I have run the video below a number of times, starting on July 4, 2012.
It’s a video of Victory over Japan (VJ) Day, August 14, 1945. For some reason, it seems so appropriate to play on July 4.
It was forwarded to me by reader TowsonLawyer, who wrote:
Just in time for the Fourth of July – Lost Film from 1945
Here’s the story from Richard Sullivan:
67 Years Ago my Dad shot this film along Kalakaua Ave. in Waikiki capturing spontaneous celebrations that broke out upon first hearing news of the Japanese surrender. Kodachrome 16mm film: God Bless Kodachrome, right? I was able to find an outfit (mymovietransfer.com) to do a much superior scan of this footage to what I had previously posted, so I re-did this film and replaced the older version There are more still images from this amazing day, in color, at discoveringhawaii.com.
What it must have felt like.
Liberation. Independence. Victory.
VJ Day, Honolulu Hawaii, August 14, 1945 from Richard Sullivan on Vimeo.
Does the video inspire you, or depress you?
I understand the impulse in these times to be down, but here’s what Andrew Klavan has to say:
“Recently I’ve been hearing a lot of conservatives saying things like, ‘It’s over. The left has won. This is no longer America. I’m not even going to celebrate the Fourth of July this year.’ I confess this disturbs me. I expect feminists to squeal like hysterical little girls. . . . I expect conservatives to act like men and women — men and women who understand they are part of a fight for liberty that began when Moses killed the Egyptian slavedriver and will not end until Jesus comes again. Open your eyes. The hills are filled with chariots of fire. Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”
So be inspired.
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Comments
Amen. And while it’s easy to see the flaws, it’s easier to become used to the ‘new normal’ and forget all of the progress we have made towards Freedom.
May we all feel the Victory of our success, the moment we turn our attention to it.
Hear, hear!
Andrew Klavan is right. 2 Kings 6:17
Just as in the days of Israel’s battles in ancient times, we today forget that God is sovereign and has invisible armies at the ready.
I just hope He has mercy on us, a nation who has seemingly turned its back on God, caved to fear and PC, and allowed the abject ignorance and propaganda brainwashing that has been called “education of our children” for decades.
Remember the story of Isaiah. Sometimes God sends a messenger who speaks to those who will survive, not to those who choose to ignore the message.
Remember Benedict. Sometimes one has to prune to re-grow.
Bittersweet. After watching that, I feel both sadness and hope for the future.
I see that and nostalgically wish we had that again.
However, these were people who had just lived through horrible war, losing friends and family, and seen the horrifying beginning to the Atomic Age. They had just lived under one of the worst socialist presidents – FDR – who had also been the one who led them through the war, standing for victory.
Not long after this, reforms of FDR’s socialist programs did begin; so there was success in rolling back some of the damage done.
Where there is life, there is hope. God is sovereign, not man. There is MUCH to celebrate – if we don’t quit!! Because, as we have seen, the leftists NEVER QUIT!! We can’t, either!!
Happy Independence Day, everyone!!!
Hear, hear, yes indeed!
The greatest generation…winning a war and inventing car surfing, all in one day. 🙂
BTW, Professor, thanks for the video of the day. It’s nice to see a real President again, not the poor imitation of one we have now.
How did he get sound? I didn’t know any of the cameras then captured sound, unless they were a movie studio camera.
“…I expect conservatives to act like men and women — men and women who understand they are part of a fight for liberty that began when Moses killed the Egyptian slavedriver and will not end until Jesus comes again. Open your eyes. The hills are filled with chariots of fire. Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”
KaBoom! A thrilling quote from Klaven and a one-of-a-kind video that reminds us of our victories, victories over those who seek to bully us and redefine our independence, in this case, by military force.
Now, we need a VS day to celebrate the dissolution of the Supremes’ law making.
“…When Moses killed the Egyptian slavedriver and will not end until Jesus comes again. Open your eyes. The hills are filled with chariots of fire. Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”
He’s dead-on. However, he left out something: the GOP ‘hills’ are filled with corrupt cowards who continue to take our winning votes and literally give them to the Egyptian slavedriver.
We don’t have a ‘winning’ problem. We have a suicide problem of our giving our votes to pathetic, corrupt talentless backstabbers. Until fumigation by the GOP base begins, the vermin infesting the leadership positions of the GOP will continue to betray us, and happily assist in our enslavement.
Maybe there is something to polygamy: we should make Boehner, Prebus and McConnell to do to each other what they’ve done to the base. And televise it.
Thank you for the touching reminder that sometimes attitudes need to be liberated, Professor Jacobson.
My Dad was in Hawaii for that event, my Mom went over on a ship shortly thereafter and married him. They lived up on a hill over Honolulu for several months after that. I’m glad we won.
Shortly after that William Buckley was fighting the commies on campus, starting the conservative movement. But the leftist aggression in the campuses and Hollywood and our networks continued mostly unabated, even to this day.
After that parade, the FBI monitored active communists, like Jarrett’s and Obama’s fathers. Those two kids were magically linked together in Chicago, culminating in the dastardly duo further dismantling many American institutions, transforming America against the majority will, with a lot of help from their globalist friends.
So VJ day indeed represents the day Americans quit fighting, while the battle continued. I’m not sure our “police actions” in Korea, Vietnam, or Iraq count as fighting back, since we were not allowed to really win, and the collectivists inevitably came along to surrender our gains. Reagan stemmed the tide but the debt spiral began, and now the bear is loose again, and the Tiger has an old friend in Hillary.
The joy seen in that 1945 parade will come again when we take on and defeat the enemy, this time probably more domestic than foreign. The battle rages online, but today we rejoice that we are still in the fight.
cheers ….
“I’m not sure our “police actions” in Korea, Vietnam, or Iraq count as fighting back, since we were not allowed to really win …”
In Vietnam we were betrayed by the fat-bottomed chair warmers in DC who believed they knew more about fighting the war than the experienced officers in the field and “micromanaged” to the point that they actually mandated the contents of bomb loads in real time! We might have been able to win but as you say we weren’t allowed to do that.
Iraq is somewhat the same story, but with a twist. There were at least two people who did know how to fight and win in that arena: General David Petraeus and Major Jim Gant. They proved that their methods do work! Had they both been allowed to stay and teach those methods to others Iraq would be a free country today. Instead, Obama snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, pulling our troops out against the advice of our military leaders and enabling the birth of ISIS.
[Rant over]