12-08-2025
Kirk of Calder congregation marks VJ Day with moving commemoration in West Lothian
August 15, 1945 was the date Japan's forces announced their surrender to the Allies
A congregation from a church in West Lothian paid tribute to the fallen as they commemorated the 80th anniversary of the end of the war with Japan.
VJ Day marks the date that Japanese forces announced their surrender to the Allies – August 15, 1945 – and finally brought World War II to an end.
The Japanese government would officially sign a written declaration of surrender weeks later on September 2.
The congregation of Kirk of Calder gathered to honour and pay tribute to the WWII generation from across the UK and the Commonwealth.
After a moving service focusing on the war in the Far East, Reverend William Watt led the commemoration at the Mid Calder War Memorial Arch and a poppy wreath was placed on the gates of the arch.
Japan paid a terrible price in August 1945 with the loss of around 230,000 civilian lives, residents of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, after the two cities were hit with atomic bombs in the days prior to surrender.
It's estimated up to 166,000 died in the attack on Hiroshima on August 6, around 10,000 of them soldiers, and another 80,000 died three days later when Nagasaki was hit, just 150 were soldiers.
