Victory Day (Rhode Island) Tag

It's a little quiet here in the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Because today is Victory Day, formerly known as VJ Day, formerly known as Victory Over Japan Day. The progression of names to the generic Victory Day was to accomodate the hurt feelings of, umm, who exactly? The Japanese over whom we were victorious and who started it but couldn't finish it? Historically the day is to mark Victory Over Japan, but history is a casualty of the war waged by political correctness and hurt feelings.

I'm back in the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations again. Not just for the weekend, but "for good." We are back to splitting the year between Ithaca and RI. When I left in 2013, I lamented all that would be missed:

My home State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations has provided much material for Legal Insurrection over the years, including the dispute as to the name itself. Splitting the year between Ithaca and Rhode Island provided me with the distinction of having Patrick Kennedy and Maurice Hinchey as Congressmen for several years. I’m reminded of the Seinfeld episode about the dentist who converted to Judaism for the jokes. Sometimes I felt that I lived in Rhode Island for the same reason. But alas, it is no more....

Victory Day, formerly known as VJ Day, formerly known as Victory Over Japan Day, no longer is celebrated anywhere in the U.S. except in my formerly home State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.  It is celebrated the second Monday in August, even though Japan didn’t actually formally surrender until September 2, 1945.

The Ocean State is the only one that still observers an official holiday marking Japan’s surrender at the end of World War II. That’s been the case since 1975, when Arkansas dropped the commemoration, which it had already rechristened “World War II Memorial Day” by that point. There have been attempts to rename the holiday here in Rhode Island, too – Gov. Ed DiPrete tried to transform it into Governor’s Bay Day, and in 1995 there was a bid to start to calling it “Peace and Remembrance Day” – but protests from veterans and traditionalists have always put the kibosh on them. There’s no question World War II had an enormous impact on Rhode Island. More than 100,000 of the state’s residents served in the war, and 10,000 were killed, injured or lost.

There is a memorial outside the library in Barrington, Rhode Island, where we used to live, with the names of 26 town residents killed during World War II. Twenty-six. From a tiny town in a tiny state. I think it is nearly impossible for us today to appreciate the sacrifices made. [caption id="attachment_138488" align="alignnone" width="489"] [Barrington, RI][Image Source][/caption]Or the will it took to insist on unconditional surrender. Or the joy when the war truly was over.