VJ Day, Honolulu Hawaii, August 14, 1945

Vimeo ^ | 8/14/2009 | Richard Sullivan

[BfloGuy]

65 Years Ago my Dad shot this film along Kalakaua Ave. in Waikiki capturing spontaneous celebrations that broke out upon first hearing news of the Japanese surrender. Kodachrome 16mm film: God Bless Kodachrome, right?

[BfloGuy]

66 years ago, today. God Bless 'em.

Please hit the link to see color footage filmed that day in Honolulu. Brought tears to my eyes -- we usually only saw our parents in black and white.

[LeoWindhorse]

one of my Uncles was serving on the U.S.S. Arizona on that fateful day. However he’d had shore leave on Saturday night in town and had not returned to the ship by early Sunday morning , when the attack began. He told the story of how a pretty little Honolulu wahine had probably saved his life that day . But this is not the end of the story ; He remained serving in BB’s throughout the entire War in the Pacific , and on this day , August 14th , he was serving aboard BB63 , the U.S.S. Missouri . He is one of those guys in their whites you see lining every possible vantage point to the surrender . I always thought he should have written a book ! He never did and he’s gone now .

[Ax]

Just WOW!!

[353FMG]

Seen this before. It’s heartbreaking to see these members of the greates generation and then pan the camera some 65 years into the future.

[LeoWindhorse]

and the surrender signing was a bit later actually .....

good payback , still

[Graybeard58]

I don't have audio any more but enjoyed watching the footage. Was that your dad taking the celebratory slug of whiskey? Quite an impressive belly roll afterwards.

I remember that day well. I had just had a huge b.m. and my mom changed my dities. I was 6 weeks old. Here's a complimentary picture of me from that era. Note the big diaper pin. Mom told me that was the only kind available then because of the war, which doesn't make a lot of sense because there's more metal in a big one than a small one.

I hope the mods don't censor me flashing my "junk"/

[afraidfortherepublic]

That’s just beautiful! How did you dad have access to ssuch professional film and camera? Was he a pro> Did you add the sound track?

I was just a wisp of a girl - just going into 2nd grade.

I secretly imagined that they ended the war just for our class because we had spent an entire year learning songs for an “end the war” celebration and we were about to change classes. If they’d delayed ending the war much longer, our new teacher wouldn’t have known the songs we were going to sing in our program. At least that is how I explained it to myself because the adults wouldn’t talk to the kids much about the war for fear of scaring us. The Generals knew that a 2nd grade class had songs to sing in CA.

And my beloved uncles were all coming home. One of them had been stationed at Pearl Harbor at the time of the bombing — 17 years old then, and he was now coming home.

Your pictures are just grand. Thanks for sharing.

[Rebelbase]

Outstanding video!

[afraidfortherepublic]

One of my uncles was on the USS Detroit stationed at Pearl. He said everyone was in town partying the night before the attack. They were surprised, and his “little” ship was the first underway to lead the others out of the Harbor, or they all would have been lost. The deck hands fired on the incoming Japanese planes with rifles.

Now, we did not learn this part of the story until nearly 50 years later when we took a Harbor cruise out to the Arizona many years later. He never talked about the war afterward, and were were shocked when the narrator of the cruise told that part of the story. My uncle had lied about his age to get into the Navy and aged to a man from a boy of 17 instantly at Pearl. He later served on the Wedderburn, evacuating gold from the Philippines.

[nuconvert]

Thanks for posting that.

[ex-snook]

Thanks great. The voice I think is Eddie Durante, of big nose fame. Of some interest some of the Arizona survivors send their ashes back to be buried with the ship. They seem to feel they cheated death. The oil of the ship still floats to the surface.

A well done to your Dad from this foot soldier. It meant the end for us guys in Europe too. It was quite a day. We could go home.

[matthew fuller]

Thanks for posting this. It’s going out to all of my mailing list.

[Kate_Malloy]

My big sister had taken me on the train to visit our Aunt, who lived in a 3rd floor flat on 88th St. in NYC. My Aunt took us to the Paramount to see "Anchor's Aweigh", with Paul Whiteman and his archestra playing live on stage during intermission.

When we came out of the movie, Times Square was teeming with a million revelers, blowing horns and all the Servicemen hugging and kissing all the girls and ladies, and the "Ticker" flashed over and over the whole night with the news that the war with Japan was won!

When we left Times Square, we went to Chinatown, where they had the huge "dragon" dancing and winding it's way through the streets. An amazing day in the life of this almost 10 yr. old!

[harpu]

THANK YOU for sharing...awesome!!

[Elsiejay]

Da Schnozz was Jimmy Durante, may he rest in peace.

[Bobalu]

WOW!
That's some of the finest amateur color footage I have ever seen from the war years. :-)

I had to download that to add to my collection.

[Bobalu]

Hey, You were a cute baby :-)

[SanFranDan]

God Bless and Thank you!

[Pontiac]

for later