For various reason I have always been interested in V J Day. Here is a recollection of what it was like on V J Day in Salt Lake City, Utah:
And it was a celebration.
GIs on leave and in uniform were the center of attention. Soldiers, sailors, marines and pretty girls. . .snake-danced up and down Main from South Temple to Broadway.
And in the early evening, as I watched from the second-floor windows, I could see the Salt Lake City Police Department paddy wagon, the ``Black Maria,'' used to cart drunks to jail, trying to drive across Main at 200 South, but finally slowed to a halt in front of the Owl Drug under the Walker Bank Building on the southeast corner.
The officer, doggedly trying to do his duty, had a wagon full of inebriates.
And as I watched, I could see him being surrounded by a score of partying celebrants, chanting for the officer to join them. Before he knew it, a couple of soldiers had pulled his keys from his belt and opened the door to the police wagon.
Once the passengers were repatriated, so to speak, the revelers tossed the officer's keys into a U.S. mailbox nearby, leaving the patrol wagon stranded and empty.
The whooping and hollering went on well into the next morning.
The war was over
Of course the picture of the sailor and the nurse was taken in New York City on V J Day over 61 years ago.( Click on the title above for a link to the full story of one man's recolection of V J day in Salt Lake City, Utah.)
