VJ Day and the slow return to peace

V.E. Day street party, 1945

Brighton and Hove in Pictures

Then came August 15th 1945 - VJ Day. The Americans had dropped their atomic bombs on Japan at Hiroshima and Nagasaki a few days earlier and Japan surrendered unconditionally. Now the war was well and truly over and the celebrations started all over again, but this time they were intensified. We opened our arms to receive the good things we all felt sure would follow. There were more street parties and dancing and bonfires, since there were no blackout restrictions now. There were the sad and bereaved families of course, and we all commiserated with them, but we could not bring people back. The way ahead was forward, and we hoped, it was to a brighter future.
Kathleen Wilson - International Sevice

After six years of being at war people found it very difficult to settle again. We still had food rationing for several years afterwards but in spite of a food shortage there were numerous street parties held and other celebrations. The street lights came on again and once more we could go onto the seafront. The beach was reopened after the mines and barbed wire had been removed. I was delighted as I had missed going to the beach and into the sea. Consequently I didn't learn to swim until after the war.

Husbands in particular, on being de-mobbed, found difficulty in settling back into their family life again, mainly because they had been stationed in different parts of England or abroad and had seen a different way of life. Whereas, the wives had experienced a difficult time with a shortage of food, clothing, warmth, (as well as) having to bring up the children on their own and the worry of their homes being bombed. Even the children had to get to know their fathers either again, or for the first time.
Barbara Chapman - Boxing Day Baby

Gradually, you could see things changing, the street lights came on for the first time, I had never seen a street lit up, it really was a shock. People didn't have to put blackout up, and the few people who used their front rooms, and virtually no one did, would have the light on, still behind the curtains, which might be drawn, but there would be some kind of light shining from that house, which you hadn't seen before. You no longer saw the moon and the stars as brightly!

I know that my own father was very keen that there should be a change, that something should happen as a result of the war, that it shouldn't all have been for nothing. It was a time to have a new start, and this view was shared by a lot of people. The national government lost office, and we had the Labour government. They introduced a package of attractive measures, for example the National Health Service, which must have sounded like music to my parents ears.

There was a real desire for change.
Brian Dungate in Brighton behind the Front