Veterans Remember V-J Day as Closure to WW2
To people back home, V-J Day meant that fathers, sons, brothers, and uncles would finally be returning home. American troops around the world dreaded the prospect of invading the Japanese homeland, especially when the end of the war in Europe was already behind them.
The defensive fighting spirit of Japanese soldiers was unparalleled in history. It is estimated that a million lives would have been lost in the invasion. War-weary veterans saw the dropping the atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August of 1945 as a godsend. The Japanese signed a formal surrender on the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945.
The US Naval Historical Center photo above reminds us of how bewildering the experience must have been for the Japanese soldier: “Looking more than a little worried and even terrified, the young Japanese soldiers look about them to see only angry, disdainful faces. The soldier on the left is the one who has just had his gift of flowers rejected and is no doubt looking for a place to hide.”
The Hino Maru is, of course, the rising-sun flag of Imperial Japan, now missing as Japanese planes were painted with a green cross to identify them.
