To mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War Two. Veterans and US officials were gathered in Pearl Harbor.
Hundreds gathered on the deck were addressed by Commander of the US Pacific Fleet, Admiral Scott Swift, of the now decommissioned battleship USS Missouri.
On 2 September 1945, Formal surrender documents were signed by Army General Yoshijiro Umezu and Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu on the same deck.
The documents were also signed by the allied leaders including Admiral Chester Nimitz and General Douglas MacArthur.
“It was not about retribution. Like today’s ceremony, it was an acknowledgment that the shared losses of World War II vastly exceeded the immediate gains at the time”, said by Admiral Swift, the commander of the U.S.
Ray Morse of Huntington, West Virginia, who 70 years ago was an 18-year-old sailor on board the Missouri, said he wouldn’t miss the gathering “for anything”.
Morse said, “I always hope to see some of the guys from the ship.”
Meanwhile, Barack Obama U.S. President used the 70th anniversary of the end World War II in the Pacific to honor the U.S. war dead, and Herald remade ties with Japan on Wednesday.
Obama said in a statement, “We remember those who endured unimaginable suffering as prisoners of war, and we honor the ultimate sacrifice of more than 100,000 U.S. service members who laid down their lives in the Pacific theater to defend our nation and advance the cause of freedom”.
The USS Missouri is now a museum and is moored at the spot overlooking where the USS Arizona sank in, 1941 on the Pearl Harbor during the Japanese attack.
On 6th August 1945, the surrender came just over a month after an atomic bomb was detonated over the Japanese city of Hiroshima whereas the second bomb was dropped three days later on Nagasaki.
On 15 August – in what became VJ day, Japan’s Supreme Council was then ordered by Emperor Hirohito for the Direction of the War to accept the unconditional surrender terms made in the Potsdam Declaration and announced in a radio address the nation’s surrender .
It comes as to commemorate the end of the war, a huge parade had been put by China.
Through the Beijing’s iconic Tiananmen Square, more than 12,000 troops marking China’s victory over Japan marched as part of a major display.
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