Victory over Japan: 80th Anniversary

Cameron Thomas Excerpts

Monday 21st July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Cameron Thomas (Tewkesbury) (LD)]

For the avoidance of doubt, this speech comes from a place of deep appreciation for post-war Japan and for the enrichment it has given so many of us through its automotive and technological innovations and through global cultural phenomena such as “Godzilla”. It is starkly different from the Japan fought by our greatest generation. Less than a decade after the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, “Godzilla” was created as a metaphor for nuclear weapons and their destructive power, but 2023’s “Godzilla Minus One”—greater and more destructive still—was also a metaphor for national guilt.

For everything we love about Japan today, it has never undertaken the societal reckoning with its past that Germany did following the fall of the Nazis. Across Germany stand the horrifying relics of the Holocaust. In Hiroshima, the A-bomb dome is a memorial to the victims of the atomic bomb. In the land of the rising sun, it is far more difficult to find such an open recognition of its wartime torture of prisoners of war or its atrocities against civilians, such as by Unit 731.

In 1936, under the direction of senior army surgeon Ishii Shiro, Japan focused on making disease a silent ally through human experiments and the study of biological and chemical weapons. Prisoners were kidnapped men, women—including pregnant women—children and even babies born of rape by staff within the compounds. They included political prisoners and anybody who had expressed to any degree anti-Japanese sentiment. Victims were predominantly Chinese, but included a significant minority of Russians. Experiments included withdrawal of half a litre of blood every two or three days until death. Some prisoners were frozen to death in experiments into frostbite or had limbs frozen and then shattered. Vivisection was regularly carried out to harvest organs from live victims, including pregnant women, who had been exposed to diseases and bacteria, sometimes under the guise of vaccination. Tens of thousands more were killed through engineered epidemics, with pathogens dropped over Chinese cities by Japanese aircraft. That is the context, Madam Deputy Speaker.

On this coming anniversary of Victory over Japan Day, let us consider the path that led to war and review the actions that led to its conclusion. Let us lament the terrible loss of life through the strategic bombing, firebombing and atomic bombing of Japan. But we owe it to our finest generation to do so in the full context. Perhaps someday our Japanese friends can finally lay Godzilla to rest.

--- Later in debate ---

[Alex Baker (Aldershot) (Lab)]

When we mark VJ Day—victory over Japan—we remember the true end of the second world war. The far east campaign saw some of the harshest conditions of the entire war: jungle warfare, searing heat and a determined enemy. It also saw acts of extraordinary courage and enduring suffering, particularly among those taken prisoner and subjected to forced labour. I pay tribute to my great uncle, Frank Mole, who was one of those men. The men and women who served there often came home to little recognition, but they deserve our greatest respect.

As the Member of Parliament for Aldershot, I was proud to pay tribute in the VE Day debate to the greatest generation of my constituency. Farnborough and Aldershot are towns that have served as home of the British Army and the Royal Aircraft Establishment. Today, I want to mention—proudly, as chair of the Nepal all-party parliamentary group—a group whose contribution in the far east deserves particular tribute: the Gurkhas. Over 112,000 Gurkhas served in the second world war, and more than a quarter of them fought in the far east campaign. In Burma, they became legendary—skilled in jungle warfare, trusted by British commanders and feared by the enemy.

One of the finest examples of the Gurkhas’ courage is Rifleman Lachhiman Gurung VC. In May 1945, during the battle for Taungdaw in Burma, three enemy grenades were thrown into his trench. He hurled back two. The third exploded in his hand, blowing off his fingers and blinding one eye. But for four hours—alone, one-handed—he held the line, firing his rifle and calling out, “Come and fight a Gurkha!” When relief came, 31 enemy soldiers lay dead around his post. His platoon had survived. That story is more than legend; it is living history for my constituency.

Today, Aldershot is home to the largest Nepali community in the UK, some of whom are descendants of those who served. Their presence is not just a legacy of war, but a living part of our society and our future. VJ Day matters to them; it matters to us all. Today, as we mark the anniversary of Victory over Japan Day, we say once more: to the soldiers who trained on Aldershot’s parade grounds and fought through jungle and monsoon—

[Cameron Thomas]

As a Member of Parliament who benefits from the contribution of 300 or 400 Gurkhas and Nepalese people, can I just say that I am very much enjoying the hon. Lady’s speech and I cannot wait to hear the rest?

[Alex Baker]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for that intervention. We say also to the engineers in Farnborough whose innovations helped bring victory within reach, to the Gurkhas whose courage lit up the darkness of war, and to the prisoners who endured, the families who waited, and the loved ones who never came home: we remember, we honour, we give thanks, and we will never forget.