Quote of the Day: Harry Truman on VJ Day

In Memory of the 65th Anniversary of the Victory in Japan
On September 2, 1945, a formal surrender ceremony was performed in Tokyo Bay, Japan aboard the battleship USS Missouri.  In Japan, the day is usually referred to as the "Memorial Day for the End of the War".  The official name for the day, however, is "The Day for Mourning of War Dead and Praying For Peace".  I have always found the timing interesting, in that the official surrender by Japan was signed 6 years and 1 day after the official start of WWII with the Blitzkrieg on Poland.

"Our first thoughts, of course--thoughts of gratefulness and deep obligation--go out to those of our loved ones who have been killed or maimed in this terrible war. On land and sea and in the air, American men and women have given their lives so that this day of ultimate victory might come and assure the survival of a civilized world. No victory can make good their loss."

"We think of those whom death in this war has hurt, taking from them fathers, husbands, sons, brothers, and sisters whom they loved. No victory can bring back the faces they longed to see."

"Only the knowledge that the victory, which these sacrifices have made possible, will be wisely used, can give them any comfort. It is our responsibility--ours, the living--to see to it that this victory shall be a monument worthy of the dead who died to win it."- President Truman- Excerpt from his radio address at 10pm, September 1, 1945, after the signing of the terms of unconditional surrender by Japan