V J Day

[Tony Smith]

Originally posted by sapper740
Just a quick comment to those PC-ers ......how the Allies prosecuted the war on Japan and the Japanese was in direct response to horrible atrocities perpetrated by the Japanese on the people they conquered. Perhaps the memories of Nanking and Hong Kong were a little sharper during the war than they are now.

I was once sharply brought to task by a WW2 Veteran for calling it VP Day. He said "VP Day Bulls***! It's VJ Day 'cos we fought the bastard Japs! We never saw any Pacifists amongst 'em!"

Oficially, August 15 and 16 1945 were gazetted as public holidays in Australia to celebrate the cessation of hostilities. Aug 15 is technically known as VP day, and September 2 is VJ day as that is the date the signing of the surrrender treaty occurred on USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, oficially ending the war. Note that while Australia, Britain, Nationalist China, the US and the Netherlands signed the treaty, the USSR and the Communist Chinese were not signatories and have not oficially ended WW2, thus leading on to the Korean War which hasn't officially ended either, just come to a ceasefire. In memory of the exchange with that Veteran, I refer to the day as VJ Day.