{"id":7989,"date":"2014-08-14T17:29:21","date_gmt":"2014-08-14T17:29:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=7989"},"modified":"2023-03-28T15:09:19","modified_gmt":"2023-03-28T19:09:19","slug":"commemorating-v-j-day-14-august-1945","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/commemorating-v-j-day-14-august-1945.html","title":{"rendered":"Commemorating V-J Day: 14 August 1945"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction<\/em><\/strong>: In this article, Scott Phillips searches old newspapers to find stories about the day Japan announced its surrender, ending World War II. Scott is a genealogical historian and owner of Onward To Our Past\u00ae genealogy services.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

A few days ago I happened to notice an obituary in my local newspaper for Theodore \u201cDutch\u201d Van Kirk. I read that this gentleman passed away in Stone Mountain, Georgia, at the age of 93. I was curious to learn why this obituary would be in my local paper when Stone Mountain, Georgia, is well over 700 miles away.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
Photo: the Enola Gay bomber after the Hiroshima mission. Source: Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I soon discovered that his death was news across the entire United States\u2014his obituary was published coast to coast. For example, this obituary was published in a California newspaper.<\/p>\n

\"obituary<\/a>
Tri-Valley Herald (Pleasanton, California), 31 July 2014<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As this obituary explains:<\/p>\n

Theodore \u2018Dutch\u2019 Van Kirk [was] a navigator who guided the Enola Gay bomber over Hiroshima during World War II to drop the first nuclear bomb in the history of warfare\u2026 Van Kirk was the last surviving member of the Enola Gay\u2019s 12-member crew, which was responsible for dropping the atomic bomb on Aug. 6, 1945 that killed 80,000 people and hurried the war\u2019s end eight days later.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The phrase \u201churried the war\u2019s end eight days later\u201d refers to the fact that the announcement of Japan\u2019s surrender was made on 14 August 1945 (which, due to time zone differences, was actually August 15 in Japan), in effect ending WWII.<\/p>\n

This article from an Illinois newspaper presents Van Kirk\u2019s own words describing the world-altering event he and his fellow Enola Gay crew members participated in that day.<\/p>\n

\"article<\/a>
Register Star (Rockford, Illinois), 7 August 2005, page 11<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cDutch\u201d died just two weeks shy of the 69th anniversary of the declaration of \u201cV-J Day\u201d (Victory over Japan Day), commemorating the Japanese surrender which marked the end of World War II. Note: although Japan\u2019s surrender was announced in the U.S. on 14 August 1945, the formal surrender ceremony took place aboard the USS Missouri<\/em> in Tokyo Bay on September 2\u2014so both days can be called V-J Day.<\/p>\n

Intrigued by Van Kirk\u2019s story, I began to look for more historical information on V-J Day in GenealogyBank\u2019s Historical Newspaper Archives<\/a> to see how the news was reported\u2014and to learn what our ancestors might have been doing that day.<\/p>\n

Here is what the front page of this Louisiana newspaper looked like on Victory over Japan Day.<\/p>\n

\"Japs<\/a>
Advocate (Baton Rouge, Louisiana), 15 August 1945, page 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This photo spread from a California newspaper shows Americans celebrating the good news of Japan\u2019s surrender and the ending of the war: streets jammed with huge, happy crowds, with celebrations of all types.<\/p>\n

\"photos<\/a>
San Diego Union (San Diego, California), 15 August 1945, page 2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And speaking of end of war celebrations, on page three of that same newspaper was an article reporting that floodlights were lit at night after four years of darkness, almost every store in nearby towns was shuttered for the holiday\u2014and from weeping telephone operators to an elevator attendant giving out free whisky to his riders, the whole of America seemed engaged in some type of revelry.<\/p>\n

\"article<\/a>
San Diego Union (San Diego, California), 15 August 1945, page 3<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And why shouldn\u2019t America have been celebrating with wild abandon? As the headline of this Ohio newspaper declared: the soldiers would finally be coming home!<\/p>\n

\"Japs<\/a>
Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio), 16 August 1945, page 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Seven and a half million men (and women) coming home at last! I know my father, a 1st lieutenant in the U.S. Army, was among those men. While Dad fought throughout Europe, he and his men all had a terrible feeling of foreboding should they have to fight on the shores of Japan. But now they all knew that they\u2019d be coming home.<\/p>\n

While many Americans had been waiting out every second of time for V-J Day to finally arrive, this Texas newspaper article cleverly pointed out that a Mr. and Mrs. B. M. Day had enjoyed V. J. Day for 12 years already! It seems that their daughter was Vera Janice Day, and some smart reporter caught that cute tidbit amongst all the other excitement!<\/p>\n

\"Vera<\/a>
Dallas Morning News (Dallas, Texas), 16 August 1945, section II, page 7<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This Oregon newspaper article reported that Portland was already planning how to celebrate V-J Day even before Japan announced its surrender: \u201cCity fathers have no objection to John Q. Citizen\u2019s celebrating in any manner he chooses so long as the peace is kept. \u2018I am not interested in stopping people from showing their exuberance,\u2019 the mayor said, \u2018as long as property is not destroyed and the laws are observed.\u2019\u201d Sounds to me like Portland was surely going to rock for V-J Day!<\/p>\n

\"Citywide<\/a>
Oregonian (Portland, Oregon), 11 August 1945, page 4<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Also on the home front, the impending end of the war was going to mean the end to rationing. Two days before V-J Day, a Massachusetts newspaper published this article listing many of the everyday items that were being rationed for the duration of the war, such as gasoline, tires, shoes, food and fuel oil. The old newspaper article speculated when that rationing might end after the formal surrender of Japan. Another family story I recall is that after my Dad returned home from the war, my Mom explained to him how challenging it was to live with rationing\u2014and my Dad responded, with a chuckle: \u201cI\u2019d have traded anyone on the home front anything for the bullets and K-Rations!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Life<\/a>
Springfield Republican (Springfield, Massachusetts), 12 August 1945, page 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As we commemorate V-J Day today, I hope you will take a moment to reflect on what your ancestors might have been doing 69 years ago. I\u2019d love to read your comments here!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this article, Scott Phillips searches old newspapers to find stories about the day Japan announced its surrender, ending World War II.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":50051,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12235],"tags":[2191,797,2437],"class_list":["post-7989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","tag-history","tag-japan","tag-world-war-ii"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/photo-0814-2014-featured-graphic-v-j-day.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7989"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7989\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90347,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7989\/revisions\/90347"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}