As in similar events across the country, people came together to give thanks for the end of the fighting, two and a half months after similar services were held to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the war in Europe.
VJ Day, or Victory over Japan Day, is commemorated on August 15 each year and marks the date in 1945 when Japan surrendered to Allied forces, bringing World War Two to an end after nearly six years.
The service at Bainsford War memorial in Dawson Park was led by the Rev. Andrew Sarle with Provost Robert Bissett giving a short address. Members of the community, including Falkirk MP Euan Stainbank, joined veterans to pay their respects.
The provost gave a brief history of how the war in the Far East had enfolded following the raids on Pearl Harbour which saw British territory across Southeast Asia also attacked by land and air, as Japan sought to expand its empire and gain access to crucial resources.
He said: “This became a war between two competing empires – Britain and Japan. The fall of the British garrison at Singapore and of Malaya was devastating, as more than a 100,000 British, colonial and Commonwealth soldiers were taken as prisoners of war.
"The advance of Japanese forces across the Far East was relentless and though the British Army, among whose numbers the Scottish Regiments were significant, fought valiantly, sheer weight of numbers against them meant capture and captivity in Borneo, Burma and Thailand.”
The district’s local regiment, the Argylls, saw many men captured and they were among the prisoners of war who worked on the infamous Burma Railway and the Bridge over the River Kwai.
The provost added: “The cruelty inflicted on them by their captors was extreme, as evidenced by the following memoir of Lance Corporal James M Davie of the 2nd Battalion of the Argylls, who said ‘the men died working and were just left until it was time to go back to camp. The fittest of us dug graves, the majority dying with ill-treatment and starvation.’
“Captain Ernest Gordon, also of the 2nd Battalion, added ‘ men worked at bayonet point and under the bamboo rod’.
"The captives were all worked beyond the limits of human endurance, starving, tortured and denied medical care. Women too suffered just as greatly – thousands of British civilian internees were held, and badly mistreated, in camps around Southeast Asia and the Pacific.”
He continued that although Britain was eventually able to gain victory it was at a great cost.
He continued: “The names of Imphal, Kohima and Mandalay are perhaps still not widely recognised and even at the time, leaders of South East Asia Command joked that the Fourteenth Army was a ‘forgotten army’. They must not remain forgotten, which is one of the purposes of today’s ceremony.
“War in the Far East ended with the dawn of the Atomic Age. This is the key learning for us all right now, as the Presidents of the United States and of Russia meet to discuss ending the war in Ukraine, and as rogue states seek to acquire the capacity to build and deliver a nuclear bomb.
"There is still hope though, that through the sacrifice of those whom we commemorate today, we can do our bit to draw the world back from its own destruction. Captain Ernest Gordon and Group Captain Leonard Cheshire VC, who witnessed the dropping of the atomic bomb on Nagasaki, went on to dedicate their lives to humanitarian work.
"These examples of human compassion being forged from the horrors of war give us at least some hope for the future. Let us never forget the horror of the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
"Let us hope and pray mankind will draw back from the precipice and one day peace may ensue across the world. Lest we forget.”
1. VJ80 Day Bainsford
A ceremony was held to mark VJ80 Day at the Bainsford War memorial in Dawson Park. Photo: Michael Gillen
