The 65th anniversary of VE Day (signifying "Victory in Europe") passed over the weekend, and the anniversary of VJ Day ("Victory in Japan") is coming up this summer.
I was grateful for an invitation to take part in an episode of KOMO's Beyond the Headlines on Sunday, May 9 that looked back to these important events of 1945. We played several news cuts and talked about American network radio coverage of victory in both Europe and Japan.
As KOMO was an NBC affiliate in those days, most of what we played was from NBC (Ben Grauer, H.V. Kaltenborn, etc.), with a little Mutual (pre-VJ Day false bulletin) and CBS (excerpts from On A Note of Triumph, 14 August) thrown in for good measure.
For additional context (on VE Day), please also see a piece I did for Crosscut.com.
Here is a radio broadcast that is relevant to both VE Day and Memorial Day. It's a video with speeches given by Grand Duchess Charlotte and the general in charge of the American Graves Registration Command in Europe (1947-1950).The occasion was Memorial Day 1947, and the broadcast was transmitted from Luxembourg to the USA. It was especially aimed towards those Americans who had lost loved ones in World War 2’s European Theater.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZ7I1RIMXmU