Happy VJ day. Right. Since I’m actually writing this on the late evening of August the 14th, by now, you’ve should have noticed the many news items on your local news. If there weren’t too many items, it wouldn’t surprise me, honestly.
Since I’m not like others hammering about the war crimes committed by Japanese Imperial forces during the Second World War, here’s a weird coincidence to think of: today would have also marked my mother’s birthday. If I’m not wrong, when the war ended, she would have been six years old. I bet, she may have remembered that day as many of the other former Dutch East-Indies prisoners did: it marked the start of another violent period, the Bersiap.
Happy birthday, wherever you are.
Update (08/16/05): Noted, that Canadian and British news sources paid more attention to VJ day than Dutch news sources.