14-August-1945

14-August-2020
   75 years ago
   At 7:00 pm Eastern War Time Tuesday 14-August-1945, in the United States. And at Noon on Wednesday-15-August in Tokyo, Japanese Emperor Michinomiya Hirohito announced to his country that he has ordered :" the Government to communicate to the Governments of the United States, Great Britain, China and the Soviet Union that Our Empire accepts the provisions of their Joint Declaration".  The Joint Declaration was in reference to  Potsdam Declaration, defining "Unconditional Surrender" of the Japanese Empire and thus signaled the  Termination of the  World War II. 
  On Sunday-2-September-1945 a ceremony was performed in Tokyo Bay, Japan, aboard the battleship USS Missouri.  The formal Instrument of Surrender was the written agreement that formalized the surrender of the Empire of Japan, marking the end of hostilities in World War II. It was signed by representatives from the Empire of Japan, the United States of America, the Republic of China, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the Commonwealth of Australia, the Dominion of Canada, the Provisional Government of the French Republic, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and the Dominion of New Zealand. 
  United States President Harry Truman would declare that 2-September would become the official Victory over Japan Day (V-J Day).  This would occur 100 days after Victory in Europe Day (V-E) was declared on Tuesday, 8 May 1945 marking the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Germany’s unconditional surrender of its armed forces  marking the end of World War II in Europe.
  The conflict that would become to know as World War II can trace its origins to the  Manchurian Incident, was an event staged by Japanese military personnel as a pretext for the Japanese invasion in 1931 of northeastern China.
  In 1936 the Spanish Civil War began. This saw a number of other European Countries, including Italy, Germany, France, and the Soviet Union supplying troops and armament to both sides. 
  On 28 January -1932 Republic of China and the Empire of Japan would be involved with the Shanghai Incident.  This would lead to the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7-July-1939. During the Shanghai Incident  United States Army Air Forces pilot Robert McCawley Short was shot down by a Japanese pilot and is believed to be the first  American Serviceman killed in World War II.
  On 1-September-1939  Germany troops invade Poland. This results in England and France declaring war on Germany two days later. 
 On 7-December-1941 The Japanese forces attack Pearl Harbor at Hawaii. The following day United States President Franklin Roosevelt  declares war on Japan. On 11-December-1941  Germany and Italy declares war on the United States. 
  Unofficially the Second World War would last over 14 years. Direct United States involvement last 1,365 days.
      During the course of the war, 560,501 New Jersey Women and Men served in the military; of these, 10,372 were killed or died in accidents or from illness.  On the War Memorial in front of Bogota Borough Hall is inscribed the 42 names of Bogota residents who lost their lives in the Second World War.  Names of those citizens of Bogota who perished in the Korean War, and the Vietnam War have been added. 
 One of the last resident of Bogota who served during World War II was  Mr. John Mussomeli.  He enlisted in the Navy in 1944 at age 17 and served in the Pacific Theater with the , the US Naval Construction Battalion (Seabees).  Mr Mussomeli also served in Korea.   Mr. John Mussomeli passed away in 2017 at the age of 90.

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