Remembering the end of the Second World War …....…. VJ Day..... today

It is easy to forget that the defeat of Germany in May 1945 did not mark the end of the Second World War.

For the Fourteenth Army, and the other fighting forces in the Far East, May 8th 1945,  was just another day in the war against Japan.

That war ended with Japan’s surrender on August 15th.

For many at the time and since that final victory has almost been overlooked.

And so it is important that today there should be a full recognition of the heavy price that was paid in both military and civilian casualties in the conflict.

My uncle died in a Japanese prisoner of war camp in 1943 aged just 21.  I never knew him, but the shadow of his death sat heavy with both my mother and my grandparents, and like all the other young men who failed to come back there was a sense of unfilled promise.

For a long time I felt unable to write about him, and so much of what I now want to know was lost when my mother and grandparents died.

In the same way I wonder how Mrs. Birch coped with the loss of her husband, who was a Sergeant in the Royal Ordinance Corps, and like my uncle died in 1943.

He came from Whitefield, and as I write this I have in front of me the Airmail message which she sent him.

It is a simple A5 card with his and her details on one side, and the typed message, “Always thinking of you and hoping to see you soon.  All well at home. Wish we could hear from you.  Keep your chin up.  Love Dorothy”.

We have similar ones that my grandmother sent, which in her case were all returned unread, having failed to keep track of my uncle’s movements after the Fall of Greece, the retreat to Egypt, and his final posting to the Far East.

I remember coming across the letters she wrote to fellow inmates of the camp he was in, and feeling for her as the replies all came back, that they had been there but never met him.

In the same way Mrs. Birch cannot have found it easy to read the pre-stamped notice across the card, that “It is regretted that this item could not be delivered because the addresses is reported deceased”.

I decided not to go looking for the Birch family, reasoning that the letter was enough a marker for their sacrifice and prefer instead to take a little time off to participate in the events to mark VJ Day  and to remember that the Fourteenth Army, as a multi-national force comprising units from Commonwealth countries, and 1945, with about a million men under command.

Picture; Mrs. Birch’s letter, 1945, courtesy of David Harrop

*VJ Day Remembrance https://www.britishlegion.org.uk/get-involved/remembrance/remembrance-events/vj-day