Across the county Wednesday, public ceremonies, private remembrances, and impromptu selfies marked the 75th anniversary of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor that pushed the United States into World War II.
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Emperor Akihito is making the first visit by a Japanese emperor since World War II to the Philippines, which suffered under Japan’s harsh military occupation during the war but now relies on Tokyo as an ally, trading partner and source of aid and investment.
Akihito was apprehensive when he first visited the Philippines as crown prince in 1962, fearing anti-Japanese feelings were still strong, but his anxiety vanished in the smiles of the Philippine president and Filipinos who welcomed him, according to the emperor’s press secretary, Hatsuhisa Takashima.
A selection of Filipinos’ views on Akihito’s visit:
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“I think if the Japanese are offering an apology for what they did, it is better to be friends because we can no longer bring back the past. I am happy about what the emperor said because they have accepted their mistake, but maybe they should help the remaining victims of the war to ease their pain.” — Joel Abedo, 51, security guard.
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The international memorial day is held on January 27 every year to mark the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp.
In January 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt created an emergency shipbuilding program, and Baltimore was one of many places that expanded its shipyards for this $350 million project. Construction in Baltimore yielded more of these “Liberty” ships than any other American shipyard, according to a 2001 Sun article. The images in this gallery were taken by photographer Alfred T. Palmer, mostly in 1941.
This post is part of The Darkroom’s ongoing look at Baltimore during and shortly after the end of the Great Depression (thanks to Yale’s Photogrammar site). All captions are the original text provided with that image.
Fireworks, a floral tribute, a moment of silence and more marked the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam over the weekend.
We interrupt this broadcast for a special bulletin …”
This was what a war-weary world had been waiting for ever since Japanese aircraft appeared over Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, launching the attack that brought the nation into World War II.
In the wake of the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in early August, Japan’s military leaders vowed to continue fighting on while the country’s six-member Supreme Council debated surrendering.
It was Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki who finally took the surrender issue to Emperor Hirohito, who declared that “continuing the war means destruction for the nation and a prolongation of bloodshed and cruelty in the world. …. We must bear the unbearable. I swallow my tears and give my sanction to the proposal to accept the Allied proclamation.”
The Japanese emperor announced on radio on Aug. 14, 1945, that his country would accept the surrender terms.
Excerpt from Baltimore Sun article published on August 13, 2005 by Fred Rasmussen
The day in photos from around the world.
The day in photos from around the world.
On May 8, 1945, President Harry Truman declared V-E (Victory in Europe) Day, announcing the surrender of Germany and officially ending the European phase of World War II.
See more photos from V-E Day in Baltimore
Video: Sun reporter witnesses German surrender in WWII
On March 10, 1945, U.S. B-29 bombers flew over Tokyo in the dead of night, dumping massive payloads of cluster bombs equipped with a then-recent invention: napalm. A fifth of Tokyo was left a smoldering expanse of charred bodies and rubble.
Today, a modest floral monument in a downtown park honors the spirits of the 105,400 confirmed dead, many interred in common graves.
It was the deadliest conventional air raid ever, worse than Nagasaki and on par with Hiroshima. But the attack, and similar ones that followed in more than 60 other Japanese cities, have received little attention, eclipsed by the atomic bombings and Japan’s postwar rush to rebuild.
Reporting by Elaine Kurtenbach and Mari Yamaguchi, The Associated Press
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