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August 14, 2010
VJ Day, Honolulu Hawaii, August 14, 1945
V-J Day (Victory over Japan day) is on August 15th in memory of the announcement of the surrender of Japan on that day in 1945 to end World War II.
VJ Day, Honolulu Hawaii, August 14, 1945 from Richard Sullivan on Vimeo.
This is footage found after sitting for 65 years. It's video taken of VJ day in Honolulu. August 14, 1945.
"65 Years Ago my Dad (Richard Sullivan ) shot this film along Kalakaua Ave. in Waikiki capturing spontaneous celebrations that broke out upon first hearing news of the Japanese surrender."
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Wild Thing's comment.......
One of my Uncles was stationed in Hawaii when the attack on Pearl Harbor happened. My Aunt ( his wife) said she looked out the window and she could see one of the planes go by and the Kamikaze pilots face so close looking toward their house.
Another Aunt took a troop train from NY to SF when she joined the WAVES. She also said at every town they stopped in the townspeople were there cheering them on and providing coffee and treats.
Another of my Uncles was sitting on Okinawa waiting to go in. He took part in the Solomon, Siapan, Iwo Jima, always said he figured he wouldn't of survived Japan he'd used up all his luck.
One other of my Uncles was on a troop train when a man got on the train yelling that the "JAPS QUIT"! NOBODY paid him any mind & the party went ON & ON. But later when the train got to El Paso, another man got on the train with a copy of the EP Daily Sun newspaper stating what happened and then my Uncle said the party abruptly ended and "it was quiet as a mouse for several hours as though it was sinking in. He said everyone sat there looking out the window and no sound was heard. Then loud cheers began to fill the train.
Uncle Sven would have been in the second wave; they expected 95% casualties, that is what they pretty much were told. Till the day he passed away he celebrated August 15, 1945 and was very much in favor that they dropped the bomb.
All the men in my family served in the military in each branch, also three of my Aunts. I wish they all were alive today they would love to see this video. They would love to know each one of you on here as well.
....Thank you Mark for sending this to me.
Mark
3rd Mar.Div. 1st Battalion 9th Marine Regiment
1/9 Marines aka The Walking Dead
VN 66-67
Posted by Wild Thing at August 14, 2010 07:55 AM
Comments
Must've been a great day to be alive. Going home and returning Victorious.
Posted by: Mark at August 14, 2010 08:37 PM
Mark, this is such a wonderful video of this, thank you for sending the link to me. These memories must never be forgotten, and the same for all the times our troops came home, those should be special too.
Posted by: Wild Thing at August 14, 2010 11:53 PM
Thank you for posting this! My father was also at Pearl Harbor that day...he was finishing a degree at UH and taught at an elementary school on the Island. This is great footage, God Bless you! :)
Posted by: Diane Lovejoy at August 15, 2010 01:44 AM
Wow !
This is Theodore’s World at its very best right here.
Thank you for this insight into a time gone by and that very special day in August 1945.
I would not be born for another 15 years, yet a feel today in August 2010 as being part of something so special in what it is to be American.
I’d like to point out to you Wild Thing and to your readers that it was this very special Summer day in 1945 that brought about very many spontaneous celebrations through out the 48 United States at the time. (Note the flags waved in the video.)
One of them was captured in this iconic Life Magazine photograph “The Kiss” taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt in Times Square, New York City on that day:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Vj_day_kiss.jpg
The woman photographed in this picture, Edith Shain, just recently passed away less than two months ago at age 91.
I just wanted to relate/connect this 65th anniversary of VJ Day to this well known picture and to express my gratitude at your bringing this splendid video to us.
Trusting in the innocent assurance that familiarity breeds understanding, if I had but one wish, it would be that videos like this and of this nature be made part of the curriculum of our young people early in grade school and to form a greater part of their education so that they might better share and truly understand America’s noble history in the world, and more importantly that they better understand just what it is to be an American.
These times that we live in are both precarious and consequential as we have these revisionists of our noble American history today in 2010 with the upper hand, but not for long.
They include this current group, of not American citizens, but “citizens of the world” that have gathered in the White House presently more interested in commemorating this day with Ramadan in the Muslim ritual of its scorched earth fasting than this highly more important, liberating, and historically significant American anniversary in the defense of liberty and freedom throughout the world.
Well note this, and more importantly that this present administration continues to destroy itself little by little by these repeated slights against the history and culture of Americans who more and more and in each day that passes are waking up to.
Anyhow, what a special treat.
After I post this comment, I’m going to see this video again, and once again later today on this Sunday afternoon as I share it with one of my visiting nieces with that lovely music of Jimmy Durante and his distinct clipped gravelly voice.
Thank you for this wonderful post, Wild Thing, and you too, Mark.
The stars and stripes forever !
Posted by: Carlos at August 15, 2010 04:08 AM
