Cunard’s Queen Anne returns to Liverpool for VJ80 Day ceremony

On the August 15th, eight decades will have passed since Japan surrendered in the Far East, finally ending the Second World War.

Transcript

00:00Liverpool will come together this Friday to mark the 80th anniversary of VJ Day.

00:06On the 15th of August, eight decades will have passed since Japan surrendered in the

00:10Far East, finally ending the Second World War.

00:13A service of remembrance will be held at the Far East Prisoners of War Repatriation Memorial

00:18on the Pierhead at 10.30am.

00:21Civic buildings including Liverpool Town Hall, St George's Hall and the Cunard Building

00:25will also be lit red, white and blue on Friday evening.

00:29As well as civic dignitaries who lay wreaths at the memorial, there will also be a speech

00:34by Professor Geoff Gill, Professor of International Medicine at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine

00:39and the University of Liverpool.

00:41About 4,000 Far East Prisoners of War were supported and studied by the Liverpool School of Tropical

00:46Medicine as a result of the diseases they'd endured in the prison camps.

00:51Friday's service will conclude at around 11.30am, after which attendees are invited to remain

00:57at the Pierhead to take part in the national two-minute silence at noon.

01:02To mark the end of the silence, vessels on the River Mersey will sound their whistles led

01:05by Cunard's Queen Anne.

01:07Cunard's ships played a significant role in the Second World War, leading Prime Minister

01:11Winston Churchill to state their involvement shortened the war by at least a year, with both

01:16the Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary requisitioned and converted into troop transports.

01:23Between the 7th of October and 12th of December 1945, 22 ships carrying 20,000 prisoners of

01:30war docked in Liverpool.

01:31It's estimated over 50,000 members of the British Armed Forces were imprisoned by the Japanese

01:37with a quarter dying, often from tropical infections or undernutrition in prison camps throughout

01:42Southeast Asia.