Nostalgia (part 4) - VJ Day Kiss - 70 years ago

Kissing the War Goodbye/Wikipedia.com

70 years ago ...

August 14, 1945 was the dawn, ending those dark days from 1939 - 1945 which were marked by a horrific world war.  World War II left no continent untouched and a devastating body count.  With causalities approaching 70 million, it may have been the worst war in recorded human history, such seen in this interactive video:  The Fallen of World War II on Vimeo

But as the Psalmist wrote:

"... weeping may endure for a night, 

but joy cometh in the morning."

Psalm 30:5 (KJV)

Finally the night of weeping ended and joy came with the unconditional surrender of Japan bringing with it a promise of peace.

This iconic kiss was a snapshot of that day - capturing the spirit of VJ Day - Victory over Japan.  And I wrote about it five years ago in this blog: A kiss immortalized in August 14, 1945

Since then, the identity of the nurse has been challenged. Some have come forward claiming to be the sailor and the nurse in the photo. Even science has weighed in: Solving The 'VJ Day Kiss' Photograph Mystery Using Astronomy And Science

Who were they really?

Perhaps it's best to let it be. It was what it was ... a magical moment ... the hand of fate.

(reference:  https://youtu.be/mPHRp0us9X4 )

And 70 years ago was a different time. During World War Two, America was united. We were bold and committed to what FDR said in his Pearl Harbor speech -

"No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion,
the American people in their righteous might
will win through to absolute victory. ...

With confidence in our armed forces,
with the unbounding determination of our people,
we will gain the inevitable triumph --
so help us God."
  from:  FDR: Pearl Harbor Address to the Nation

Yet, FDR would not live to see the end of the war, but died in office on April 12, 1945. [reference: FDR Dies]  

But he inspired us to never give up and overcome in the face of overwhelming odds, like he never gave up when faced with a crippling handicap, as dramatized in this scene:  The best part of the movie "Pearl Harbor"

And though I wasn't born yet, my parents had not met yet, it does make me feel nostalgic for a time when all Americans are united, again, and determined to fight for the right. And in the end experience ...

* The sweet kiss of victory! *

--------------------------------------
--------------------------------------

Previous posts in this series:

Nostalgia (part 1) - A Father's Thanksgiving Prayer  (2014)

Nostalgia (part 2) - Christmas Past in War and Peace (2014)

Nostalgia (part 3) - Something Old, Something New  (2014)

--------------------------------------
--------------------------------------

Photo from: Kissing the War Goodbye/Wikipedia.com

America's Story (part 13) - The Enola Gay

Wikipedia/Co Tibbets - the Enola Gay

What's in a name?

Ships so often are named after women.  And even airships ... we call them airplanes. ;)  And the Enola Gay was one of them.

This Boeing B-29 bomber was named after her commander's mother - Enola Gay Haggard Tibbets.   The commander's name back then in 1945 was  Colonel Paul Tibbets.   And the mission of this bomber hastened the end of the most deadly war in the 20th century, if not in human history  - World War Two.  

(For an interesting set of statistics of causalities of war by death toll:  - Wikipedia - List of wars by death toll.  World War Two tops the list.)

Worst of all previous recorded wars ...

World War Two (1939 - 1945) was very intense.  Its precursor was Kristallnacht: The November 1938 Pogroms.   But the Blitzkrieg of September 1, 1939, when Germany invaded Poland, was the tipping point.  Great Britain and France sent an ultimatum to Hitler to withdraw or they would go to war.  And Hitler ignored them, going deeper into Poland; and hence Britain and France declared war on Germany.  

World War Two ... it was on!   (reference:  World War II Starts)

Meanwhile, the allies of Germany, like Japan, fueled their entrance into the war in the Pacific with their aggressive military expansion.  (reference:  Causes of World War II in the Pacific )

The US was reluctant to get involved, but  Pearl Harbor changed all that.  After the United States declared war on Japan, Germany declared war on the United States - interesting enough, America was the only country in which Hitler declared war.  (reference:  Germany World War II -- declaration of war on America)

But with the United States, World War Two began and ended in the Pacific ...

Below is a timeline of the war in the Pacific theater:

from:  http://www.timetoast.com/timelines/world-war-ii-interactive-timeline-the-pacific-theater

On the road to nukes ...

As nuclear fission was discovered in 1938, (reference:  Discovery of Nuclear Fission) and atomic power seemed possible, Leo Szilard feared that Nazi Germany may be the first to create the atomic bomb.  Frustrated with America's lack of action in pursuing atomic energy, Szilard recruited Albert Einstein to write a letter to President Roosevelt.  It became known as the Einstein letter.  And it spurred the formation of the Manhattan Project.

The culmination was the development of the Atomic Bomb, first tested - July 16, 1945 - in New Mexico at the Trinity Site.   I had written an article about that place:  THE TRINITY SITE: WHERE THE FIRST ATOMIC BOMB WAS EXPLODED

Victory in Europe (VE Day) ...

A few months before the Trinity test, Germany surrendered to the Allies on May 7, 1945 - days after Hitler committed suicide in the his bunker on April 30.    But the war was still raging on in Pacific.  (Reference:  World War II Battles - Pacific Theater 1941-1945 - Google Maps.)

The Enola Gay and August 6, 1945 ...

August 6, 1945 was the day that the Enola Gay flew her secret mission - the culmination of the Manhattan project.  And here an eyewitness account of one of the crew members, who was part of that mission to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima:

from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZnRD3-Sg2I#at=11

A personal story and eye witness ...

One of my friends, who passed away a few years ago, was a navy veteran and had served during World War Two.  He told me he was aboard a ship off the coast of Japan and saw the atomic blast of Hiroshima from a few hundred miles away.  Amazing.  But it is still was not over.

Victory in Japan (VJ Day)  ...

After the second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan surrendered, unconditionally, and officially on September 2, 1945.  

Much has been said and written about about the horror of nuclear weapons - and rightly so.   And it's still intensely debated - Was it necessary to drop the atom bomb on Japan?  

But many believed this hastened the end of the war and saved many lives.  Among them may have been my father-in-law.  He fought in World War Two in both the North African and European theaters.  He was there on D-Day + 4.  And, if the war had not ended a few months later, he would have been slated to be deployed to fight against Japan.  Perhaps, he would have become another grim statistic, one of the millions of causalities of that war.

The mission of the Enola Gay hastened the end of World War Two - the worst in the 20th century - and up to that point, perhaps the worst of all recorded history.

And America's part of ending World War Two is part of America's Story,
which will be continued ....

--------------------

--------------------

Posts on World War Two:

Pearl Harbor Day, 1941 - World War Two Soldiers Remembered  (2009)

Remembering D-Day - June 6, 1944  (2010)

A kiss immortalized in August 14, 1945  (2010)

Pray4America (part 2) - FDR's prayer on D-Day  (2012)

Pray4America (part 3) - FDR's Flag Day prayer - June 14, 1942  (2012)

--------------------

--------------------

Other posts in this series:

America's Story (part 1) - The Speech that redefined us, November 19, 1863 (2011)

America's Story (part 2) - Savages! (2011)

America's Story (part 3) - Over There - 1917, 1941 (2011)

America's Story (part 4) - Christmas 1944, when we said NUTS to the enemy (2011)

America's Story (part 5) - Amazing Grace (2012)

America's Story (part 6) - GI Joe Tuskegee Airmen (2012)

America's Story (part 7) - When Reagan was shot (2012)

America's Story (part 8) - Memorial Day, Gettysburg, and Amos Humiston (2012)

America's Story (part 9) - A Tale of Two Revolutions (2012)

America's Story (part 10) - Sergeant York (2012)

America's Story (part 11) - Sacajawea  (2012)

America's Story (part 12) - Death and Taxes (2013)

--------------------

--------------------

Photo from:

Wikipedia - Colonel Tibbets and the Enola Gay

A kiss immortalized in August 14, 1945

Photo from Wikipedia: Kissing the War Goodbye

Above is the lesser known photo taken by Lt. Victor Jorgensen of a sailor kissing a passing nurse on VJ Day in Times Square.

The most famous and iconic picture of this same subject - VJ Day in Times Square - taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt, was published in LIFE in 1945 with the caption, In New York's Times Square a white-clad girl clutches her purse and skirt as an uninhibited sailor plants his lips squarely on hers.

August 14, 1945 in New York City was a magical moment - a confluence of history, a place, and everyday people. Soldiers were returning home from an intense four years of fighting when President Truman announced Victory in Japan (VJ Day) - the end of the American involvement in World War II.

In Times Square, the sailors paraded in joy for they had won! On the street, civilians came out to the streets from their shops, the hospitals, to savor this moment of victory. Then a sailor, caught up in the passion, kissed a surprised young nurse, who was stopped in mid stride as two photographers, Lt. Jorgenson, an American sailor, and Alfred Eisenstaedt, a German-American photojournalist for LIFE magazine, snapped this spontaneous moment.

Eisenstaedt, whose photo made it into LIFE, ironically had fought on the side of Germany in World War I. He later photographed a meeting between Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini in Italy before emigrating to US to escape Nazi oppression in 1935 .

But who were the subjects of Jorgenson's and Eisenstaedt's iconic photo?

The nurse was Edith Shain and here is the story:



The greatest generation, like Edith Shain who passed away this June 2010, is fading into history. The new generation taking their place is greatly in debt to their sacrifce.

When our nation was born, the writers of the Declaration of Independence finished "with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor."

So did many, who made the ultimate sacrifice during World War II, carried the Spirit of 1776 to the Spirit of 1945. May our generation carry the Spirit of 1776 and 1945 in 2010 and beyond.

Other links:

From nydailynews.com: Edith Shain, nurse whose V-J kiss with sailor in Times Square immortalized in Life photo, dies at 91

From YouTube.com: Photo of iconic kiss reenacted