victory!
I remember it well, around 4am the whole block woke up, it was like a new year’s party. Noise makers, horns from cars, bugles, pots and spoons, what ever else, but started with a shot gun in the middle of the street and “The war is over, the boys are coming home”. From that point on, it traveled from street to street. That’s when we were really a UNITED America. We’re talking the streets of Brooklyn. Yeah, Chuck Schumer’s and Bernie Sander’s neighborhood, back then.
Iwo Jima and Okinawa showed Americas resolve to win the war. We were not the inferior race Japan had counted on. When all was said and done Tojo was executed but the Emperor walked.
It is a compilation of radio clips from the day before VJ Day. One of them is a description of what is happening in Times Square. Here is what I wrote in reply, two years ago:
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In the description of Times Square in the recording, the reporter makes mention of how the older people in the crowd were silent. Oddly enough, that is how I feel today. Maybe because I know what’s coming; maybe because, in my early 60s, I have lived long enough to know that every jubilation is followed with difficulty.
On August 15, 1945, we have dodged a great conflagration, and the relief would have been immeasurable. But as I was reading this paper, and then reading today’s paper, I couldn’t get Robert Frost’s words out of my head:
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
But I don’t want to be a spoilsport, so, joining with the old people at Times Square, I’ll watch silently, feeling the immeasurable relief, while the younger half of America jubilates.
Thanks for posting this.
My mother’s brother, my uncle was on the way home on a ship for 30 days of leave.
He was in the first Cav and had seen a lot of war in the Pacific. Like so many young men, he volunteered after Pearl Harbor.
He was a Sarge and he and other long timers had been told to go home and say good bye to their families. They would have been one of the battle groups to invade Japan. They had seen how hard the Japanese fought in various islands, and they knew that invading Japan would be a blood bath for both sides.
He told his sisters, older nephews and nieces about the saying good bye part and never told his parents. My Grand Dad figured it out, and never told his wife, my Grandmother.
I believe that he and his fellow soldiers were mustered out after their ship arrived in San Francisco, before they went to their homes.
How many American, Aussie, NZ, Indian, Chinese and other allied soldier/sailor/marine lives were saved by dropping those two nuclear bombs on Japan?
VJ Day is actually September 2, the day of the formal surrender.
My dad commanded an LCT on Utah Beach. He was XO on a LST on the way to the Pacific when the war ended.
Thanks for posting. My dad served in the 760th FA Btn in the Philippines. They were set to invade Japan if not for the surrender.