VJ Day - Remembering All Those
Who Served in the Far East During WW2
Service of Thanksgiving and Remembrance for VJ Day.
This annual event marks the end of World War 2.
We remembered all those who served our country, particularly those who served in the Far East many months after the conflict had ended in Europe.
The 14th August 2026 marks the 81st Anniversary of VJ Day (Victory over Japan).
The Japanese invaded Malaya on the 8th December 1941,
the day after the attack on Pearl Harbour.
This sparked the Far Eastern phase of the Second World War.
On 15th February 1942 the Japanese Army captured Singapore.
The future looked very bleak.
There were all manner of troops, battling in various ways against the Japanese:
Africans fighting in Burma, Gurkhas and Indians fighting in Malaya,
Australian and New Zealand pilots flying sorties over the Pacific.
These are just a few examples of the effort and heroism that came from
the British Commonwealth forces as a whole.
All the services - Royal Navy, Army, Royal Air Force and Royal Marines
were pitching in to the wider struggle against the Japanese.
It wasn’t until late 1943 that the South East Asia Command formed the 14th Army,
Known as ‘The Forgotten Army’, at its height numbered almost one million men from various Commonwealth and Allied Nations.
In March 1944 following the ferocious battles of Imphal and Kohima, the tide turned.
With the 2nd Division’s victory the advance of the Japanese was halted.
Japan finally surrendered on 14th August 1945 following the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The Far East campaign lasted 1,346 days.
29,968 British service personnel had been killed.
In total, the number of casualties topped 90,000 including 12,433 prisoners of war who endured the harshest of conditions. As many as a quarter of the prisoners died.
37,500 British servicemen who had initially been taken into captivity lived to see VJ Day.
During the construction of the notorious Burma-Siam railway, approximately 13,000 prisoners of war, from many allied nations, died. The graves of those British prisoners, who died during the construction and maintenance of the railway, were transferred from camp burial grounds and isolated sites along the railway into three cemeteries at Chungkai and Kanchanaburi in Thailand and Thanbyuzayat in Myanmar.
The Kohima Epitaph
When you go home, tell them of us and say,
for your tomorrow, we gave our today.
If you require further details, please don't hesitate to contact the [email protected].
