*** war and social upheaval: World War II -- victory celebrations








World War II: Victory Celebrations (1945)

V-J Day
Figure 1.--V-J Day was not very importnt in Eurpe. It was in America and celebrated all over the country. The big city celebrations were spontaneous and often racaous. But smaller celebrations occurred in small town and communities. Here the kids got to participate. Here is one of thousands of such celebrations. Many understood that brothers, uncles, and mot importantly fathers were coming home.

Joyous celebrations broke our in the Allied capitals and Moscow the celbrate Victory in Europe (VE) Day. Here there was a day difference. After the Wehrmacht generals signed the surrender documents in Reims (May 7). It took effect the following day. This is the date celebrated in the West. Actually two separate surrender ceremonies took place. Stalin insisted tht they be flown east to Soviet-occupied Berlin for his own surrender ceremony. Perhaps the most heart-felt celebration occrred in London, a city which only a few weeks earlier was still being pounded by V-2 atacks. Celbrations in Paris did not rival the tumault of liberation a year earlier. VE Day came as no great surprise. Allied and Soviet armies had met, Belin had fallen, and Hitler was dead. It was obvious that it was just a matter of days before NAZI Germany surrenered. This was different in the Pacific. Both the military public and the American public believed after the fanastica resitance on Iwo Jima and Ojinawa that the Japnese were going to fight it out to the bitter end. Thus Emperor Hirohito's decesion to surrender came as a welcomed surrise (August 15). The actual surrender documents came to weeks later in Tokyo Bay under the big guns of the USS Missouri The Japanese people were even more surprised. It was the only decesion of the War that he took largely on his own iniative. It is widely believed in America that it was the atomic bombs were the deciding factor. The Emperor has never addresed this issue, but the Soviet invasion and possibility of Soviet occupation that was the deciding factor. As a result, the celebration in America were even more raucous than that for V-E Day. Celebrations were held throughout the United States on Victory over Japan (VJ Day). Muted celebrations occurred in Britain, but relatively litle notice occurred in other capitals. Many of the Ameican servicemen men being shifted from Europe to the Pacific were sure that the Japanese surrender saved their lives. The iconic celebration occurred in New York's Time square imortalized by a sailor kissing a girl. But communities all over the country celebrated. Life Magazine which chronicled the War in images wrote, "But in the giddy, chaotic first few hours after the announcement, people naturally took to the streets of cities and towns all over the country. And while some of the merriment was no doubt of a quieter, G-rated variety, it�s hardly surprising that countless grown men and women seized the opportunity for cathartic revelry, giving vent to joy and relief as well as to the pent-up anxieties, fears, sorrows and anger of the previous several years. In other words: the nation let loose." There were both big-ciy celebrtions aswell as local celebrations where the kids took part, understanding that brothers, uncles, and most importantly fathers were coming home.

Axis Surrenders

The War ended dufferently in the three main Axis countries (Italy, Germany, and Japan). The first Axis country to surrender was Benito Mussolini's Fascist Italy. After the fall of Sicily. the Fascist Grand Council arrested Mussolini (July). The country's leadership began to plan a exit from the War. This was complicated by the fact that Hitler would intervene to prevent this. And Germany despite reverses in the Easdt still had the capability to do this. Italian leaders pledged that they wold continue the War while at the same time they began secreat negotiations with the Allies. The Italian surrender when in finally came was conducted more like a country joining the Allies than surrndering. This was in part because Germany immediately moved to seize control of Italy. There were no ambiguities about the surrender of Germany and Japan. Hitler could have saved Germany from devestation. Most of the danage to the Reich occurred after D-Day. He of course was not about to do that. He knew that surrender meant not only the end of NAZI Germany, but his own trial as a war criminal. Thus Germany fought to the end until Allied armies met in Germany and the Soviets felt an apopcalyic battle in Berlin. After Hitler committed suiside, Admiral D�nitz, the second F�hrer ordered Keitel and Jodl to surender (May 1945). Japan had joibed the Axis so that the more powerful Germans could prevent America from fousing on them. After the German surrender, this was precisely what occurred. The Japanese strategy was to make it so costly in blood and material for the United States pursue the War to a Japanese unconditional surrender. Okinawa so horrified the Americans that to avoid a bloody invasion became a virtual necesity. Thed Japanese were stillundecided, but the combined impact of two atomic bombs and the Soviet declaration of war finaly convinced Empero Hirhito to surrender (August 1945).

VE Day (May 1945)

Europe and America rejoiced with end if the war that had devestated Europe. Celebrations erupted in national capitals as well as small towns in villages. Important clebrations occurred from Moscow to Los Angeles. Perhaps the most heart-felt celebration occrred in London, a city which only a few weeks earlier was still being pounded by V-2 atacks. More than one million people poured out into the streets to mark the NAZI surrenderand the end of the War. The British massed in Trafalgar Square and up the Mall to Buckingham Palace. Here King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, accompanied by Prime Minister Winston Churchill, appeared on the balcony of the palace before the cheering crowds. Princess Elizabeth and her sister Princess Margaret were not there. They wanted to take part in the celebrations so they were allowed to disappear in cognito into the crowd. President Truman's in America dedicated the victory to the memory of his predecessor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, who suffered a cerebral hemorrhage less than a month earlier. It is sad that the President was not able to travel to Britain to celebrate the great victory with Prineminister Churchill. Flags in America remained at half-mast. President Truman in his remarks said he wished was "that Franklin D. Roosevelt had lived to witness this day."assive celebrations also took place in Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami and especially in New York's Times Square, but there were smaller celebrtions throughout the country. Celbrations in Paris did not rival the tumault of liberation a year earlier. VE Day unlike the liberation of Paris came as no great surprise. Allied and Soviet armies had met, Belin had fallen, and Hitler was dead. It was obvious that it was just a matter of days before NAZI Germany surrendered. Celebrations did not take place throughout Europe. In Eastern Europe occupied by the soviet Red Army, there was a felling that they had simply exchange in titalitarian oppresor for another.

VJ Day (August 1945)

This was different in the Pacific. Here Europe did not take great note. America did celeprte.Both the military public and the American public believed after the fanastica resitance on Iwo Jima and Ojinawa that the Japnese were going to fight it out to the bitter end. Thus Emperor Hirohito's decesion to surrender came as a welcomed surrise (August 15). The actual surrender documents came to weeks later in okyo Bay under the big guns of the USS Missouri The Japanese people were even more surprised. It was the only desion of the War that he took largely on his own iniative. It is widely believed in America that it was the atomic bombs were the deciding factor. The Emperotr has never addresed this issue, but the Soviet invasion and possibility of Soviet occupation that was the deciding factor. As a result, the celebration in America were even more raucaous than that for V-E Day. Celebrations were held throughout the United States on Victory over Japan (VJ Day). Unlike VE Day, VJ Day was not widely celebrated in many other countries. Muted celebrations occurred in Britain, but relatively little notice occurred in other capitals. Many of the Ameican servicemen men being shifted from Europe to the Pacific were sure that the Japanese surrender saved their lives. The iconic celebration occurred in New York's Time square imortalized by a sailor kissing a girl. But communities all over the country celebrated. Life Magazine which chronicled the War in images wrote, "But in the giddy, chaotic first few hours after the announcement, people naturally took to the streets of cities and towns all over the country. And while some of the merriment was no doubt of a quieter, G-rated variety, it's hardly surprising that countless grown men and women seized the opportunity for cathartic revelry, giving vent to joy and relief as well as to the pent-up anxieties, fears, sorrows and anger of the previous several years. In other words: the nation let loose." There were both big-ciy celebrtions aswell as local celebrations where the kids took part, understanding that brothers, uncles, and most importantly fathers were coming home.

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Created: 6:13 AM 9/8/2014
Last updated: 6:13 AM 9/8/2014