Towns and villages fall silent in tribute to fallen of Far East

COMMUNITIES in and around Henley marked Victory over Japan Day with a number of services and commemorations.

Friday last week marked 80 years since Imperial Japan surrendered to the Allied forces, in effect bringing the Second World War to an end.

The surrender came four months after Victory in Europe Day on May 8 and stopped the fighting in the Asia-Pacific region following Emperor Hirohito’s announcement of Japan’s acceptance of the terms of the Potsdam Declaration.

The surrender came after the United States dropped two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki which killed an estimated 140,000 people in Hiroshima, and a further 74,000 in Nagasaki.

By the end of the war about 365,000 British, 1.5 million Commonwealth troops and a pre-Partition Indian army of 2.5 million soldiers had been deployed across the region. The fighting spread from Hawaii in the North Pacific to the North-East borders of India.

Allied troops also deployed from Papua New Guinea in the south to Manchuria in northern China on the border of the Soviet Union.

During the war the Japanese captured approximately 140,000 Allied military personnel, many of who were forced into hard labour and subject to extremes of maltreatment.

While a celebration of the end of the Second World War, for many VJ Day marks the considerable suffering and loss of life across the Asia-Pacific region which included 29,968 British troops.

In Henley, a two-minute silence was held outside the town hall in Market Place at noon on Friday. The Last Post was played by bugler Gary Hamilton. In his speech from the town hall steps Mayor Tom Buckley paid tribute to all of the soldiers from across the world who had fought in the Pacific war.

He said: “For many VE Day seemed the end of the war, and it brought a gradual return to normal life despite rationing and other major problems.

“However, Churchill remind-ed us that another ferocious war was still being waged in the Far East.

“The British 14th Army under general Sir Bill Slim had turned the tide against the Japanese, the final member of the Axis powers.

“There was little reported back in England, and this was secondary to VE Day celebrations. We must not forget the backbone of this forgotten army.

“There was a huge number of troops from the Commonwealth, including India, Nepal — the Gurkhas — and many from Africa, in particular Nigeria and the Gold Coast, known as Ghana today. Today we especially recognise the sacrifices they made and the lives lost, and a legacy of physical and mental wounds.

“We honour all those who paid the ultimate sacrifice to bring the Second World War to an end at a terrible, terrible cost, not only to the military and their families but to the millions of civilians, who on all sides lost so much.

“Today it is even more necessary than ever to remember this cost and work to ensure that it never happens again.

“We will remember them.”

Later that day a small crowd gathered at Makins Recreation ground at 9.30pm where a commemorative beacon was lit by town councillor David Eggleton.

The Exhortation — an extract from the poem For the Fallen by Robert Laurence Binyon — was read by John Green, president of the Henley and Peppard Branch of the Royal British Legion, who carried the standard. This was followed by a two-minute silence and a tribute read by town crier Major David Wilson.

Earlier at 3pm the Henley and Peppard Branch of the Royal British Legion held a commemorative cream tea for 50 of its members at Henley Business school.

Guests enjoyed tea and coffee and a selection of sandwiches, cakes and scones before a quiz.

Retired Brigadier Andrew Myrtle, from Stonor, said VJ Day was significant to his regiment, the King’s Own Scottish Borderers, which saw action in Burma, known as Myanmar today.

Brigadier Myrtle, who was with the Scottish Borderers for 37 years, said: “It’s important that the war in the Far East is recognised just as much as the war in Europe because many people thought that when the war ended in Europe, that was it.”

Lilian Pearson Bishop said that she was remembering her father, Harold Lodge, a former Ruscombe resident, who was serving in the Royal Navy at the time of the surrender. Mrs Pearson Bishop, who lives in Wargrave with her husband John, said: “My father was part of the group that took the surrender in Japan, so today is very important to me.

“I am delighted he survived it because a lot of people didn’t. It’s a mixture of feeling happy that he was alive and sadness the war went on for so long.”

In Watlington, a service was held at the cross in Watlington High Street where about 50 people gathered at 11am.

Sarah Pullen played part of Il Silenzio trumpet call on the cornet before short speeches by Brigadier Nigel Mogg, Carol Horton and Tessa Mogg.

Mrs Mogg recounted the experiences of her uncles who served in the Norfolk regiment and were taken prisoner and held in the notorious Changi Gaol in Singapore.

The prison was originally built for 800 prisoners but more than 3,000 civilian men, women, and children were incarcerated, and more than 17,000 prisoners of war were held in and around the prison. Mrs Mogg, who is secretary of the Royal British Legion in Watlington, said: “No one in Britain knew what had happened to them, they were just reported missing.

“During the time they were imprisoned in Changi, they were only allowed to write home using just five postcards. They were rather stilted and could contain no more than 24 words.

“I have one of these postcards here, written by my uncle, with Japanese writing on the back dated February 21, 1942. It says: ‘Unwounded and well. Hoping to receive letters from you soon. Don’t worry. Keep smiling, I am. All my love Harold’.

“This card didn’t reach my aunt until many months later. The POWs received no letters from home for over a year, despite many being written.”

In Wargrave on Friday, about 25 people attended a commemoration at the war memorial outside St Mary’s Church in Station Road.

Residents joined a service led by Rev Steve Turville and representatives from the Wargrave branch of the Royal British Legion. The reverend gave an address to honour the sacrifices of those who gave their lives and paid tribute to the civilians who suffered. Attendees joined together in prayer, to sing hymns and to observe a two-minute silence.

Lloyd Scrivener, 65, of Spring Walk, is the standard-bearer for the Wargrave branch of the Royal British Legion and raised the flag at the ceremony. He said: “It’s important to remember the lives that were lost in the continued war in Japan. We must still remember them.”

Marion Pope, a member of the committee for the Wargrave branch, created a flower arrangement to lay on the memorial to pay tribute to those involved in the conflict with Japan.

She said the arrangement was designed to be “jungle-like”, with dark red berries representing the fallen.

Barry Paddison, 77, of Kiln Lane in Binfield Heath, is chairman of the branch.

His family moved to Wargrave in the Fifties, where he lived before joining the army aged 18.

He said: “As chairman of the Royal British Legion in Wargrave, it’s my role to ensure we mark VJ Day. Being a Wargrave boy, born and bred, this area means an awful lot to me.

“This area outside the church was my playground, so it’s nice to come back and do something for all the village. It’s an honour.” Richard Butler, 87, of High Street, is a former committee member who spent three to four years tracing descendants of Wargrave residents who lost their lives in the First and Second World Wars.

Mr Butler said marking the anniversary of VJ Day was important to him because of his own experiences growing up in Caversham after the war.

He said: “Our neighbour came back from the Burma railway and as a boy we were told not to bother them.

“Subsequently, on national service in 1957-78, I served in Nigeria and discovered that there had been more than 100,000 West Africans, from Gambia, Sierra Leone, the Gold Coast (now Ghana) and Nigeria who had served with the British Army in Burma (now Myanmar).

“On my national service in Nigeria, I met four soldiers who had still continued in the army and had Burma medals.

“That’s why it’s important to me.”