September 2 1945

[VGNonly]

[senseandsensibility]

1. Thank you for posting this

[VGNonly]

2. My Father was in Tokyo Harbor that day.

He was on his ship, heard the speech on shipboard radio.

[Irish_Dem]

4. Wow he was part of history.

What was the mood on board his ship?
Somber, quiet, or loud and celebratory??

[VGNonly]

8. Dad was quiet and a bit taciturn.

Hard to say what he felt. I think he was just mostly relieved that it was over.

[Irish_Dem]

10. Yes that is exactly how I pictured it onboard those in the harbor on US military ships.

Quiet, subdued, relieved.

But also aware of the tremendous loss of life and suffering.
And the ordeal they had been through.

[senseandsensibility]

7. Is he still alive?

That would be amazing if he was. Thanks to all the WWII vets such as your father and my late father in law!

[VGNonly]

9. He passed in 2011, just 23 when the war ended.

Of the approximately 16 million US WW2 veterans who served, only about 66,000 are left.

[oasis]

3. Short video definitely worth watching.

[Hekate]

5. Thank you for this

To my surprise, it brought some tears.

[BigmanPigman]

6. Hey Harry, what about Unit 731?

"Unit 731 was responsible for large-scale biological and chemical warfare research, as well as lethal human experimentation. The facility was led by General Shirō Ishii and received strong support from the Japanese military. Its activities included infecting prisoners with deadly diseases, conducting vivisection, performing organ harvesting, testing hypobaric chambers, amputating limbs, and exposing victims to chemical agents and explosives. Prisoners—often referred to as “logs” by the staff—were mainly Chinese civilians, but also included Russians, Koreans, and others, including children and pregnant women. No documented survivors are known.

After the war, twelve Unit 731 members were tried by the Soviet Union in the 1949 Khabarovsk war crimes trials and sentenced to prison. However, many key figures, including Ishii, were granted immunity by the United States in exchange for their research data. The Harry S. Truman administration concealed the unit's crimes and paid stipends to former personnel."

The US history books leave this important fact about the US after WW2. We went after Nazi doctors/torturers but we let the Japanese doctors/torturers go.