This digitally redone movie is just outstanding. Somne of the scenes of Honolulu 65 years ago look like they could have been taken last week. Amazing! Notice the ubiquitous trolley tracks, the Advertiser Building, what appear to be single family homes on Kalakaua Avenue across from the Moana Hotel, etc.
VJ Day, Honolulu Hawaii, August 14, 1945 from Richard Sullivan on Vimeo.
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Thanks for the memories. I remember the excitement of my Marine uncle returning from the pacific and my Seabee uncle returning, too.
Great visuals! well done, I would love to add this to my Vintage Hawaii DVD, but redo the foley work….
Wow! So clear! Beautiful video! All of those guys and gals — where are they now?
Ian, this is just incredible. Even my grandparents were just teenagers when this happened, so I don’t have a lot of family with firsthand memories of what that day felt like. This video really conveyed the emotions going on that day- I’m not a very patriotic person most days, and it brought tears to my eyes. Thank you so much for sharing this!
I like it. A lot.
I don’t mean to be the disagreeing downer in the discussion, but joy doesn’t resonate for me in this. War sucks, and the reflected glory that this film projects of the war ending comes too close to celebrating the glory of the fight, missing the devastation and horror of both battle and civilian centers (Dresden, Tokyo, Hiroshima and on and on, contemporaneously!). My father, a Jew, fought the Nazi German Army in the forests and towns of France and Germany and never ever celebrated. Add to that that glee here misdirects from the fact that we’re in two wars right now.
And I sincerely doubt we’ll have this kind of setting for a V-I or V-A Day, while PTSD brings deadly violence to in Makiki last week.
Add in the unspoken Whiteness of the scenes that are bringing tears to people’s eyes, (ah, the good old days?) and all and all, I am impressed by the video quality, but with context in my mind, I can’t find such a thrill in the take-up.
Terrific link. It captures the joy of having that terrible war finally end — tragically it took an atomic bomb to do it. Many of the men in the movie were destined to be apart of the invasion of Japan schedule for that October ’45 and May ’46.
WADR, a lot has been written that has a different take here — history may be different from memory about whether the two atomic bombings of Japanese cities were militarily needed or simply a brutal proto-Cold War maneuver. And I question the notion of “destiny” here since there’s much to suggest that the Fall invasion of Japan would not have occured even had the two atomic bombings not taken place.
I’ll spare details, but just don’t want to leave your phrasing unchallenged.
While you’re at it, please spare us yet another argument that has no support. I could argue that we should nuked Germany and Russia too and not offer any rational support.
But I won’t. Because it’s weak to do so and it doesn’t convince anyone of anything. (And no I don’t think we should have nuked Germany or Russia.)
“Seeingdifferently”
who da hell wouldn’t celebrate any kind of war coming to an end?!
Yer fasha never celebrated. boo friggin hoo. so NO one should express themselves?!
“that that glee here misdirects ”
“Add in the unspoken Whiteness”
whot da heck?!
“I don’t mean to be the disagreeing downer”
then DON’T be! especially with this phraseology.
LOL – i totally agree with Braddah