Today is 終戦記念日 (V-J Day).
The 64th anniversary of the day that Japan surrendered to the Allied Forces and ended World War Two. (I wrote about this last year too. Click here to read that post.)
1945 August 16 newspaper headline
Did you know that the Emperor of Japan addressed the people of Japan over the radio to tell them that Japan was surrendering?
It was the first time any Emperor of Japan addressed the public personally.
Here’s an English translation of part of his speech to the people of Japan:
The enemy has begun to employ a new and most cruel bomb, the power of which, to do damage, is indeed incalculable, taking toll of many innocent lives.
If we continue to fight, it would not only result in the ultimate collapse and obliteration of the Japanese nation, but also it would lead to the total extinction of human civilization…
昭和天皇 (Showa Emperor of Japan), August 1945
昭和天皇 ("Showa Era" Emperor of Japan)
Tokyo Five 
Today is 2011 August 15. Two years since I wrote this post.
It’s now the 66th anniversary of the day Japan surrendered and ended WW2.
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i don’t know if you’ve seen this before:
http://observatory.designobserver.com/entry.html?entry=7517
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No, I hadn’t seen that before.
Thanks for the link. They were very powerful photos.
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My mother passed through Hiroshima in a train on the way to return to Hawaii after the war. She still shudders at what she saw. She says war is terrible, people become insane.
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I agree with your mother.
It’d be nice if mankind could exist without hurting each other!
BTW, is your mother from Japan?
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‘total extinction of human civilization…’
he may still be proved right!
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Hopefully not.
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It is interesting that the Emperor’s speech to surrender states that the American’s were essentially using an immoral weapon to kill innocent people. I wonder what he meant by “the total extinction of human civilization”?
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>what he meant by “the total extinction of human civilization”
It sounds to me that he meant that continued use of nuclear weapons would lead to the eventual obliteration of mankind.
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