Cilgerran church to mark VJ Day with poppy display
The poppy, a symbol of remembrance, is a fitting tribute to those who served and sacrificed during the war.
Residents are invited to the church between 2pm and 4pm to view the display and join in the commemorations.
Free tea and cake will be served, offering an opportunity for the community to come together in remembrance.
The event is part of nationwide celebrations, with communities across the UK marking this significant milestone in history.
VJ Day, on August 15, 1945, marked the end of the Second World War when Japan surrendered, bringing peace after years of global conflict.
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Wales Online
2 hours ago
- Wales Online
Veteran says horrors of war ‘should never be forgotten' on anniversary of VJ Day
Veteran says horrors of war 'should never be forgotten' on anniversary of VJ Day Albert Lamond took part in D-Day in 1944 as an 18-year-old seaman, a year after joining the Royal Navy, and also served in the Pacific in the lead up to VJ Day on August 15, 1945 (Image: Mirrorpix) A 99-year-old veteran who served in the Second World War and helped evacuate prisoners of war after VJ Day has said the horrors of war "should never be forgotten", on the 80th anniversary of the Japanese surrender. Albert Lamond took part in D-Day in 1944 as an 18-year-old seaman, a year after joining the Royal Navy, and also served in the Pacific in the lead up to VJ Day on August 15, 1945 when Japan announced its surrender to the Allied forces. Mr Lamond was involved in D-Day as a signalman on HMS Rowley, part of the 3rd Escort Group, when it was deployed to rendezvous with battleship HMS Warspite as it travelled to Normandy to shell German troops. HMS Rowley's role was to act as a first line of defence by circling HMS Warspite and it was expected that the sailors would sacrifice their lives. Mr Lamond survived and a year later, on VJ Day, his role was to evacuate Allied prisoners of war from remote islands and transport them to Australia. Mr Lamond, who was 19 at the time, described the PoWs as "living skeletons" but said they were still able to smile when they were rescued. Article continues below He had a career on the railways after leaving the Navy, and now lives in McKellar House at Erskine Veterans Village in Renfrewshire. Mr Lamond said: "Sometimes it feels like yesterday. I can still see it so clearly – from D-Day to the long months that followed in the Pacific in the run-up to VJ Day. Those memories never leave you. "By the time VJ Day came, I was heading towards the Philippines. We were preparing for more fighting when the news came through about the surrender. After years of horror, that was it, the war was finally over. "I remember feeling an enormous sense of relief, but also a deep sadness for those who didn't make it home. We had seen the cost of war up close, the lives lost, the suffering endured, and I knew that for many families, the relief of peace was mixed with grief that would never fade. "Our job wasn't over though, and orders changed. Instead of heading into battle, we were sent to evacuate Allied prisoners of war from remote islands and transport them to Australia for medical treatment. "I will never forget the sight of those men we brought home – they were living skeletons. The sight of them moved the entire crew. Those men had been through unimaginable suffering, but still managed the courage to smile, to shake our hands, and to thank us. It was a humbling experience that I remember clear as day. "For me, VJ Day will always be about more than the end of the war in the Pacific, it was the final chapter in a war that had shaped my young life. "You never forget the war, never mind VJ Day, and you never forget the people you served with. The horrors should never be forgotten." His nephew Richard Copeland said: "I grew up hearing these stories of danger, bravery, and moments that shaped the world. "Albert didn't just serve in one part of the war, he saw it all, from the Arctic convoys to D-Day, and then on to the Pacific and VJ Day. To me, he's the embodiment of courage. When he would tell us all about those days, you could feel the weight of history in his voice. "Although we were captivated, we also knew the harsh realities of what he had been through. Hearing him continue to speak about these moments keeps the war alive and not just confining them to pages of a history book. "It's real, it's human, and it happened to someone I love. His memories shine a light on parts of the conflict people rarely hear about but should be remembered. Article continues below "Places like Erskine Veterans Charity do a wonderful job caring for veterans of all ages and conflicts, but they also carry the responsibility of making sure stories like Albert's are never lost. "I'm so proud of him, not only for what he experienced but for also reliving the hardest moments of his life so that others can understand the true cost of war."
BBC News
2 hours ago
- BBC News
What was VJ Day? The moment World War Two ended
The world had been at war for six long on the 15 August 1945, Victory over Japan Day - or VJ Day - the guns finally fell silent. The fighting stopped and people across the world breathed a sigh of relief. World War II was over. What does VJ Day stand for? VJ Day stands for Victory over Japan Day. It's the name given to the day in August 1945 when Japan surrendered, bringing the Second World War to a complete that year, on 8 May, Germany had surrendered - this was VE Day (Victory in Europe Day). But while the war was over in Europe, it had still been raging in Asia and the Pacific. Many soldiers, sailors and airmen from the Allies - which included the UK, USA and USSR - were still fighting against Day came three months later, ending the war estimated 71,000 soldiers from Britain and Commonwealth countries died fighting Japan, including more than 12,000 prisoners of war who died in Japanese captivity. Why was World War II still going on? In the 1930s, Japan had been expanding its empire, invading China and other parts of Asia. By 1940 it had become allies with Nazi Germany and Italy, together known as the Axis in December 1941, Japan attacked a US Navy base at Pearl Harbour, in Hawaii, bringing the United States into the war. Around the same time, Japan attacked parts of the British Empire - including Hong Kong, Malaya, Singapore, and Britain and its Empire were fighting not just in Europe against Nazi Germany - but in Asia from Australia, India, Canada and African colonies joined the fight in jungles, on islands, and across vast mountains. Millions of troops from across the British Empire The war in the East was brutal. Soldiers faced extreme heat, tropical diseases, and dangerous were captured and became prisoners of war (POWs). Life in prison camps was often terrible: prisoners were given little food, made to work in harsh conditions, and suffered illness and injury. Some never made it home. Why did Japan surrender in WWII? Even after Germany's defeat in May 1945, Japan kept fighting. The Allies prepared for a possible invasion of Japan itself - but this could have cost many in August 1945, the United States decided to use the most powerful weapon the world had ever seen: Atomic bombs. The first bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, followed three days later by a second, on the city of Nagasaki. The devastation was instant and enormous. Tens of thousands of people were killed immediately, and many more died later from injuries and radiation caused by the days after the bomb on Nagasaki, Japan surrendered. These are still the only atomic weapons ever used in war, and their devastating power has meant countries have avoided using them again. Who announced VJ Day? US President Harry S Truman broke the news of Japan's surrender at a press conference at the White House at 7pm on 14 August. Later at midnight the UK's recently elected Prime Minister Clement Attlee spoke to the British public in a radio broadcast. "Japan has today surrendered," he said. "The last of our enemy is laid low. Peace has once again come to the world."The following day, 15 August 1945, Japan's Emperor Hirohito was heard on the radio for the first time ever when he announced the surrender. Following the news, people poured into the streets to London, crowds filled Piccadilly Circus and gathered outside Buckingham Palace. Millions of people from the allied countries took part in parades and street sang, danced, waved flags, and hugged friends and strangers. Why is VJ Day important today? World War Two was the deadliest conflict in history, involving over 60 countries and causing the deaths of around 70 million Day was not just about celebration - it was also about remembering. Remembering those who fought, those who suffered, and those who never returned home. Reflecting on the impact of the Second World War, King George VI said in a broadcast: "There is not one of us who has experienced this terrible war who does not realise that we shall feel its inevitable consequences long after we have all forgotten our rejoicings today."It marked the start of a new chapter for the world.
Telegraph
12 hours ago
- Telegraph
VJ Day is rapidly slipping from active memory – we must document it now
There will be a day soon when there will be no one alive who fought in the Second World War. Collecting and preserving the first-hand stories of those who served – Britain and the Commonwealth, yes, but from every nation – is an act of national and global importance. VJ Day 80: We Were There (BBC Two) was not just a fascinating and moving documentary, but a profoundly important document of a time rapidly slipping from active memory. One imagines many more hours of interviews were filmed than the brief 60 minutes we had here. Hopefully every minute has been catalogued. There has always been a bitter irony that 99 days passed between VE Day and VJ Day, with those in the UK hanging up the bunting and swinging from lampposts while the Fourteenth Army continued a brutal and harrowing war against the Japanese in Singapore, Thailand, Burma (now Myanmar), India and the Pacific Ocean. It was not lost on those interviewed here, most of them over 100. As Reg Holbrook of the Fleet Air Arm said: 'What did it matter to us if the German war started or finished?' Presented by Radio 5 Live's Rachel Burden, We Were There deserves credit for refusing to sentimentalise, romanticise or censor the testimony of the veterans. Some of it was appalling to hear and much anti-Japanese sentiment was expressed, but these were honest, raw interviews with people who were often in visible distress. Robin Rowland of the British India Army remembered Japanese soldiers bayoneting 31 British soldiers who lay in a field hospital and coming across mounds of Japanese troops who had starved to death. Jim Wren of the Royal Marines, who seemed visibly weighed down by the awfulness of his memories, was blunt: 'It's ruined my life. To see men die like that.' A Pathé newsreel of the time announced that 'the triumph in Burma has brought everlasting glory to our fighting men'. Yet here were those lucky fighting men who survived. None of them mentioned glory. There was no glory for Olga Henderson, a prisoner of war in Singapore aged nine, who looted the bodies of Japanese officers who had committed suicide after the surrender. She tried to pull gold teeth out of their mouths, 'with no feeling at all'. When taken prisoner, Henderson and her family had crossed a bridge lined with the decapitated heads of Commonwealth soldiers. Later, in a moment that would have had a statue in tears, Henderson wept at seeing a news report of a starving little boy begging for food in a modern-day war. 'That's what we were doing,' she said. 'What have we done? What are we doing to the world? Nothing's changed.' There was light in the dark. Tales of 'friendships' formed between soldiers and nurses on a boat to India, of the beautiful feeling of a monsoon on your body after weeks of baking heat, of one soldier's amazement at all the yellow balloons that suddenly appeared when the Japanese surrendered (they were condoms). And the wonderful Yavar Abbas, of the 11th Sikh Regiment, who was sent to Japan as part of the occupying force after the war and 'fell in love' with the people. The end credits informed us that many of those interviewed have since died, underlying the sheer importance of this film.
