Marking the 80th Anniversary of VJ Day
80 years ago, VJ Day, 15th August 1945, marked the end of all fighting in the Second World War when Japan surrendered – bringing the war to a close. After this, there came a very slow move back to normality in Britain. Food shortages and rationing continued, with bread rationing introduced for the first time in 1946. Land Girls were still needed to work on the land long after VJ Day. The WLA was finally disbanded at the end of November 1950.
This page shares photographs and accounts capturing how Land Girls celebrated VJ Day.
Joan Maunder, Doris, and Edna celebrating VJ Day in Blackpool.
Mary Keverne, who worked in Helston, remembers how:
“On VJ-Day I was going home on leave during the evening and all through the night; it was dark by the time we got to Plymouth and all the ships had lights and fireworks. Every city we went through, Exeter, Taunton, Bridgewater, everywhere, all lit up and fireworks.
I left the Land Army when we got married in December 1947. My husband was a black smith locally from Helston so I never went back. It is a regret I have, in some ways. I never planned not to go back. My plan was to return to Wales and I had things in the pipe line.”
Melissa Hardie, Diana Ayres, and Angie Butler, eds., Digging for Memories: The Women’s Land Army in Cornwall (Penzance, Cornwall: Hypatia Publications, 2006), p.50.
A photograph of VJ celebrations in Scarborough. Land Girl Annie Popplewell (née Basquill) marched in the parade and recalls how she felt ‘very proud’.
Mollie Mitford remembers how:
“I remember well the day Victory over Japan was announced. I had been sent into Brampton (7 miles away) by bus to collect something or other from the home of an uncle of the farmer’s wife only to discover when it came time to return that the buses had stopped running because of the celebrations.
I had to borrow a bicycle and accompanied by Uncle George set off on the seven miles back to the farm. From Brampton to Dilsland, via Lanercost, is all uphill so it was a case of walking and pushing the bikes, however once up on the tops it was plain sailing and from up there was the most wonderful view of the bonfires which had been lit all around the countryside to celebrate VJ night.
Uncle George had worked with archaeologists all along that road back to Gilsland, unearthing remains of the Roman Wall of which there is a great deal in that area, not to mention the remains of a Roman Camp, so I had a history lesson that night. Once back at the farm it was all rush getting ready to go to a dance in the village which had been hurriedly arranged for the celebrations – I don’t know where I found the energy from but did and still got up at 6.30 next morning!”
You can read more from Mollie’s evocative account here.
“There is no holding them,” said the farmer as his land girls departed to make whoopee in Bedford at the announcement of VJ Day (15 August 1945). The photograph shows VJ Day celebrations in Bedford.
