Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, September 2, 1995 TAG: 9509050064
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: HONOLULU LENGTH: Medium
Commemorating the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II, President Clinton paid tribute Friday to aging veterans who suffered through ``the most horrible thing ever done by man'' to ensure the eventual triumph of freedom.
``Our nation is forever grateful,'' Clinton told more than 700 World War II veterans in the audience of 5,000 gathered on a dusty parade ground at Wheeler Army Airfield. The base was one of the first American targets of Japanese bombers on Dec. 7, 1941.
Clinton asked Medal of Honor winners in the audience to stand, and a dozen or so rose from their seats. One aging veteran pushed himself up with his cane and snapped a salute to the commander in chief.
The ceremony was the first in three days of commemorations of V-J Day, marking the end of the war in the Pacific. Bob Hope, 92, who entertained troops in the Pacific and the Atlantic, sat in a front-row seat and basked in repeated applause.
Low-hanging clouds shielded the audience from bright sun, and mountains provided a dramatic backdrop for the ceremony. World War II-era B-25 bombers roared over the field in formation.
``In this remarkable place, so much like paradise, we recall a time when war made the idyllic Pacific hell on Earth,'' Clinton said, ``and we celebrate the generation of Americans who won that war and ensured the triumph of freedom over tyranny.
``Never before had the fight for freedom stretched across such a vast expanse of land and sea,'' he said. ``And never before had the energies of the American people been so fully required or so fully joined.''
Clinton said that 50 years ago, a seaman - Walter Germann - wrote to his son in Abilene, Texas, expressing worry that the war would be glorified and saying that it was, in reality, the most horrible thing ever done by man.
``Veterans of the Pacific,'' Clinton said, ``because you were willing to undergo the most horrible thing ever done by man, freedom is the order of the day in most of the world 50 years later.''
Clinton pointedly expressed appreciation for the recent apology extended by Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama for Japan's aggression. He said that Americans appreciate ``the recent powerful words.''
Japan surrendered in a 20-minute ceremony on the deck of the battleship Missouri on the morning of Sept. 2, 1945. Because of the time difference, the news reached Washington late on the evening of Sept. 1.
At 10 p.m. that night, President Harry Truman addressed the nation in a radio broadcast from the White House.
``The thoughts and hopes of all America - indeed of all the civilized world - are centered tonight on the battleship Missouri,'' Truman said. ``There on that small piece of American soil anchored in Tokyo Harbor, the Japanese have just officially laid down their arms. They have signed terms of unconditional surrender.''
Truman proclaimed Sept. 2 as V-J Day, 45 months after Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. It brought a final end to a terrible war that cost more than 1 million American casualties, including nearly 292,000 combat deaths.
Clinton and his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, arrived at the ceremony in a helicopter and rode to the reviewing stand in an open Humvee vehicle. The president used the vehicle to review troops from all the services.
Wheeler was a fitting site to begin the commemorations. The field was the first flight line hit by Japanese warplanes on Dec. 7, 1941. Thirty-three men were killed and 75 wounded. Almost half of Wheeler's P-40s were destroyed and many P-36s were damaged, but a few planes lifted off and engaged the enemy in furious dogfights after the Pearl Harbor attack.
by CNB