VJ Day Memorial in Queen’s Park
I’m somewhat late, well over two years, in celebrating this VJ Day memorial in Queen’s Park in Swindon. But I happened to pass by the park the other day so took the opportunity to nip in and take a picture of it. And the whip up a wee blog about it.
Unveiled in August 2020, the memorial commemorates the 75th anniversary of VJ (Victory in Japan) Day.
Designed by Dr Mike Pringle, the stainless steel sculpture features a woman, wrapped in a flag and holding a child. South Swindon Parish Council commissioned the piece. It’s aim, to mark the 75th anniversary of VE ( Victory in Europe) Day in May 2020. And also VJ Day in August of that year.
NB: You can find a Victory in Europe monument in Town Gardens in Swindon’s Old Town. And photographs of it in the aforementioned blog post.
A prolonged fight
May 8th, 1945 saw victory declared over Nazi Germany. Yet fighting continued against Japanese forces in the Pacific until August of that year. It took the dropping by US pilots of atomic bombs onto two Japanese cities and the death of 226,000 souls for Japan to surrender.
The ceremony
A number of people, including representatives from the Royal Wessex Yeomanry and the Royal British Legion came to Queen’s Park for the sculpture’s unveiling. See this article in the Swindon Advertiser for some photos of the event.
Related: a post about the turtle storm sculpture in Queen’s Park
