King and Queen lead two-minute silence to mark 80 years since VJ Day

BBC News

a day ago

Update:
Date: 14:15 BST
Title: Eighty years on, VJ day reminds us of 'price of freedom'
Content: Adam GoldsmithLive reporter
Eighty years ago today, World War Two was officially brought to an end with Japan's surrender.
Today, the King, Queen and Prime Minister Keir Starmer gathered alongside crowds and veterans at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire to pay their respects to those who fought the Japanese military in Asia.
We've got a recap of everything that unfolded, as an emotional ceremony saw veterans take the stage to offer tributes to fallen friends, before the event was capped off by an flypast by historic RAF aircraft.
Over in Tokyo, commemorations were also taking place - our correspondent there has more on Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's mention of the word "remorse" in his speech, the first time it has been used by a Japanese leader in more than 10 years.
The surrender was ultimately sparked by the US's devastating nuclear strikes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki - and one veteran who witnessed the aftermath of Hiroshima has shared the fright of what he saw on a BBC podcast.
And, while the 33 veterans present at the ceremony were celebrated for their sacrifice, the cost of war was laid bare in moving testimony.
After one veteran paid tribute to a fallen friend, 101 year-old George Durrant reminded the crowds that he was present "not as a hero but as someone who witnessed the price of freedom".
That brings our live page to a close, but we've got further coverage of Victory in Japan day across the BBC:
Update:
Date: 13:56 BST
Title: The little-known history of comfort women in Indonesia
Content: Ayomi AmindoniBBC Indonesia
Warning: this post contains distressing details
Under Japanese occupation, hundreds of thousands in Asia - from South Korea to China to the Philippines - were taken as 'comfort women', forced into sexual slavery for Japanese soldiers during World War Two.
In Indonesia, the stories of these women - also known as 'ianfu' - were largely buried until the 1990s, when Tuminah, from the city of Solo, became the first survivor to speak out about the sexual violence she had endured.
She had been working as a sex worker in 1944 when she was rounded up by Japanese military police and held in a brothel along with other women.
"In that hotel, I was there for days, I was very tired, both mentally and physically,' Tuminah's niece, Hening Saptaningsih, recalled her saying. 'If I could choose, I wouldn't want to live like that, because it's painful for me.'
Tuminah's testimony has encouraged other Indonesian survivors to come forward. Some of girls had been taken to similar premises, under false promises of becoming actors in a travelling troupe.
Another survivor previously told BBC Indonesian that she was only nine years old when a Japanese officer raped her for four days straight.
Japan has issued formal apologies for the comfort women issue, but these efforts have been deemed insincere by some survivors and advocates.
Meanwhile, some Indonesians say their own government has failed comfort women seeking reparations and closure.
"How can I put it? Indonesia seems to have forgotten about the ianfu issue,' Hening told BBC Indonesia. It's 'futile' to ask for measures to 'improve their status', she said. 'The Indonesian government won't listen.'
Update:
Date: 13:49 BST
Title: Sons paid respect for their fathers' service in Cardiff on Thursday
Content: David GrundyBBC Wales
The Wales National War Memorial in Cardiff was the focus of VJ Day events in Wales yesterday.
Deputy First Minister, Huw Irranca-Davies MS, was joined by Masaki Ikegami, Deputy Ambassador for the Japanese Embassy in the UK, and laid wreaths at the memorial.
Irranca-Davies said the event was 'very important' to 'focus on peace and seek peace and reconciliation'.
Representatives from all faith communities were present for the service led by Canon Aled Edwards, who said: 'We need to make a powerful statement in the modern world that we do still have to strive for peace."
Colin Rogers travelled from Welshpool in Powys with a photo of his father Jack, who fought in Burma (now Myanmar).
'They were called the forgotten army,' he said, pointing out that the focus had been on the end of the war in Europe while the fighting went on in Asia for another three months.
Terrence Herron, from Britannia near Aberbargoed in Caerphilly County, wore his father's medals to the service.
"My father was in Burma, luckily enough he came back, and he went to North Africa as well, so he did his bit.
"When he was dying you know, was the only time he told me where he went. They didn't back then, and I don't know what they went through."
Update:
Date: 13:36 BST
Title: VJ Day recap: Veterans moved to tears as King, Queen and PM watch moving ceremony
Content: Let's recap what we've just seen as the UK commemorated 80 years since the end of World War Two.
Update:
Date: 13:24 BST
Title: 'You'd never heard such a cheer in your life'
Content: Ashitha NageshReporting from the National Memorial Arboretum
Edward Hadfield, 100, served in the 8th Punjab regiment in Burma.
He was sailing from Chennai, then known as Madras, in south India when they heard the war was over.
"You've never heard such a cheer in your life," he tells the BBC.
"The war was over, and you were alive, and I was alive."
However, he says that today he's remembering his many good friends who didn't survive the war.
"They gave our today so we can have our tomorrow."
Update:
Date: 13:18 BST
Title: Glasgow veterans remember all those who served
Content: Gillian SharpeBBC Scotland
Earlier this morning, veterans from The Erskine Home in Bishopton, near Glasgow were joined by family and supporters to mark the 80th anniversary of VJ day.
The group crossed the Erskine Bridge in tribute to those who served at the end of the World War Two.
Ninety-year-old veteran, Norman Seymour, who served alongside the Gurkas in Malaya (now Malaysia), laid a wreath at the VJ Memorial Stone at the home.
Originally from Sunderland but now living in Scotland, he was just ten years old when the war ended but remembers street parties.
Of today's walk he says it "was my way of honouring those who didn't come home".
"It was an emotional day but also uplifting to see so many people coming together."
Update:
Date: 13:13 BST
Title: Fly-past marks end of VJ Day anniversary ceremony
Content: As the commemorations come to a close, the crowds at the National Memorial Arboretum look to the skies, where a Battle of Britain memorial fly past takes place.
Above is a Lancaster bomber, flanked on either side by a Hurricane and Spitfire.
Update:
Date: 13:11 BST
Title: 'I speak to you as someone who witnessed the price of freedom'
Content: The ceremony has also heard from war veteran George Durrant, who was joined on stage by his great-granddaughter Elsbeth.
He served in Burma (now Myanmar) from April 1944 until the end of the war.
"People always talk about how brave we were," he says. "But few of us thought that way."
"At the time, we just thought that we were there to do our duty," he continues. "I speak to you now not as a hero but as someone who witnessed the price of freedom."
He adds that the next generation must remember the veterans' sacrifices "so that they can strive for a more peaceful tomorrow".
Update:
Date: 13:08 BST
Title: British Indian Army veteran salutes King and reads from war diary
Content: Captain Yavar Abbas, who served in the 11th Sikh regiment of the British Indian Army, has just read an excerpt from his war diary, preserved "lovingly" by his late wife "perhaps for just such an occasion".
But before his reading, he apologises for going "briefly off-script" to salute "my brave King" who is there in spite of his ongoing cancer treatment.
The King and Queen both look moved by his words, as Abbas says cancer is an illness that he and the monarch share - and that if it provides any comfort, he has been "rid of it for 25 years and counting", which is met by applause.
"Tomorrow, I hope I will live to do better things," the 104-year-old reads from an entry dated 8 February 1945.
"I could have been dead twice before, but I'm still living. I would be surprised if I get a life for a third time. May god spare me."
This video can not be played
Cancer survivor goes off script and pays tribute to King
Update:
Date: 12:55 BST
Title: Tribute paid to contribution from British Commonwealth soldiers
Content: A tribute has just been read by poet Sir Ben Okri.
Called 'Burma, 1945: Sacrifice', the reading focuses on the contributions of soldiers who had enlisted from countries in the British Commonwealth to fight in Burma (now Myanmar).
Okri then reads out the names of some, who he says were "among millions from Britain, Africa and old India, from farms and villages in ancient kingdoms" who fought.
"It is in a stellar light that we remember their underrated sacrifice," he reads.
Update:
Date: 12:47 BST
Title: 'We all prayed for freedom': Indian Army POW account read out
Content: We've just heard from retired Col Mohammad Ghani Rashdi, an officer in the Indian Army who was captured when Singapore fell to the Japanese.
The 104-year-old was unable to be present today, so actor Nitin Ganatra is read his account on his behalf.
"I try not to think to often of my time at the camp," he says.
He explains that when his grandchildren would ask him, he would tell of the "cruel Japanese guards", the beatings and treatment "like donkeys" working all day with little food.
"Despite this, the Japanese would taunt us by putting pork in front of Muslims and beef in front of Hindus, What food there was, was often contaminated with insects," he says.
"My prayers were the only thing that kept me going. I used to pray everyday to leave - everyone did. We all prayed to a different god but we all prayed for the same thing - freedom."
After spending more than three years in the camp, he says he began to believe he would never leave, but then "one day, it happened".
"It was like being a bird that's been caged for many years and fluttering its wings and flying."
He ends his account with a final message: "Never walk with anger, let calmness lead the way."
Actor Nitin Ganatra read Mohammad Ghani Rashdi's account on his behalf
Update:
Date: 12:42 BST
Title: Submarine veteran moved to tears by tribute read in his name
Content: Veteran John Harlow is visibly moved to tears when a tribute is read out on his behalf by actor Anton Lesser.
It describes how Harlow served as a submariner in east Asia for two years, after volunteering for the Navy aged 16.
His job, Lesser reads, was to lay explosive mines when a sister ship went down in 1945.
The ship, called HMS Porpoise, had been attacked by a Japanese bomber and was never heard from again.
"War doesn't grant you the luxury of goodbyes," the actor reads, as Harlow describes how each VJ Day he thinks of a friend who was killed on HMS Porpoise.
"I wish today for us to remember all the crew of HMS Porpoise, Mark, and all lost at sea," Harlow's speech says. "For in remembering, they live on."
Update:
Date: 12:41 BST
Title: In pictures: King, Queen and PM watch moving VJ Day memorial
Content:
Update:
Date: 12:34 BST
Title: 'I always think of what was done to them, but especially today'
Content: Sara GirvinIreland Correspondent, in Lagan Valley Island
The sun is shining on Lagan Valley Island in Lisburn, County Antrim.
It's hosting today's VJ Day 80 commemoration event where a two minute silence followed a wreath laying ceremony.
Bagpipes are being tuned ahead of a public parade by the National Malaya and Borneo Veterans Association (NMBVA).
Later, an outdoor service honouring those who served in Asia, including local war hero and medical pioneer - Professor Frank Pantridge, will also take place.
He was a former prisoner and military doctor who survived captivity and was later credited with transforming emergency medicine by inventing the portable defibrillator.
Scores of armed forces representatives are here but also attending today's commemoration is veteran Tommy Doherty.
Tommy Doherty
Even at 98, he still vividly remembers serving in the RAF in Singapore during the war.His thoughts today are with prisoners of war.
He recalls talking to former prisoners who felt forgotten about, after the end of the conflict in Europe.
"The Germans are beat and the war is over there and the people are all dancing about and having beers and this, that and the other thing and they've just left us just prisoners," he remembers one telling him.
"I always think of what was done to them, but especially today".
Update:
Date: 12:23 BST
Title: 'I was a prisoner of war as a baby'
Content: Ashitha NageshReporting from the National Memorial Arboretum
Katharine Canning, 83, tells BBC News she was just 11 months old when she and her family were declared 'enemy aliens' by Japan.
She, her parents and her brother were taken to what would become known as Weihsien Internment Camp in Japanese-occupied China. Her parents had a third baby while imprisoned there.
Her memories, she tells us, are patchy - but vivid.
'I remember digging around for rusty nails in the rubble, because everything was precious,' she says.
'I remember throwing water on my father and thinking it was funny, and laughing — but he was very angry, because that was our entire day's water supply.'
Katharine also recalls being rescued by paratroopers on VJ Day, when she was three years old. She lost one of her dug-out treasures, a piece of broken china, in the paratrooper's parachute bag.
Update:
Date: 12:19 BST
Title: Celia Imrie says 'spirit and determination' of those who fought will not be forgotten
Content: Actress Celia Imrie has just paid tribute to all who fought and gave their lives during World War Two.
"Your spirit and determination in the face of unspeakable horrors will not be forgotten", she says.
Update:
Date: 12:17 BST
Title: Battle of Kohima memorial read by British Army veteran
Content: British Army veteran Owen Filer has just read the dedication written on the Kohima Epitaph, laid in memory of the Battle of Kohima, which took place in 1944 in northeast India near Burma (now Myanmar).
"When you go home, tell them of us and say, for your tomorrow, we gave our today," the 103-year-old says.
Update:
Date: 12:14 BST
Title: Last Post and tribute to veterans heard before silence
Content: Just before the two minutes' silence, we heard from 101-year-old former RAF pilot Ron Gumbley, who read an excerpt of Laurence Binyon's poem For The Fallen.
That was followed by a rendition of The Last Post - a sound that has become synonymous with war time commemorations.
Update:
Date: 12:11 BST
Title: A moving ceremony in blazing sunshine
Content: Ashitha NageshReporting from the National Memorial Arboretum
The service at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire is already extremely moving.
But the temperature has crept up to about 25C, and guests are sitting in direct sunlight. Some people have come prepared with white parasols.
Others are having to make do with fanning themselves with their programmes.
Update:
Date: 12:09 BST
Title: Watch: Red Arrows perform flypast as veterans and royals mark 80 years since VJ Day
Content: This video can not be played
Royal Air Force Red Arrows fly past ceremony to mark VJ Day
The Royal Air Force Red Arrows have just flown past the ceremony, as the attendees watched on in contemplative silence.
The ceremony has resumed, with readings from veterans and military bands playing, while members of the armed forces march.