Darrell Castle talks about the 80th anniversary of the end of World War Two. How have the allied leaders handled the inheritance of the victory they were given by the blood of their ancestors? Are they behaving like victors?

Transcription / Notes

EIGHTY YEARS AFTER WORLD WAR TWO

Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday the 29th day of August in the year of our Lord 2025. This is Labor Day weekend and a 3-day vacation for most of us but the day after Labor Day is an anniversary to remember. It is the 80th anniversary of the end of World War Two. Where do we stand today with the inheritance that all those men gave us so many years ago. How have the allied leaders handled the victory they were given by the blood of their ancestors. I will look at some of the things that are happening in our world today to see if the allies have truly behaved like victors.

Next Tuesday, the 2nd of September is the 80th anniversary of the signing of the Japanese surrender documents ending World War ll. The surrender was signed on the deck of the battleship USS Missouri while it was sitting at anchor in Tokyo Bay. The Americans had the people you would expect in attendance such as Chester Nimitz, the Commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, and General Douglas MacArthur Commander of the Southern Pacific Region, who accepted the surrender on behalf of the victorious allied nations.

General MacArthur was appointed Proconsul of Japan which made him the virtual ruler of that nation on behalf of the occupying American forces. General MacArthur ruled with a compassionate, but firm hand and in a few short years the nation of Japan once a radioactive, burned our wasteland was a G-20 economy. The Japanese were resistant at first but with the encouragement of their emperor they started to buy into MacArthur’s program and they rebuilt their country as a model of American capitalism.

There were many other people on board the Missouri that day including people honored because they were seriously wounded in the Pacific War but also ex-prisoners of the Japanese who survived years of harsh treatment. When I was a child one of our neighbors was boy scour leader for my scout group. He had served on the Missouri and was pretty good at crafts so he built a scale model of the ship about 3 feet long and kept it in a separate room of his house. He had tremendous pride in his service and in being present for history.

There are very few of the veterans of that war still living and soon there will be none so every chance we get to honor them should be taken. August 14th the last fighter ace of the war died at the age of 103. His name was Thomas McPherson and he was the pilot of an F6F Hellcat fighter flying off the carrier USS Essex. In case you don’t know a fighter ace is someone who shoots down five enemy planes in aerial combat. When the war was over Tom went back home to Nebraska and became a mail carrier where he spent his working life. He was a boy scout leader and worked in his church just living a quiet and peaceful life of service. Many gallant aces, many empty places as the pilots would say at dinner. There were many aces, but none still alive from WWll. We still have aces from Korea and Vietnam of course although they are going quickly as well.

So, how the world has changed in 80 years. The U.S. dropped two atomic bombs thus ending the war but today 9 nations are believed to have nuclear weapons with about 12000 warheads in existence. Sometimes when I look at it all and I see where we are today I have to wonder who won the war. There are so many places today where the world seems to have turned upside down. Old friends are now bitter enemies and vice versa. China and Russia, our friends during the war but now enemies.

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