Full text of the King's address to the nation on VJ Day 80th anniversary
The King said: 'For the millions of families gathered around their wireless sets, and for their loved ones still serving far from home, it was the message a battle-weary world had long prayed for.
''The war is over', declared my Grandfather, King George VI, in his address to the nation and Commonwealth on VJ Day 80 years ago today – four short words after six long years of bloodshed, fear and suffering.
'Seldom can a simple message have resonated with such a potent mix of relief, celebration, and sorrow for those who never lived to see the glow of freedom's new dawn.
'On this day of profound remembrance, I speak to you in that same spirit of commemoration and celebration as we honour anew all those whose service and sacrifice saw the forces of liberty prevail.
'While that final victory in The Pacific was achieved under the strategic command of our steadfast American allies, the war in South East Asia had reached its climax under the leadership of my great uncle, Lord Mountbatten, from whom I learned so much about the particular horrors and heroism witnessed in those furthest fields of combat.
'The forces aligned under him comprised over one million men and women, drawn from many different countries, religions and communities, but united by common purpose and indomitable spirit.
'Twenty-Nine Victoria Crosses bear eloquent testimony to their valour, but I know full well of the toll it took on so many – measured not only in gravestones, but in the mental and physical scars of those who survived.
'Despite the unyielding support of their devoted battlefield commander, General William Slim, the forces on the ground sometimes considered themselves 'the Forgotten Army'.
'But, as Patron of the now Burma Star Memorial Fund, and having attended one of the great Burma Star Reunions at the Albert Hall with Lord Mountbatten when the Hall was filled with thousands of bemedalled veterans, it has been my privilege to reassure the remaining veterans that they and their fallen comrades shall never be forgotten.
'Nor are they alone in our thoughts today for, high above those monsoon-lashed jungles Allied pilots displayed their own fearless bravery, flying fighters, bombers and transport aircraft into enemy fire and Nature's fury.
'We recall, too, the prisoners of war who endured years of brutal captivity: the starvation, disease and cruelty that tested the very limits of human endurance.
'Innocent civilian populations of occupied territories faced grievous hardships, too.
'Their experience reminds us that war's true cost extends beyond battlefields, touching every aspect of life – a tragedy all-too vividly demonstrated by conflicts around the world today.
'On this landmark anniversary, we should also pause to acknowledge that in the war's final act, an immense price was paid by the citizens of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – a price we pray no nation need ever pay again.
'But in recalling so much suffering, we must not lose sight of how great was the cause and how sweet the victory. For those heroes of VJ Day gave us more than freedom; they left us the example of how it can and must be protected.
'Countries and communities that had never before fought together learned to co-ordinate their efforts across vast distances, faiths and cultural divides.
'Together they proved that, in times of war and in times of peace, the greatest weapons of all are not the arms you bear, but the arms you link.
'That remains a vital lesson for our times.
'So to the families of all those who served, and to that sadly dwindling band of veterans among us still, please know that the courage and camaraderie displayed in humanity's darkest hour is a flame that shall blaze for eternity – a beacon that honours our past and guides our future.
'Let us therefore pledge to be vigilant guardians of the values they bequeathed to us.
'And let us, above all, remember the epitaph in the Commonwealth War Graves cemetery on the battlefield of Kohima: 'When You Go Home, Tell Them Of Us And Say, For Your Tomorrow, We Gave Our Today'.'
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Times
28 minutes ago
- Times
Last VJ Day veterans tell their stories on 80th anniversary
John Harlow was not able to read his words in person. But he was able to be there, near the King, to listen to them be read. And where others at the National Memorial Arboretum service spoke of grand themes — of peace, war, humanity — he marked the 80th anniversary of VJ Day by speaking instead of a friend. On January 9, 1945, Harlow was on a submarine, laying mines in the Indian Ocean. Mark Webber was on a different submarine. The pair had trained together, become telegraphists together and debriefed over cold drinks together. That day Webber's ship sent a message confirming her mission was complete. Then the crew were never heard of again. 'It could so easily have been me,' said Harlow, 100, in words read by the actor Anton Lesser. His was, he said, the only submarine minelayer to survive. So every VJ day, he said he remembers Webber. 'War doesn't grant you the luxury of goodbyes.' Not for the last time that afternoon, the King wiped his eye. As Britain marked 80 years since the end of the Second World War, the stories of the surviving veterans — read in person where possible at the National Memorial Arboretum, or read by proxies or pre-recorded on video — were once commonplace. Once, there were thousands of Johns and thousands of Marks. Once, those who survived the Far East, who came to call it with occasional bitterness 'the forgotten war', numbered in the hundreds of thousands. They were the British sailors, like Trevor Taylor, 100, who remembered the kamikaze planes flying over his ship. They were the Commonwealth soldiers, such as Joseph Hammond, from Ghana, who told those at Friday's service how the Japanese fought 'like devils'. They were the civilian prisoners caught up in the conflict, such as Olga Henderson, 93, who spent her childhood 118 people to a hut with one toilet. 'There was quite a lot of disease, and your head was full of creepy-crawlies,' she said. 'We used to get these little baby snails and then just break the shell. And we could chew that all day and think we're eating something.' There were those who struggle still with the memory. 'There's only one thing I think about to be honest,' Bernard Francis Madden told the audience — which included the King, the Queen, Sir Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch. 'I killed 20 Japanese. That preys on my mind.' Then there were the thousands of scared and brave men, such as Tom Jones, 103. He recalled in a pre-recorded message how, 'I saw this Japanese officer, he got his sword and he's running straight at me and I'm thinking to myself, this is my last day.' The only reason it wasn't was that a Gurkha shot the attacker. But now, they are rare. After an appeal by the Royal British Legion, only 33 veterans could make the event. One could not. Eighty years after Jones thought he had seen his last day, he finally did. On Thursday, after recording his message, he died. And there was one fewer living link to the war. So it was that in heat that might have been more worrying for the centenarians had many of them not previously endured months hacking through the jungles of Burma, the nation honoured in the words of the King, the 'courage and camaraderie displayed in humanity's darkest hour'. Three months earlier, many of the same dignitaries had met in the same place to remember VE Day. Friday's ceremony, outdoors and on the Armed Forces Memorial, was different. It was different partly because the war in the east was more global. CHRISTOPHER FURLONG/PA Ben Okri, the poet, gave a reading in honour of the Empire troops. 'It was not really their quarrel, but those who fought had heard a higher call that said it's worth dying to stop the world being turned to hell,' he said. One of those Empire troops was Yavar Abbas, 104, from the 11th Sikh Regiment. He read from his diary, in which he had written of being sniped at at 30 yards and comrades falling beside him. But before beginning, he apologised, 'for briefly going off the script to salute my brave King, who is here with his beloved Queen in spite of the fact that he is undergoing treatment for cancer.' He too, he said, had had cancer. 'I salute him for attending this occasion. By his presence here he has gone a long way to make sure that his Grandad's 14th army is never given the sobriquet of the forgotten army.' On returning to the royal box, they saluted each other and spoke for almost a minute. There was something else that marked the ceremony out. Thousands of miles away in Tokyo, Japan's prime minister became the first in over a decade to use the word 'remorse' to mark the anniversary. 'We will never ever make a mistake in choosing the path to take,' Shigeru Ishiba said. 'The remorse and lessons from that war should once again be engraved deeply in our hearts. TOLGA AKMEN/EPA It was the first time since 2012 that a Japanese premier used the word at the ceremony, which is held to mourn the 3.1 million casualties of war in Japan. A moment of silence was observed at midday, exactly 80 years after Emperor Hirohito announced Japan's acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration in a radio broadcast. The four-and-a-half-minute address by the emperor, delivered a few days after the US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and replayed from a scratchy phonograph recording, stunned the nation in 1945, when Hirohito said that 'the war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan's advantage'. After the Red Arrows streamed over the royal box, and before the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight flew over at a more stately pace, there was a final word from Jones — the final words, as it turned out, of his life. 'As far as war is concerned,' he said in the video, 'there's no pride and no glory. So, forget war and pick peace.'
BBC News
4 hours ago
- BBC News
Cambridgeshire WW2 veteran: 'We thought we were going home'
A World War Two veteran has described the disappointment he felt that successive victory celebrations did not mark the end of his Newman, 99, left home to serve with the Royal Navy in 1943 but would not return until 1947, two years after the end of the said he and his crew "thought we were going home" when Germany surrendered on 8 May 1945, but were instead sent to the Far East, where fighting would continue for a further three the 80th anniversary of VJ Day (Victory over Japan) at a flag-raising ceremony and remembrance service in Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire, he said it was important to remember those who never came home at all. "We're all sad that they never came back. For what they did out there, we truly thank them and I salute them all," he said. On VE Day, he was aboard his ship, near Malta."There was a buzz going round that something was going on, but we didn't know what, he said."We thought we were going home, but it didn't happen. We went out to the Far East. But you have to go where you're told."Mr Newman said he felt "disappointment" that he was not sent home, and "forgotten" while celebrations were under way in even the arrival of VJ Day on 15 August did not mean he and his crewmates could return home."Even when the war was over in 1945, it wasn't over for us," he said."We still had to go out minesweeping, and that took another couple of years."It was very dangerous, obviously. But the point is that the mines are there and they've got to be swept." Mr Newman, who served on HMS Moon, was stationed around the Mediterranean, North Africa and Asia in the years after VJ remembers helping restore British rule in Singapore in September 1945 in an operation led by Lord Louis Mountbatten. "That was quite thrilling. I think the main thing was that we were all going to meet Lord Mountbatten because he was in charge," he said."There was a march past and he gave a speech. He said, 'Well, come on lads, let's go and finish the job.'"Despite "fighting disease and the elements" while risking his life minesweeping, Mr Newman said he looked back fondly on his wartime service."I really liked being in the Royal Navy and I think most sailors did," he said."I don't know how the Army feels about it. Mealtimes were mealtimes and we got plenty to eat. I have memories I'll never forget." Follow Cambridgeshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
Western Telegraph
5 hours ago
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Saundersfoot war veteran honoured by First Minister
Duncan Hilling, 99, from Saundersfoot, was honoured by First Minister Eluned Morgan during Wales' VJ Day commemorations with a letter recognising his service during the Second World War. Mr Hilling served in India, Japan and Malaya after joining the RAF in April 1944, later transferring to the Royal Welch Fusiliers. He was among the first British troops to enter Hiroshima and Nagasaki following the atomic bombings in August 1945. Mr Hilling said: "I went out to Japan and spent a year there, it was a fascinating country. "We arrived before any other troops, we went to Hiroshima and the horrors of the atomic bomb were still there, it was hideous. "We asked people what they remembered about the bomb, and they couldn't remember anything, just a flash. "To me it was horrible, my comrades, six of us, felt the same. "I don't think people can ever understand what it was like. "Let's hope to goodness it never happens again." He was one of 11 siblings, seven of whom also served during the war. All survived. He added: "I was absolutely amazed by the First Minister coming to see me and giving me a letter of thanks. "I think of all the boys who were in Japan with me, nearly all of them gone now as I am nearly 100." The tribute was presented as part of Wales' commemoration of the 80th anniversary of VJ Day, which marks Victory over Japan and the end of the Second World War. VJ Day is observed on August 15 and honours those who served in the Asia-Pacific campaign. First Minister Eluned Morgan said: "It is a privilege to personally thank Mr Hilling for his incredible service and sacrifice. "His experiences in Hiroshima and Nagasaki remind us of the true cost of war and the courage of those who served in Asia-Pacific. "On this 80th anniversary of VJ Day, we honour all veterans like Mr Hilling who helped secure the peace and freedom we enjoy today." Mr Hilling's story was one of many shared for this year's VJ Day events, which included commemorations across Wales to remember those who served and fell in the Far East.
