September 2 2018

COMMEMORATIVE MESSAGE IN HONOR OF THE 73RD YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THE GREAT ALLIED VICTORY OVER JAPAN AND THE FINAL, VICTORIOUS AND DEFINITE CONCLUSION OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR

Ladies and gentlemen, to all the people of the United States of America and Canada and of the other combatant countries which formed the victorious Allies of the Second World War, to all our living veterans of the Second World War of 1939-1945 and of all conflicts past and present and their families, to our veterans, active servicemen and women and reservists of the entire United States Armed Forces and the Canadian Armed Forces, to all the immediate families, relatives, children and grandchildren of the deceased veterans, fallen service personnel and wounded personnel of our military services and civil uniformed security and civil defense services, to all our workers, farmers and intellectuals, to our youth and personnel serving in youth uniformed organizations, youth interest and hobby groups, youth sports and cadet organizations and all our athletes, coaches, judges, sports trainers and sports officials, and to all our sports fans, to all our workers of culture, music, traditional arts and the theatrical arts, radio, television, digital media and social media, cinema, heavy and light industry, business and the press, and to all our people of the free world:

For it was on this day in history when in 1792 when the September Massacres, the mass slaughter of the Catholic clergy and supporters of the monarchy during the early stages of the French Revolution, began as revolutionary crows stormed into the prisons killing supporters of the deposed royal family.

It was on this day in 1872 that the Battle of Sedan ended with a historic defeat for the French Army.

It was on this day in 1960 when the in-exile Parliament of the Central Tibetan Administration held its very first elections.

And today, the 2nd day of September, marks yet another year since the historic victory won over the Axis Powers in the Asia-Pacific and the anniversary of the official victorious and glorious conclusion of the 6 year long Second World War, two additional years added when considering the Second Sino-Japanese War that started in 1937, thru the official ceremony of capitulation and conclusion of hostilities on the part of the Empire of Japan held offshore of Tokyo 73 years ago onboard the battleship USS Missouri (BB-63) of the United States Navy, one of many that had seen action during this long global war, therefore officially ending all combat and conflict related activities in the Pacific and China-Burma-India Theaters of Operations. After more than 6 years of brutal conflict, plus two in the Asia-Pacific, the long years of war and suffering were now over, and the day of victory had finally come against the military forces of the Empire of Japan.

This was indeed a day that everyone had waited all these 6 years. A day the millions who fought in the Allied military forces and guerilla organizations anticipated, many would die in combat but many more lived to see this day come, a day that would usher in the end of this long conflict and the victory won against the Axis Powers. Indeed the sacrifices of the millions who were mobilized to fight those who were threatening peace and the future of the world, as well as the blood poured by those who fell in this long period of our history, and the suffering felt by so many people in the territories where the war had impacted directly all led up to this great day. Of the millions who answered the call, millions less died in battle in the uniforms of the Allied armed forces,  while millions still lived long for the great day of victory to arrive on the 2nd of September, 1945.

It was indeed in the sunny afternoon offshore of Tokyo, Japan exactly 73 years ago when representatives of the Allied military forces and the armed forces of the Empire of Japan, the Allied national governments and the Japanes government offically signed on the deck of the US navy battleship USS Missouri (BB-63) the official documents of surrender of the  government, armed forces and people of the Empire of Japan to the victorious Allies, with ceremonies of surrender being conducted in other parts of East Asia in the coming days, ending 8 years of warfare that griped the Asia-Pacific and 6 years of a global conflict that defined history and forever changed the face and destiny of the world, which had officially reached its formal, glorious and victorious conclusion with this historic signing. It was indeed an historic moment and the end of a long war that ,while witnessing the modernized way of warfare in land, air, and sea and in partisan actions, saw the deaths and injuries of millions of people, including millions of military, paramilitary and civil uniformed personnel killed, wounded or taken prisoner, and the destruction of so many economic, social and cultural infrastructures, industries and national monuments and the destruction and robbery of countless works of cultural importance in every theater of this conflict, from Europe, up to Northern Africa and towards east to the Asia-Pacific region. News of this historic surrender agreement, which officially led Japan to recognize and accept the provisions of the Potsdam Declaration made by the Allies last April, within weeks from the victory in Europe and Northern Africa, which called for Japan to surrender to them without any conditions or terms its government and armed forces, led to huge rejoicing for so many people all over the world, for this moment led to the conclusion of a long war and the beginning of a time for peace and a new era in the history of humanity. For such a important victory that had been achieved on this day against the strong will of the Axis countries to impose their ideologies unto the peoples of the world had been made possible indeed not just by the efforts of the millions who fought from the Allied combatant countries but of the millions more who through their hard work, perseverance and determination in assisting in the home front and in the war bonds programs helped the Allies take the advantage against the enemy and win this war  at a high cost of millions of dead and wounded for the Allies against the Axis Powers, their governments, armed forces, and supporters and sympathizers in their respective territories.

And it was on that very same day that after years of French and Japanese occupation the people of Vietnam achieved their hard won independence, declared in Hanoi on this very day by no less than its first president Ho Chi Minh. It was for all Vietnamese a day they will never forget, a day in which their country was finally free at last.

This victory, the historic victory in which we celebrate today, a great triumph against the forces of international fascism, imperialism, dictatorship, racism, xenophobia and totalitarianism that pushed the Axis Powers to war  79 years ago against the peoples of the free world, is a great victory that has and will continue to be a part of our history and an inspiration to our youth and our future generations to honor their memory and to be worthy of all they have fought for during these 6 years of warfare. It was the millions who are called the world’s “Greatest Generation”  -  the millions of men and women of the Allied military and civil uniformed services and the Allied backed and funded resistance organizations in Axis territories and administrative divisions, and the millions more of  home front and labor workers who tirelessly through their resolve and efforts to support the men and women deployed to the operational theaters, who together as one ensured the victorious conclusion of this war and the final defeat of the Axis Powers.  It is they who by their combined efforts through intense battles that changed humankind in sites like Dunkirk, Leningrad, the Brest Fortress, Moscow, Tula, Borodino, Sevastopol, El Alamein, Tobruk, Stalingrad, Kursk, Normandy, Caretan, Paris, Minsk, Monte Cassino, Eindhoven, Rome, Smolensk, Kiev, Kharkiv, Odessa, Lyon, Bastogne, Warsaw, Bryansk, Anapa, Smolensk, Lviv, Shanghai, Pearl Harbor, the Bataan Peninsula, Corregidor Island, Singapore, Besang Pass, Hong Kong, Wuhan, Midway Island, Iwo Jima, Guadalcanal, the Santa Cruz Islands, Belgrade, Sofia, the Caucasus, Karelia, Cologne, Xiamen, Budapest, Tunis and many more, in the land, air, and sea, from every terrain and in any weather condition, from the sands of the Sahara, up to the Normandy beaches, the British skies, the forests and plains of the Low Countries, the mighty mountains and valleys of the Alps and Balkans, the marshes at Pripyat, the Ukrainian steppes to the Arctic and the snowy lands of Scandinavia, towards the jungles of Myanmar and the Malay Peninsula, the Philippines and Indonesia, in the changing terrains and landscapes of China and Korea, and in the Pacific Islands and New Guinea, in both conventional battles and unconventional actions on land, air, and sea by the Allied military forces, in covert actions committed by the Allied intelligence services,  in combat actions and active activities by the pro-Allied partisan forces, and in pro-war relief and morale-boosting labor by the home front civilians and workers in the military and civil industries,in culture and the arts, in the press, film and television, in businesses and enterprises, and as sportsmen and women in sports ended not just the Axis political, economic, military and ideological threat to our independence and liberty but also ensured the survival of the principles of freedom, peace, progress, economic development, culture and care for the environment for the generations of today and of the future to come. Thus the great Allied  victory in which we honor today thus is the victory in which millions risked their lives fighting and working for and in which millions died fighting the Allied cause in all the operational theaters of this long global war.

Today, on this very historic anniversary of the end of the Second World War in the Asia-Pacific theaters of operations, the world once more remembers the millions of Allied military and civilian fallen, they whose blood poured in their sacrifice in the defense of what we stand for as one united people of the free world in many parts of the globe during this long 6-year conflict had sown the seeds of a present that is full of the same troubles they have seen, heard and felt during those times, but as we carry in our hearts the memories of so many who died for such a noble cause of standing up not just for the freedoms they fought but for the future of our one and only planet, we will have the courage and bravery just as they had in their time to fight the evils of our world and the blocks towards our future, so that future generations will, by our actions today, remember the very deeds they had committed in these past years of war and the crimes committed against the innocent that must never be forgotten, especially the deaths by the millions during the Nazi Holocaust of Jews, members of other religious communities, people who sympathized with the resistance movement and anti-Nazi activists and politicians, as well as of Poles and others in Soviet concentration camps and Gulag camps and by exile to  other parts of the USSR of various ethnic communities, as well as the massive Japanese persecution, injustices, murder and violent acts directed at the Chinese and dissident citizens and people of other faiths in the Asia-Pacific  and Axis aerial bombardments and sea attacks on merchant shipping and supply convoys within the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic Oceans.

Today, 73 years on to the end of this great war, as we mark the victory won in the Asia-Pacific over the Empire of Japan and the victorious conclusion of the Second World War, in remembrance of the liberty they fought so hard and even risked to die for it, even as the rising of far-right and far-left aligned groups have become for us a source of anxiety and concern all over the world in these recent times we today just as in every year since this great date of our history has come and gone remember with profound gratitude these the millions of our military, paramilitary and civil uniformed personnel, male and female, of all the Allied combatant countries who served during the  war, and the hundreds of thousands of war veterans and partisan veterans who still remain living, as well as our home front veterans of the conflict, and most of all, we cannot forget to honor the millions of the Allied fallen and civilian fatalities of this long conflict that forever changed the world we live in, most especially in all the theaters of operations of this long war.  Today and always may we by our words and actions recall the memory of these men and women who served during those years of combat in every corner of the world who are even in this present time and in a modern way of life are still honored not just by battle honors and monuments but also in various works and in radio, television, film and digital media, and who today we, the descendants of this heroic and great generation of heroes, and the generations of tomorrow must keep in our minds and hearts, among them the men and women of the intelligence services who helped provide the Allied military leadership  with information on enemy locations and movements, Easy Company of the 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, formerly 4th Brigade Combat Team and now 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, XVIII Airborne Corps, United States Army, the brave men of the 1st Marine Division’s 1st, 5th and 7th Marine Regiments, the tankers of the 2nd Armored Division and all our sportsmen and women who served under the colours of the Allied military forces during the long war and helped win the definite victory against tyranny and oppresion, be forever in our memories and our profound remembrance, not just by their families and descendants but by the very people they fought and died for in the fields of battle, the frontlines, the concentration camps and the home front, and by the people and youth of today and our future generations of men and women, most especially to all considering careers in the uniformed services, so that their legacies to the peoples of the world will be conserved for posterity and for the sake of those who will follow in their footsteps today and in the future.  On this day of celebration for millions of people all over the globe we once again send our greetings to the hundreds of thousands of men and women in active service and in the reserves in the armed forces,  police, public security, forestry, border security, civil defense and emergency services of the Allied combatant countries and their families,our working people, agricultural workers and those working in science and technology, education, tourism, culture and the arts and in the mass media and the press and all our sportsmen and women, as well as our military and civil uniformed service veterans and their families, and the families of all who have paid the ultimate sacrifice for the defense of our principles and of our liberty and independence.  As we today celebrate the 73rd year of the great victory, let us not forget them as well, for these are the great men and women who are the descendants to the millions who fought for this great victory and are the ones tasked to carry the flames of this great victory into the future. May we forever never ever forget the Allied heroes and martyrs of the Second World War in Europe, North Africa and the Asia-Pacific who all through these years of warfare helped make possible the victory we celebrate today, 73 years on to the day of the conclusion of this war and of the victory against the Axis Powers in all the theaters of this global conflict!

And most of all today, we think of our remaining living veterans of the Second World War and their families – all those hundreds of thousands who remain of the millions fought as military personnel and paramilitary guerillas in the European, Mediterranean, China-Burma-India and Pacific Theaters of Operations during this long conflict and our remaining veterans of the Allied home front sector – they who have been dying out because of sickness and old age. They who helped win this victory against the Axis Powers in that momentous year of 1945 deserve all the more our thanks, for it is without their efforts we would have not lived in this present time, thus we the people of the free world must do all we can to ensure that this victory and all the Allied actions of the Second World War leading up to this great day will be forever remembered by this generation and those to come.  As the waves of time come and go, and as the ideologies that started this war come time and again to haunt the memories of our people, as we mark this great anniversary of the conclusion of a long war that will forever define humanity and change forever our destiny, to them their families and friends and to the immediate families and comrades of those who fought with them and survived the war but are no longer with us today, we thus make our commitment and promise that we who live today and the generations to come, for the sake of the future generations who must never let history be repeated once more in their own eyes as long as they live, therefore pledge to Divine Providence that given the huge cost of this great victory won against the Axis Powers – the millions of Allied military fatalities and civilian deaths -  to forever remember and recall their sacrifices and their role in building a better world and in having helped bring the final defeat of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and the Empire of Japan. And we will do our part and our best ability in defending their immortal legacy to the spirit of liberty and independence all over the world, especially to all our generations to come and to keep forever the places of remembrance and memory of the millions of men and women who fought in this conflict. To all our thousands of remaining Allied military and partisan veterans, to the veterans of other conflicts and of our men and women and veterans of the military and civil uniformed services and uniformed youth groups from all the Allied combatant countries (excepting far-left and far-right organizations), we today on this historic anniversary of the victory over Japan and the conclusion of this great war vow with our hearts to remember your services to your countries and to honor your legacy of having helped achieve this great victory against the Axis Powers. And most of all, we promise to honor your fallen comrades and friends in the battlefield in every theater of this war, who died fighting their enemies and for the sake of freedom and independence that the Allied Powers risked so much so that we can live in a world of peace, progress, prosperity, development and a clear vision towards our future and the future of our planet that we call home.

On this very great day of our history and in the history of humanity, this very important day in which we celebrate as one people the 73rd year anniversary of the official glorious and victorious conclusion of the 6-year long Second World War, and the official surrender of the military forces of the Empire of Japan, we greet all of you the people of the free world, and most especially to all of you our remaining veterans of this long and great conflict, who helped win this great victory and opened the gates for a better future for all of humanity, as heroes who risked even their lives for the defeat of the military and political might of the Axis Powers, to all you our veterans of succeeding conflicts and in UN peacekeeping operations worldwide and to all and of our men and women and veterans of the military and civil uniformed services and uniformed youth groups from all the Allied combatant countries as we today mark 73 years since the final defeat of the Axis Powers in the Asia-Pacific and the victory over the Empire of Japan!

On this very day of the 73rd year anniversary of Vietnamese independence we also greet the people and government of Vietnam in celebration of this very day on which this country gained its freedom, and wish for the best of times ahead for the Vietnamese people.

For all of us, it wil forever be a day of remembrance and celebration of the great victory in which our forebears won against the might of the Axis Powers all over the world, and a day in which we will forever uphold the legacy of the millions who died for the values that are worth defending and fighting for, then as in today. We will never stop honoring the blessed memory of these men and women who sacrificed their lives for the freedom and independence of our world. We will never stop reminding our children and future generations of the cost of the freedoms we celebrate. And we shall always light up the legacy in which these millions of men and women lived and fought for, which is the great victory that we celebrate today.

Today, we celebrate with all of you, the people of the free world and forever treasure in our hearts and minds the memory and legacy left behind by these the millions of men and women who 73 years ago celebrated the conclusion of such a war that forever changed our world and a war that they won against the forces of the Axis Powers at the cost of millions of lives lost. Today and always we continue to remember their sacrifice for the sake of us and for the generations to come.

And in conclusion, as we today mark this historic anniversary since the victory over Japan and the conclusion of the Second World War, as we today mark it with remembrance and joyful celebration, may we who keep this sacred holiday and recall the millions who died to make this victory possible  with respect and reverence especially for those who went before us shall be worthy of what they fought and died for, for building a world of peace, harmony and progress, a clean environment, and a brighter future for all our children and grandchildren - truly the very future that is truly worth defending and the very future our forefathers fought with their very own lives. With our greatest gratitude may we always and forever treasure in our hearts all those who have gone before us and have entrusted to us the spirit of defending our freedom and liberty in all those years from the beginning of the war up to the great victories in which we honor today, everyday and in the years and decades to come!

As the men of Easy Company would always say:  WE STAND ALONE TOGETHER!

ETERNAL GLORY TO THE MLLIONS OF THE FALLEN AND THE HEROES AND VETERANS OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR IN EUROPE AND THE PACIFIC FROM 1939-1945, WHOSE LEGACY WILL NEVER BE FORGOTTEN BY ALL THE GENERATIONS TO COME!

ETERNAL GLORY TO ALL THOSE WHO GAVE THE ULTIMATE SACRIFICE FOR THE FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE OF OUR WORLD AGAINST FASCISM, NAZISM AND IMPERIALISM IN THE FIELDS OF BATTLE, THE CONCENTRATION CAMPS, AND IN THE HOME FRONT!

LONG LIVE THE VICTORIOUS MEN AND WOMEN IN THE SERVICE OF THE ALLIES OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR IN EUROPE, NORTHERN AFRICA AND THE ASIA-PACIFIC!

LONG LIVE ALL THE ALLIED MILITARY VETERANS OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR!

LONG LIVE THE INVINCIBLE AND FOREVER VICTORIOUS PEOPLE OF THE FREE WORLD AND ALL OUR SERVING ACTIVE AND RESERVE SERVICEMEN AND WOMEN AND VETERANS OF THE ARMED SERVICES OF ALL THE COMBATANT ALLIED COUNTRIES THAT HELPED WIN THIS GREAT WAR AGAINST FASCISM, NAZISM AND IMPERIALISM, AS WELL AS ALL OUR ACTIVE AND RESERVE SERVICE PERSONNEL, CIVILIAN EMPLOYEES AND VETERANS OF THE POLICE, FIREFIGHTING, FORESTRY, BORDER CONTROL, CUSTOMS AND RESCUE SERVICES AS WELL AS OUR YOUTH OF TODAY AND THE CHILDREN OF OUR TOMORROW WHO WILL CARRY ON THE LEGACY OF ALL THOSE WHO HAVE GONE BEFORE THEM, ESPECIALLY TO THE MILLIONS OF MEN AND WOMEN WHO TOOK PART IN THIS GREAT WORLD WAR!

LONG LIVE THE GLORIOUS 73RD YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THE END OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR IN THE PACIFIC THEATER OF OPERATIONS AND THE GREAT VICTORY OVER THE FORCES OF THE EMPIRE OF JAPAN AND THE AXIS POWERS!

GLORY TO THE ARMED FORCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, CANADA, THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND AND FRANCE, TOGETHER WITH THE ARMED SERVICES OF THE OTHER VICTORIOUS COMBATANT COUNTRIES OF THE ALLIED POWERS, GUARDIAN DEFENDERS OF OUR DEMOCRATIC WAY OF LIFE, OUR FREEDOM AND OUR LIBERTY AND GUARANTEE OF A FUTURE WORTHY OF OUR GENERATIONS TO COME!

TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND CANADA AND TO PEOPLE ALL OVER THE WORLD, A VERY HAPPY 73RD VICTORY OVER JAPAN DAY!

And may I repeat the immortal words of the Polish National Anthem:

Poland has not yet perished, so long as we still live!

CURRAHEE! AIR ASSAULT! ARMY STRONG! SEMPER FI!

Ooooooooooooooooooraaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

2200h, September 2, 2018, the 241th year of the United States of America and the 151st of Canada, the 243rd year of the United States Army, Navy and Marine Corps, the 124th of the International Olympic Committee, the 122nd of the Olympic Games, the 77th since the beginning of the Second World War in the Eastern Front and in the Pacific Theater, the 73rd since the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa and the victories in Europe and the Pacific, the 6th since the attacks on Benghazi, the 13th of Operation Red Wings, the 43rd of the TV program Battle of the Network Stars, the 71st of the United States Department of Defense and the United States Armed Forces and the 51st of the modern Canadian Armed Forces.

 

Semper Fortis

John Emmanuel Ramos

Makati City, Philippines

Grandson of the late Philippine Navy veteran PO2 Paterno Cueno, PN (Ret.)

 

(Requiem for a Soldier) (Honor by Hans Zimmer)

(Slavsya from Mikhail Glinka’s A Life for the Tsar)

(Victory Day by Lev Leshenko)

(Last Post) (Taps) (Rendering Honors)