VJ DAY EXPLAINED

ON Saturday 15 August, people around the world will celebrate the 75th anniversary of Victory over Japan (VJ) Day, which was the day when World War Two finally ended. But ‘celebrate’ is the wrong word for many people, as the horrors of WW2 meant that there was very little to be happy about. As historian Donald L Miller wrote: “It was too much death to contemplate [think about], too much savagery and suffering. For those who had seen the face of battle… there was a sense of immense relief.”

Crowds wait outside Buckingham Palace to see King George VI (who was our Queen’s dad) after the news of Japan’s surrender spread across the UK

The memorial to Allied soldiers in Kohima War Cemetery in India. The verse on it says: “When you go home, tell them of us and say, for your tomorrow, we gave our today,” and is known as the Kohima Epitaph (an epitaph is a short piece of writing on a tomb or monument)

British troops pay tribute to their fallen comrades in Kohima, India