24 September 2010
|
USS Missouri on 2 September 1945, just prior to the Japanese surrender ceremony
The Royal Armouries marked the 65th anniversary of V-J Day, often popularly obscured by V-E Day, at Fort Nelson with ordnance, re-enactments and a telling of the tale of Orde Wingate’s famous Chindits, the unseen jungle commandoes whose raids with Montagnard partisans behind Japanese lines became the stuff of legend. ...
Despite the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki the end of Japan’s war efforts was still not certain, but the news that the Soviet Union had also declared war on Japan and invaded Manchuria was the last straw for Emperor Hirohito, who bowed to the inevitable.
However, Japanese forces were still spread across the Pacific and some units held out in sporadic fighting beyond September and the following months, resulting in further deaths of allied troops; the most die-hard of the Japanese joining Malay and Thai insurgents in the 50s and 60s, one not coming out of his hideout until 1974.
The Royal Armouries marked the 65th anniversary of V-J Day, often popularly obscured by V-E Day, at Fort Nelson with ordnance, re-enactments and a telling of the tale of Orde Wingate’s famous Chindits, the unseen jungle commandoes whose raids with Montagnard partisans behind Japanese lines became the stuff of legend.
The Royal Armouries is one of the few organisations to mark the anniversary regularly. For more details of Britain’s ‘Forgotten Army’ see www.royalarmouries.org
Find this news story and more in the October/November issue of Classic Arms & Militaria