Today marks V-J day, which is the day that (then) emperor Hirohito announced the unconditional surrender of the Japanese forces, eventually ‘freeing’ my parents, their siblings and their parents (the independence of Indonesia was called for two days after that, thus pushing back time for the ones who just had managed to survive the Japanese camps).
Every year it’s sort of becoming a sport to find news items about this particular day: it’s getting less with the year and sometimes, I think that is probably a good thing. I read that the Dutch association of Dutch-Indies survivors still have their yearly commemoration, which, if I’m not wrong, Alfons attended last year.
Here’s to another year.
08/16/07: Related Metafilter thread.