FORGOTTEN heroes often tends to be the theme of VJ Day.

It’s taken a long time, that’s for certain, but it would appear the tides are turning.

The relief of Victory in Europe no doubt gripped the country in a wave of joy and triumph, with the fighting close to home having been ever at the front of people’s minds.

But the Far East, a place of such exoticism to many in wartime, must have seemed so far away. And it looked like that had remained the case ever since.

It was a small but incredibly important contingent that acknowledged VJ Day at St Michael at the Northgate Church – people whose families were touched so violently by events in Asia, yet who have had to themselves battle for their fathers’ memories.

The echoes of what happened in Japan and Singapore, among other places, reverberate on to this day, a deep shadow that we must try to shed light on.

Today, VJ Day itself, we should pause and reflect, and give the men who suffered such cruel injustices the time they were not given in life.Their bravery in the face of such unimaginable horror was a lion’s roar in the heat and dark of the prisoner of war camps.

They went forgotten for far too long. Now is the time to change that.

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