Medway Council raises flag for VJ Day

Councillors from all parties were in attendance.   Local Democracy Reporter Ollie Leader has the story.

Transcript

00:00We remember their sacrifices again and all the suffering that flowed from what they gained.

00:11A solemn cross party affair outside Medway Council commemorating 80 years since the end of the Second World War in Japan.

00:20The Pacific theatre has often been one of the more forgotten aspects of Britain's war.

00:26But for those here today the conflict in the Far East was deeply personal.

00:32My own family were called up in this awful extension of the war.

00:36My paternal grandfather William Harvey Clark served as an engineer on HMS Indefatigable.

00:42A British aircraft carrier attached to the American 5th Fleet in the Pacific theatre.

00:47A ship that was to bear the notoriety of being the first British carrier to be struck by kamikaze planes.

00:53I think it's impossible for us to know just what that day felt like.

00:56The relief, the joy, the bitterness, sadness, the hope.

01:03A myriad of emotions for that most noble of generations.

01:06And nearly a century on from one of the most devastating conflicts imaginable.

01:12The flag raised outside the council building holds additional meaning this year in particular.

01:18I think people do recognise with 80 years gone since those historic moments in our lives.

01:24That this probably is one of those final opportunities for us to come together as a nation and indeed as a world.

01:30To recognise the sacrifices that were made for the peace that was won.

01:34And it's important to recognise that not least in the current situation we find ourselves in across the globe.

01:40So I want to say a huge thank you to those who made that ultimate sacrifice 80 years ago.

01:45A rare moment of political unity brought about by remembrance.

01:50After all, for our maritime towns, this history is all too real.

01:55Olly Leader at Gunwulf.

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