Many Americans celebrated Labor Day on September 2, recognizing “the social and economic achievements of American workers,” according to the U.S. Department of Labor. It also t marked the end of summer, back to school, and the unofficial beginning of fall.
The date has another significance—the end of World War II. On September 2, 1945, abord the USS Missouri, Japanese officials signed the treaty ending the largest, deadliest war ever fought. Seventy-nine years later, six World War II veterans, family members, and friends, gathered at a ceremony to mark the anniversary of peace, sponsored by the Friends of the National World War II Memorial and the National Mall and Memorial Parks.
According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, of the 16 million men and women who served in World War II, more than 100,000 are alive, 6,000 of them women. Their average age is 98. Six of those veterans were honored at the ceremony.
Each placed a wreath near the wall of 4,000 stars representing the more than 400,000 members of the U.S. military who died in the war.
These are the veterans who were honored:
Domenic Galilei was a petty officer 3rd class in the U.S. Navy and a crew member on a TBM Avenger (a torpedo bomber) in several campaigns, including the Battle of Okinawa.
Regina Benson was a U.S. Army nurse, who served in Okinawa and Japan.
Thomas Evans served in the Navy from 1944 to 1946, as a radioman at the Submarine Base in Pearl Harbor.
Dixon Hemphill was an executive office in the Navy, who served in both the Atlantic and Pacific theaters, aboard the USS Little Rock and the USS North Carolina. He trained soldiers in Taiwan and China and retired as a lieutenant commander in 1965.
Callan Saffell joined the Navy in 1942 as an electrician’s mate 1st class. His wooden war ship was responsible for degaussing minesweeper ships to protect them from magnetic mines.
Frank Cohn’s family escaped from Hitler’s Germany to the United States when he was 13 years old. He served in the U.S. Army at the Battle of the Bulge and in the Rhineland and Central Europe campaigns. He was sergeant of the guard of prisoners during the second Nuremberg Trial. He retired as a colonel.
Thousands gathered in May to mark the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion that was the beginning of the end of war in Europe a year later. Germany surrendered May 8,1945, leading to celebrations all over the United States. A long three months later, Japan surrendered, and the war was over.
Top image: Dixon Hemphill, Callan Saffell, Frank Cohn.
Bottom image: Domenic Galilei, Reginan Benson, Thomas Evans.