Haverfordwest commemorates VJ Day

County Councillor for the Castle Ward and Member of the Haverfordwest Branch Royal British Legion, Thomas Tudor, was honoured to attend an Act of Remembrance and Thanksgiving commemorating Victory over Japan Day at Haverfordwest Cenotaph followed by a service at Saint David’s Church, Prendergast conducted by the Reverend Heather Cale. 

What is Victory over Japan Day? 

VJ Day marks the anniversary of 15 August 1945 when Japan announced its surrender to the Allied forces. The surrender was met with relief and celebration that after six long years the Second World War was finally over. While millions took part in parades and street parties, there was also great sadness - the human cost was enormous and many eagerly awaited the safe return of loved ones. Over 90,000 British troops were casualties in the war against Japan - 30,000 died and 37,500 were held as prisoners of war.

For hundreds of thousands of service personnel from Britain and the Commonwealth, it would take many months to be reunited with loved ones, some of whom they hadn’t seen for more than five years.

How was WW2 brought to an end in the Far East?

As the fighting ended in Europe in May 1945, Allied troops in the east were still engaged in fierce warfare. Burma (Myanmar) was liberated by the 14th Army, the principal British fighting force in the east. It was an extraordinary army composed of troops from South Asia, Africa and British, Burmese and Gurkha units. Some 85% were from pre-partition India.

By 1945 the British Indian Army was the largest volunteer force in history, made up of 2.5 million men and women. The War claimed the lives of 87,000 of these volunteers. Through the early months of 1945, the 14th Army fought intensely and pushed determined Japanese forces back through hundreds of miles of malaria-infested jungle, supported by continual supply drops from the air.

In the Pacific, Australian forces faced fierce resistance on Borneo, and US forces fought to take the strategically important islands of Iwo Jima and Okinawa; battles which were marked by appalling levels of casualties. After Okinawa fell on 22nd June, an invasion of the Japanese home islands was planned, with enormous levels of casualties expected.

Before the invasion was to take place, the most destructive war in history came to a rapid end. On 6th August, the United States dropped the first atomic bomb over Hiroshima. Two days later, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan followed by a huge attack on 9th August. That day also saw the dropping of the second atomic bomb – over Nagasaki.

The number of deaths from the bombs has been estimated as high as 200,000. Recognizing that victory was impossible, the Japanese government finally accepted the Allied surrender terms on 14th August. The following day was declared Victory over Japan (VJ) Day.

Joy at the end of almost six years of global war, and hope for the future, burst out in towns and cities across the Allied nations as well as on former battlefields. Parties and parades were held, from New York to New Delhi, from Manchester to Melbourne. Tens of thousands of Allied Prisoners of War had to be located across vast areas (including the Japanese mainland). They had been held under appalling conditions and many put to work as forced labour.

The process of demobilisation began for British and Commonwealth forces, although thousands remained on active service in occupied Japan, and the South East Asia Command (SEAC), depending primarily on Indian troops, reoccupied Malaya, the Dutch East Indies and French Indo-China, where new, nationalist conflicts were beginning.

Yet VJ Day was a day of final relief and to give grateful recognition for the sacrifice of those who had served. We remember them, 80 years on.