August 2020 marks the 75th anniversaries of the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (6 and 9 August) and VJ Day on 15 August.
On the IWM website, you can listen to and share Voices of War soundscapes, featuring testimony from people who were there.
VJ Day
VJ Day stands for Victory over Japan day and is the name given to the 15th August 1945, which is the day Japan publicly announced its surrender.
Lieutenant Sidney Sasson of the US Army Signal Corps, Army Pictorial Service, shot the following colour footage of VJ Day celebrations around Piccadilly Circus in London, 15 August 1945.
Calling Blighty – A Message Home
Calling Blighty is a series of films that have been digitised by the Imperial War Museum for the North West Film Archive (NWFA). They were made between 1944-46 and show servicemen (and a very few women) in the Far East sending messages home to their families. These films, a sort of one way Skype of their day, are remarkable and moving documents that would have been shown in local cinemas back home.
Click the Rochdale button below to take a look at messages from 13 men who are from the Rochdale area.
So far only 4 of the families have been traced – perhaps you can help to find the families of the other 9. Please get in touch with the NWFA if you find someone you know, or if you know something about these films!
Our thanks go to the North West Film Archive at Manchester Metropolitan University for giving permission to display these films.