Army Lt. Victor Jorgensen photographed the iconic sailor and nurse during the V-J Day celebration in New York's Times Square, capturing a slightly different angle from the famous Life magazine photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt. / Lt. Victor Jorgensen Courtesy of the National Arch
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Today, we celebrate the end of World War II and join the nation in a day of remembrance for the generation that reshaped America's future.
Sixty-five years have passed since the end to a hellish four years for the U.S. in the battlefields of Europe and the Pacific. But in August 1945, it was far from certain when the war's end would come.
After atomic bombs had fallen over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, newspapers were filled with optimistic reports that the Japanese surrender was near.
But it wasn't until 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 14 that the air raid siren at the downtown Palm Springs fire station sounded. Its blast announced the war's end.
Once the siren's growl died, there was only silence. For the first time in three years, there were no military planes flying in or out of the bases in Palm Springs and Thermal; they were grounded as part of a two-day national holiday. Most bars and stores closed immediately.
At Torney General Hospital in Palm Springs, with wards filled with injured soldiers, a loudspeaker was set up so the surrender news reports could be heard.
“Comments were quiet and listening intense as men who had fought wherever American blood had washed the earth hung on every word of the surrender news,” The Desert Sun reported on its front page.
History never will forget World War II. Sixty-five years later, neither will the Coachella Valley.
