TRUMAN NAMES THIS V-J DAY
President hails ‘new era of hope’
Proclaims liberty’s victory over tyranny; tells world, ‘We shall never forget’
WASHINGTON (AP, Sept. 1) – President Truman tonight proclaimed Sunday (today), September 2, as V-J Day – for Japan a day of “retribution,” for America and for the world a day of the “victory of liberty over tyranny.”
Mr. Truman spoke over a globe-girdling radio hookup that linked the White House with Tokyo, where aboard the great battleship USS Missouri, just off the enemy capital, Japan abjectly signed the terms of her surrender.
Fourfold significance
And to the occasion the President attributed a fourfold significance:
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For this country – A day for “renewed consecration to the principles which have made us the strongest nation on earth and which, in this war, we have striven so mightily to preserve.”
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For Japan – An end of “power to destroy and kill.”
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For the world – A bright new era of hope for “peace and international good will and cooperation.”
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For history – “The day of formal surrender by Japan.”
He said:
We shall not forget Pearl Harbor.
The Japanese militarists will not forget the USS Missouri.
The evil done by the Japanese warlords can never be repaired or forgotten. But their power to destroy and kill has been taken from them. Their armies and what is left of their navy are now impotent.
For this event of mingled solemnity and joy, Mr. Truman invited members of the Cabinet to sit with him in the broadcast room on the first floor of the White House – the White House where Japan once haughtily boasted she would dictate surrender terms. They listened to the ceremonies aboard the Missouri and, in the midst of them, the President spoke.
Then the all-network broadcast switched back to Tokyo Bay for addresses by Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Allied Commander, and Adm. Chester W. Nimitz, Pacific Fleet commander, American signers of the surrender documents.
Little gloating or elation
There was little of gloating or elation in the President’s address. Rather there was sober emphasis on what victory has cost and what it will mean.
Our first thoughts now, the President said, are thoughts of gratefulness and deep obligation to those killed or maimed in history’s most terrible war, and of their loved ones.
He went on:
Only the knowledge that the victory, which these sacrifices have made possible, will be wisely used, can give them any comfort. It is our responsibility – ours, the living – to see to it that this victory shall be a monument worthy of the dead who died to win it.
Here is what V-J means
Answering thousands of inquiries as to just what V-J Day means, the President repeated previous assertions that it has no legal meaning. Here is what he said on this point:
As President of the United States, I proclaim Sunday [today], September 2, 1945, to be V-J Day – the day of formal surrender by Japan.
It is not yet the day for the formal proclamation of the end of the war or of the cessation of hostilities. But it is a day which we Americans shall always remember as a day of retribution – as we remember that other day, the day of infamy.
Mr. Truman thus adopted the words of his predecessor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, in referring to December 7, 1941.
‘We move forward’
The President had been listening to the radio description of the surrender ceremony when tuned in on the hookup with the USS Missouri. The program continued when he finished his 1,200-word speech.
He said:
From this day we move forward. We move toward a new era of security at home. With the other United Nations we move toward a new and better world of peace and international good will and cooperation.
God’s help has brought us to this day of victory. With His help we will attain that peace and prosperity for ourselves and all the world in the years ahead.
Pays tribute to FDR
The President, after paying tribute to those who died in the war, and millions of other United States and Allied participants, including battlefront and home-front fighters and workers, voiced a eulogy for his predecessor:
“We think of our departed gallant leader, Franklin D, Roosevelt, a defender of democracy, architect of world peace and cooperation.”
The President said the formal Japanese surrender means a victory of more than arms alone.
“This is a victory of liberty over tyranny,” he declared.
Thanks Almighty God
He said to all Americans there comes first “a sense of gratitude to Almighty God who sustained us and our Allies in the dark days of grave danger, Who made us to grow from weakness into the strongest fighting force in history, and Who now has seen us overcome the forces of tyranny that sought to destroy His civilization.
“God grant that in our pride of the hour we may not forget the hard tasks that are still before us; that we may approach these with the same courage, zeal and patience with which we faced the trials and problems of the past four years.”