Early on the morning of 15 August 1945, Stromness folks were awakened from their sleep by the streets full of noise and people rejoicing. It was to be the start of two days celebrating VJ – Victory over Japan.

On 8 May 1945 Germany had surrendered and although people felt relieved that the war in Europe was over, many men and women were still serving overseas. VJ Day marks when Japan surrendered, and it was hoped that the war was truly over.

Stromness planned a massive bonfire on Brinkie’s Brae to celebrate. It was said that 20 barrels of tar and other materials were set up on the top of the hill for all of Stromness to see. Some excitable youths, however, lit it early on in the evening and another had to be scuttled together at the South End of the town. Fireworks completed the festivities.

It’s not possible for us to fully comprehend how people must have felt when that war, which they thought would be the last, finally came to an end.

It is estimated that  71,000 soldiers from Britain and Commonwealth countries died fighting Japan, including more than 12,000 prisoners of war who died in Japanese captivity.

On 6 August and 9 August, 1945, the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The US had entered the war after the Japanese had attacked their naval base at Pearl Harbour, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. All of the Americans killed or wounded during the attack were legally non-combatants, because there was no state of war when the attack occurred. The dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki is the only time nuclear weapons have been used in war. Most of those killed were civilians.

The world would never be the same.

Having possession of nuclear weapons hasn’t stopped war, as it was once believed it would do. Countries have developed and purchased military equipment far more devastating than the two atomic bombs the US dropped on Japan in 1945.

Today, 9 countries have nuclear weapons: Russia, United States, China, France, United Kingdom, Pakistan, India, Israel, and North Korea. Despite the rejoicing for VJ Day 80 years ago, the world is still at war, using weapons of such precision that they can take out an individual tent where 5 journalists are sleeping. Men who had been reporting on the atrocities occurring in their country.

And today, we can watch the devastation caused by the use of those weapons in real time, on social media. Not the future people dreamed of on the VJ Day 1945 when the streets of Stromness thronged with celebrations.

Nae mair will the bonnie callants
Mairch tae war when oor braggarts crousely craw,
Nor wee weans frae pit-heid and clachan
Mourn the ships sailin’ doon the Broomielaw.

– Hamish Henderson, Freedom Come All Ye

Fiona Grahame

Siege, Starvation, Sexual Violence, & the Trade in Arms to Sudan

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