Remember huge sacrifices made in the East on VJ Day

ON August 15, 1945, the guns finally fell silent across the Asia-Pacific. Victory over Japan Day -VJ Day - marked the end of the Second World War. It brought relief to millions, but for many the moment passed with quiet reflection, not celebration. The war in Asia had been long, brutal and costly. Its stories are less familiar but they deserve no less commemoration.

- Dr George Hay

As we approach the 80th anniversary of VJ Day this Friday, it is a moment to pause. To remember not just an ending, but a chapter of the war that came at immense human cost — and which involved men and women from every comer of what was the British Empire.

Though the war in Europe ended in May, conflict in the Far East raged on. British and Commonwealth troops fought bitterly against Japanese forces in jungles, mountains and on remote islands. The fighting was fierce, the losses heavy.

Two-thirds of those serving in the South East Asia Command were not British. They were men from India, East and West Africa, Nepal and elsewhere — many serving far from home in extreme conditions. Their contribution was vital, their sacrifice enormous. Yet their role is still too often underacknowledged in our national memory. The public recognises this: according to polling from Savanta, seven in 10 people believe more education is needed about what happened in the war zones outside Europe.