Events around the UK mark 75th anniversary of VJ Day

The UK marked the 75th anniversary of the defeat of Japan in World War II on Saturday with a series of events to pay tribute to those who fought during the six-year campaign. Heavy clouds on Saturday however, meant that the Royal Air Force’s aerobatics display team, the Red Arrows, could not do their designated flypasts of the UK's four nation capitals for the first time since the 2012 Olympic Games in London. The poor weather meant they couldn't fly over London, or the Scottish and Welsh capitals, Edinburgh and Cardiff. Only residents in the Northern Irish capital of Belfast were able to see the aerial display. In London, UK defence secretary Ben Wallace met Chelsea Pensioners at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, home to three Burma Star recipients, after the scheduled flypast was cancelled. Chelsea Pensioners are military veterans who live in a special retirement home for former British Army soldiers in the Chelsea district of London. Following the surrender of the Nazis on May 8, 1945, which is called Victory in Europe Day, Allied troops carried on fighting the Japanese until an armistice was declared on Aug. 15, 1945 after the US dropped two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan formally surrendered on Sept. 2, 1945, but many Pacific War veterans felt their efforts were not fully recognized in the fog of the mushroom clouds. They dubbed themselves the “forgotten army.”

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Events around the UK mark 75th anniversary of VJ Day

The UK marked the 75th anniversary of the defeat of Japan in World War II on Saturday with a series of events to pay tribute to those who fought during the six-year campaign.

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