VJ Day in Honolulu, August 14, 1945
Calvin writes, via email;
I was there.
I, a Marine Sergeant, met up with three strangers, a Seabee missing some front teeth and old enough to be my father, and a couple of British sailors. (A Brit aircraft carrier was in Pearl Harbor at that moment). The four of us downed enough liquor to start up a small town bar.
There was a park just across Waikiki Boulevard from the Royal Hawaiian Hotel that was mostly walking paths, a bench here and there, grass and trees (it’s all high rise buildings now). Groups of servicemen from all the branches of service were sitting around in small groups drinking, singing, and occasionally yelling. Inebriation ranged from the first wet of the whistle to passed out in a puddle of vomit, but most of us were in that happy in-between land of fun and frolic.
A world class hangover the next day, but nary a regret.
h/t Robert W.
Great video. I was 7 years old then and that brings back a few memories. Thanks.
man, they had old cars back then:-)))))
Oh the political incorrectness of it all – not a seat belt in sight! How did they survive the war without the Nanny State?!? In fact, I was a ‘terrible two’ at the time – how did I survive?
Beautiful and the music was so fitting. Don’t mind admitting I had a few tears fall. I had some close relatives in that one who are no longer with us. R.I.P. and God bless.
Aviator, you got something there. I was three. Those were the days. Today it seems every other person is social engineering activist trying to tell me how to think and live. In some ways I am almost glad that I am well into my fall. What makes it even worse that the fifth column of today’s enemy is a great enabler of the enemy.
I remember seeing this a portion of this film somewhere. It’s quite something to see a nation once gripped with war now celebrating.
Great film (I can call it film, right?) and though I was still a twinkle in me daddy’s eye, it must have been great times. That was Jimmy Durante singing, I’m sure.
Ken Kulak; you are so right. The National Post has a 2 page article beginning on the front page reporting on the TIDES Foundation. This club meets in a place up the coast from Vancouver; A left-wing U.S. charity’s plan for change in B.C.” “In late October, a group of environmental and social justice activists met at a remote lodge on Cortes Island, 150 kilometres north of Vancouver, up the Georgia Strait. The four-day gathering was billed as the Social Change Institute — an event that says it “gathers seasoned and emerging leaders with thinkers and trainers from the change-making world” — and it’s been happening for years. The lodge is called the Hollyhock Centre, a New Age retreat known for its holistic healing circles, Shaman drum making workshops and Tantric “sacred sexuality” seminars.”
Their plan is to destroy the BC and Western Canadian economy. The wealthy members who include the heiress to the Rubbermaid Corp donate money for this purpose to the tune of billions.
Strange, no local media has reported this to my knowledge.
What strikes me most is that, everybody looks slim and trim.
Again, for events re: Mayor Moonbeam and others funded by these people, Tides et al, visit Rebel with a Clause by Alex Tsakumis, there is no one more up and revealing of their treachery than he. It is truly a nefarious bunch of social engineers, with no scruples whatsoever.
Of course there is no conspiracy to change the world?
I have a friend, an elderly gentleman who was a US Army infantryman in the Pacific in WW2. He’d fought in several island campaigns and, on VJ Day, his regiment had just gone through a couple of months of Hell, helping conquer the Japanese forces on Okinawa. He and his fellow surviving soldiers of that regiment fully expected to be involved in what appeared to be The Big One, the upcoming invasion of Japan. My friend had already gone through a lot of hellish combat and fully expected that his luck would probably run out somewhere in Japan.
Fortunately for the Allies AND for the Japanese people, the Soviet declaration of war, joining the Allies against Japan, and especially the two nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki convinced the Japanese Emperor and Junta to surrender.
Looking at the big picture, those two nuclear attacks that took somewhere around 200,000 lives probably saved millions, if not tens of millions, of Japanese lives, along with hundreds of thousands of Allied lives. In that sense, these nuclear bombings were the lesser of evils and fully morally justified.
One of those lives probably saved was my good friend and neighbor, an 80-something gentleman named Henry. Henry is a widower now, but has had a full life with a wonderful wife, children, grandchildren, and now great-grandchildren, thanks to the utter crushing we inflicted on our enemies in WW2.
There’s a profound lesson there, a lesson that apparently hasn’t been absorbed by much of the West’s so-called “elite”.
Enjoyed it. Thanks for that particular item. I called over my spouse. I was 13 years old then and she was 6 years old. I only remember the crazy VE day celebrations in London. Cannot think why I can hardly recall the final ending. People in England likely post war weary and feeling the reality of back to normalcy.
Still, not to be thought as observing the wrong things, I thought back on the absolute youth there. So vital and full of life. A few stunning girls also. Like the touch of Jimmy Durante and remembering our own Vera Lynn with her rendering. We can realize the sentiment of the memories of that other generation. This about that particular wartime era.