VJ Day - Victory over Japan
This week, we commemorate the 70th anniversary of the day that the Japanese finally surrendered, effectively ending World War Two. This day became known as VJ day, Victory over Japan.
Ten years ago, I wrote an article about the great American writer, Norman Corwin,
One of his most celebrated broadcasts had come eight days after the Japanese attack on Pear Harbor, and was called We Hold These Truths.
Another of his programs, On A Note Of Triumph, was broadcast the night Nazi Germany surrendered, 8th May 1945, and was a celebration of the Allied struggle for victory. It is considered to be Corwin’s masterpiece, cited as the single greatest radio broadcast of the century.
So, it came as no surprise that it was Corwin who was called upon once again in August 1945, after the surrender of Japan, to write a tribute to the brave men who had fought the battle against tyranny, and this was titled Fourteen August.
He wrote the broadcast overnight, and it has been the subject of many debates ever since. I have just listened again to this truly moving masterpiece, which I feel depicted the feeling of the whole nation at that time. It was passionately orated by Orson Welles, and it still brings a tear to my eye, and a tight band of emotion to my heart.
I have transcribed a few paragraphs from it below:-
"This day is the father of great anniversaries. Men and saints shall picnic together on fourteen August down more years than you or I shall see... So say it tonight with saluting guns, say it with roses, say it with a hand clasp, a drink, a prayer. Say it any where you want, but say it. Say it!"
"Congratulations for being alive and listening on this night. Millions didn't make it, they died before their time and they are gone, and gone, for the fascists got them. They are not here, but their acts are here, and they are to be saluted from the lips and from the heart, before the conversation swings around to reconversion. Fire a cannon to their everlasting memory!
God and uranium were on our side. The wrath of the atom fell like a commandment, and the very planet quivered with implications. Tokyo Rose was hungover from the news next day, and the emperor prayed to himself for succour. So sound the guns for Achilles the Atom and the war workers: Newton and Galileo, Curie and Einstein, the Archangel Gabriel, and the community of Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
Ladies and gentlemen, the peoples have come a long way since we were tadpoles. Much has happened, and the upward path has been strewn with dinosaurs, tigers, Caesars, slave traders and fascists. In spite of which, as you have heard on the radio tonight, the best in the way of flags, is flying over the once mighty lands of the enemy, and free men are being born on schedule.
New free men, conceived December last, during a counter offensive against their elders in the Ardenne, are today breathing, and kicking, and making fists, our heirs to victory.
Whereas, the sabre tooth tiger, is nicely arranged with fish fossils in the museum, and Caesar is twice hacked to pieces by his countrymen, the second time strung up by the heels. The trader in slaves cannot buy back his name from the contempt of the generations, and the Nazi is parted from his pomp and his führer, pending announcement of the hanging day. The Jap who never lost a war, has lost a world, learning at what cost to us all.
Tomorrow will be time enough for humility. Tonight, we count our trophies."
There is very little that can be written about Norman Corwin that has not already been better expressed by others. That he was an outstanding writer and an innovative force in radio is indisputable, and Fourteen August is a remarkable piece of history, which should serve as a reminder of a war we must never forget, in order to never repeat.
Warmest regards,
