More than eight decades ago, Americans received the news they had prayed and fought years to hear: World War II was coming to an end.
On August 14, 1945, President Harry Truman announced that Japan had accepted the terms of surrender. The formal surrender followed on September 2 aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.
Nearly 16 million Americans served in our Armed Forces during World War II, fighting from Normandy and Italy to Iwo Jima and Okinawa. More than 400,000 Americans never returned home.
Behind those numbers were ordinary Americans who answered an extraordinary call to defend our country and freedom around the world.
Americans at home answered that call as well. Workers filled factories and shipyards, families accepted rationing, and communities bought war bonds, collected scrap and supported the war effort. The nation came together with a shared sense of purpose.
When victory finally arrived, celebrations erupted from small-town Main Streets to Times Square. But Victory Day should be about more than celebrating a military triumph. It should remind us what that victory cost.
The Greatest Generation demonstrated courage in the face of danger, perseverance through tremendous hardship and an unwavering belief that our freedoms were worth defending.
As the number of World War II veterans still with us continues to decline, our responsibility to preserve their stories only grows.
This Victory Day, let us remember those who served, those who sacrificed on the home front and especially those who never made it home. The freedoms we enjoy today remain part of their enduring legacy.
May we never forget their courage, their sacrifice or the price they paid for victory.
