Each year that August 15 rolls around, William ‘Bill’ Jones casts his mind back to VJ Day.
It was when, 80 years ago, that Japan announced it had surrendered to the Allied Forces.
And while thousands of people in the UK held street parties and parades celebrating the end, Bill’s memories from that time are far more bittersweet.
The 99-year-old was 14 and living in Penistone, South Yorkshire, when the UK and France declared war on Germany in September 1939 a few days after the Nazis invaded Poland.
Six years later, he had been sent 8,500 miles away to a remote Pacific Island, waiting for news of a surrender from Japan.
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He had decided when he was 18 he would join the Navy in 1944, which led him being trained for combat and sent into action.
But instead of fighting German U-Boats in the Atlantic, he was dispatched to the Pacific, where Japanese forces were stubbornly resisting allied advances.
The veteran said: ‘I had been an engineer, so they made me a metal worker. We went out in a liner all the way to Australia, where we took a carrier into the war zone. That’s when it started.’
In March 1945, his team of engineers landed in a little coral island of Ponam, off the north coast of Papua New Guinea.
By that time, the war in the Pacific had advanced with ruthless intensity.
Bill recalled: ‘The Kamikazes were attacking our ships, so we were busy assembling, maintaining and repairing aircrafts for our carriers.’
When the war in Europe ended, there was still no end in sight for Bill and his British comrades.
Despite the devastating fire-bombing of their cities and the crippling of their armed forces, the Japanese refused to surrender in Asia.
Just as Bill was planning to take a Dakota transport plane to Australia for some well-earned rest, the world changed forever.
On August 6, the US dropped a nuclear bomb on the city of Hiroshima, killing 70,000 people instantly.
Three days later, another one landed on Nagasaki, killing another 40,000 in the blink of an eye.
It took just six more days, until August 15, for the Japanese Emperor to concede his country’s defeat in a radio broadcast to his people.
So it was in a stiflingly-hot, mosquito-riven island when Bill heard that the Second World War had finally come to an end.
The news triggered raucous celebrations across the Navy base – including with one unique tradition carried out across the Pacific.
It might seem unusual now, but sailors in the Royal Navy had a daily allowance of rum, called a ‘tot’, an equivalent to about two shots.
But on special celebratory occasions, the order was given to ‘splice the mainbrace’ and allow for the soldiers to have an extra tot of rum.
On VJ day, Bill and his fellow soldiers were delighted to learn they could have an extra tot, and embarked across their own parties on the island.
He even has a picture of the day, giving a clue about what they all got up to now that his memories have faded.
But after several days of celebrations, the servicemen were soon reminded of the horrors of war that people across the globe had faced.
Two Dakota jets, originally lined up to take Bill and his comrades to Australia before they headed back to the UK, were diverted to Japan to collect prisoners of war.
‘On their way back, the Dakotas stopped off at Ponam to refuel,’ Bill said.
‘The prisoners were as thin as rakes, and covered with bruises where they had been beaten, some of them had been prisoners for over three years.
‘The canteen prepared food for them but they couldn’t eat it. I’ve never seen anything like it my life, what happened to them.
‘We put them back on the planes as soon as possible, to get them to hospital in Australia.’
According to the Imperial War Museum, Japan’s early successes in East Asia during the Second World War resulted in more than 190,000 British and Commonwealth troops being taken prisoner.
It added that at the time, the Japanese military’s philosophy was that ‘anyone surrendering was beneath contempt.’
This means prisoners were held in brutal camps and forced to work exhausting infrastructure projects.
One of these was the Burma-Thailand ‘Death Railway’, of which 16,000 died in the brutal construction.
British, Commonwealth and Indian troops meanwhile fought Japanese soldiers during the Burma Campaign from December 1941 to September 1945 in the Second World War.
The conditions they faced were unimaginable, said Mark Cann, who is the director of the Burma Star Memorial Fund, which honours those who fought during that time.
He told Metro: ‘They were in this hot, humid jungle full of snakes and spiders and raging river torrents, and nonstop rain.
‘There were diseases: dysentery, malaria and cholera.
‘The enemy were absolutely terrifying, uncompromising and initially perceived as the real experts of that terrain.
‘The fact that they had all of that, all at once, for a sustained period, is what I think we can never really fully understand.’
It is because of all of these challenges that when VJ Day arrived, it was a moment of celebration as much as remembrance, Mark said.
‘People were celebrating the fact they’d survived. It was a moment of euphoria. It was a moment of “Bloody hell, I’ve survived. Thank God. It’s over and we won”,’ he added.
Campaigners and charities have said that this year’s VJ Day carries extra weight, as it’s likely to be the last opportunity to recognise the sacrifices of veterans while a handful of them are still alive.
(Picture:Royal British Legion)
Mark added: ‘The opportunity VJ80 represents to lay strong foundations for the future is an opportunity not to be missed.
‘The life we enjoy now has always, and will always, be preserved by young people marching towards danger, to stand in harm’s way for us and the values we hold dear as a nation.
‘The debt we owe those young people is immense and we will
continue to do everything possible to ensure it is never forgotten.’
For Bill, who returned to the UK on Christmas Eve in 1945, it’s the servicemen who never made it home that he pays tribute to.
‘I was very lucky that I was in the right place at the right time. If I mark VJ Day, it’s for the lads that lost their lives.’
Bill will be attending the Royal British Legion’s Service of Remembrance at the National Memorial Arboretum, which is broadcast live on BBC One from 11:30am.
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