Three months and one week after the socially-distanced celebrations took place for the 75th anniversary of VE Day, Ripon marked VJ Day in more modest fashion.
Victory over Japan, which followed the dropping of atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945, brought an abrupt and brutal end to World War II and meant that British and Commonwealth troops, who fought in the Far East, could return home.
But tens of thousands of the 1.3 million men and women who made up the South East Area Command and what subsequently became known as the ‘Forgotten Army’ did not return to loved ones and their names can be found on War Memorials in the UK and around the world.
The War Memorial at Spa Gardens, Ripon
Today the ‘Forgotten Army’ will be remembered, across the UK, with a two minute silence; the sounding of church bells, a fly past of World War II aircraft and a national service of remembrance attended by Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall, broadcast live by the BBC.
Read more:
The National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, provides the setting for the BBC’s coverage, while an hour earlier, in the similarly sylvan surroundings of Spa Gardens, Ripon, the city’s Mayor Councillor Eamon Parkin, laid a wreath at the war memorial.
He told the Stray Ferret:
“Our city, which is home to the Royal Engineers, has a proud military history stretching back to 1915 and on landmark days like these, we take a few minutes to remember what the men and women of the armed forces have done for us in every theatre of war and continue to do for us in keeping the peace.”
Cllr Parkin, added:
“Sadly, the necessary coronavirus restrictions prevented us from staging the large-scale events that we had planned to celebrate the 75th anniversary of VE Day and also affect today’s commemoration, but that does not stop us from remembering those who fought and fell in the Far East and indeed, all our war dead.”
