News Information and Media Site: At War: The 75th anniversary of the end of World War II

September 4, 2020

The U.S.S. Missouri and Allied planes in Tokyo Bay on Sept. 2, 1945, the official day of the Japanese surrender. National Archives

Dear reader,

To commemorate the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II, we set out to recount lesser-known stories both personal and profound and to explore the end of the fighting and its aftermath. This weekend, the “Beyond the World War II We Know” series comes to an end with a 24-page special section in Sunday’s newspaper called “Unsung History.”

This 10-month-long project offered tales that debunked the myths that have usurped the conflict’s history, stories that hadn’t yet been enshrined in our collective memories. They captured perspectives and figures we hoped would be new to the reader: the man who is single-handedly trying to keep alive the memories of those lost in the American firebombing of Tokyo; and the all-female, all-Black mail battalion that played a pivotal role in the final months of the war.

On Wednesday, Tom Hanks delivered an essay that looked at the conflict’s resounding legacy and complex aftermath. The novelist Alexander Chee went beyond the theater of war to Korea, which under the terms of Japan’s surrender was freed from decades of occupation, only to struggle to restore its national identity. The New York Times correspondent Maria Abi-Habib wrote about how the use of colonial soldiers around the world led to a national movement for independence in India. The celebrated Japanese author Yoko Ogawa wrote about how the power of literature helped her country heal after the atomic bombings.

We heard firsthand from some of those who participated in the war: the young woman who fled Yugoslavia, only to return and fight in the resistance; a displaced Holocaust survivor who made it to the United States by trading nearly everything he owned; the sailor who played Taps for his fallen brothers-in-arms after a kamikaze pilot attack, and still plays it every year on Memorial Day.

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Throughout, we highlighted archival photography, some of which was familiar and some that many readers saw for the first time. Such was the case with our look at how V-E Day was commemorated around the world in 1945.

It is not possible to convey the extent of transformation, loss and rebirth that World War II laid bare, but we hope these pieces offered you a new lens for making sense of that complicated time.

Thank you for taking this journey with us, and for all of your own accounts that you emailed to At War along the way. In the words of Elie Wiesel, “We became not only comrades, not only brothers. We became each other’s witnesses.”

You can find the entire “Beyond the World War II We Know” series here.

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Read the Latest Stories From ‘Beyond the World War II We Know’

Cyril W. Spiegelhoff of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee leads a group of kneeling American soldiers in prayer in Cologne, Germany, in April 1945.Margaret Bourke-White/The Life Picture Collection, via Getty Images

We Are Still Living the Legacy of World War II, by Tom Hanks: Act III of the war — After the War — is now simply part of our daily reality, in America and globally, writes Tom Hanks.

The Forgotten Colonial Forces of World War II, by Maria Abi-Habib: “There’s a scattered memory of their sacrifice all over Europe.” The Allied powers relied on colonial troops to defeat the Axis, but their contributions are not often recognized.

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A Secret Diary Chronicled the ‘Satanic World’ That Was Dachau, by David Chrisinger: For two years, a prisoner in the German concentration camp maintained a journal that would later be used to convict those who had persecuted him and killed his fellow prisoners.

Afghan War Casualty Report: September 2020

Afghan soldiers inspect the scene of a roadside bomb blast in Gardez, the provincial capital of Paktia Province, Afghanistan, on Aug. 29.Ahmadullah Ahmadi/EPA, via Shutterstock

At least 45 pro-government forces and 27 civilians were killed in Afghanistan in the last days August and the beginning of September. [Read the report.]

Editor’s Picks

Here are five articles from The Times that you might have missed.

Jesse Gould, a former Army Ranger, created the Heroic Hearts Project, a nonprofit that raises money to send veterans to psychedelic retreats.Adam Ferguson for The New York Times

“I have traveled across continents to come to the jungle to do psychedelics.” Ayahuasca, a vomit-inducing hallucinogenic brew, draws thousands of people each year — including former soldiers — to jungle retreats that have become an unlicensed and unregulated mental-health marketplace. [Read the article.]

“We expect direct talks to start promptly.” The Afghan government said that a repeatedly stalled prisoner swap with the Taliban had largely been completed on Thursday, potentially removing the final hurdle for direct negotiations with the insurgents to end the country’s long war. [Read the article.]

“These are the kinds of things that we work closely with the Russians to say this is unacceptable behavior, that America will respond.” Within a few days last week, smoldering tensions between the United States and Russian militaries flared around the world. Already fraught with fresh evidence of election interference, the relationship between Washington and Moscow has grown even more tense after the recent military encounters. [Read the article.]

“Today is the beginning of the road to peace, a peace that needs a strong and solid will.” Hoping to put an end to nearly two decades of bloodshed that has left hundreds of thousands dead and millions more displaced, the transitional government of Sudan signed a peace agreement with an alliance of rebel groups on Monday to end fighting in Darfur and the southern regions of South Kordofan and the Blue Nile. [Read the article.]

“There are very strict commitments there and they must be upheld.” Rockets launched at a U.S. military base and a joint U.S.-Afghan airfield in southern Afghanistan in recent weeks are believed to have been fired by the Taliban, according to three American military officials, in what would amount to a clear breach of the peace agreement between the United States and the insurgent group. [Read the article.]

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