How a Long-Ago War Almost Stopped My Wife and I From Getting Married
Commemorating the end of WW2 on Aug. 15, 1945 and the beginning of a long friendship between Japan and the U.S.
On August 15, 1945, days after the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Emperor Showa announced that Japan would unconditionally surrender to the Allied armies. And thus did years of murderous war end.
Both South Korea and North Korea celebrate today as Liberation Day. The U.S. celebrates “V-J Day” on Sept. 2 — the day when the formal surrender document was signed by Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu and US Army General Douglas MacArthur aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo, officially ending the war and beginning 77 years of friendship between the two countries.
In Japan, Aug. 15 is known as 終戦記念日– Anniversary of the End of the War, but is officially designated as “The Day of Mourning for War Dead and Praying for Peace” (戦没者を追悼し平和を祈念する日). In both countries, nowadays it mostly goes unremarked as a long-ago historical event.
And so for people of my generation and younger, after decades as close allies and friends, it can be easy to forget that Japan and America were once detested enemies. And then something happened to remind me.
