San Diego Remembers World War II, 70 Years After Japan Surrenders

70 years ago this week, San Diego went wild, afternoon of August 14, 1945, President. Harry Truman announced Japan had agreed to surrender effectively ending the second world war. Pictures Monday show San Diego streets crowded with cheering people, sailors holding up signs of a victory, was a day anyone who was there will never forget. As a number of witnesses, veterans get smaller organizations in a San Diego are making sure their sacrifices are never gotten the Joining me today Rod Melendez, executive director, Veterans Museum and Memorial Center. Also, Scott McGaugh, marketing director, USS Midway Museum. Take us back in time, what to the end of the war mean the people on the home front in San Diego. In his own way it was liberation. It was a normal workday, 24,000 women were going to work to build the 24 bombers, thousands of young men on troop transport trips to the invasion of Japan. When word came from President. Truman, it was a sense of liberation, they knew their sons were not going to go to war. We have photos of Navy pier and Broadway, downtown San Diego absolutely jammed with people and cars hugging and kissing just like that famous photo we all know from Tasker. How was San Diego involved in the war effort? Extraordinarily so. 20 different military bases and housing projects were developed in four years. 30% of city land was appropriated by the federal government for facilities. San Diego became a federalized city in that time. Hundreds of thousands of young men trained for the invasion of Iwo Jima. Linda Vista, 3000 homes are built into hundred days to accommodate defense workers coming here to make the ammunition and the bombs in their cut and so on. It transformed San Diego into military city, it's something we never looked back from because the military has stayed here we have been a little more immune to recessions as a result. All kinds of memories of the end of the war and the Pacific are percent in the veterans Museum. We collect all of them. Just today I got a photograph from local family and it shows a local escort carrier right here in San Diego. They're having a dance on the hangar deck with waves of sailors. Celebrations carried on all over as a big lift off everybody's shoulders. It was you for. Susan Murphy talked with 93-year-olds to Hadley served in the Navy during World War II about his memories of V-J Day. To me was an enlightenment because all the lights went back on. For years we were at war you are trying with red lights on at night, no bright lights whatsoever. The enemy couldn't see that way. They came out with a song, when the lights go on all over the world. Those memories are just incredible. It must have meant for so many young serviceman they were actually going to live through this war. Something that wasn't certain for years. Over 16 Over 16 million men and women served during World War II. The average stay overseas was about 16 months. People were there the entire time and people were there for only a few days. Was a seminal time for everyone and transition back to the states was not easy for everybody. Remind most about how fears the war in the Pacific was. It was brutal to say the least. There are many battles in the far Pacific that rivaled the worst of the Civil War. I can't imagine a San Diego family getting that knock on the door or telegram. Perhaps getting a casket return or just a few personal effects. 16 million Americans served in the war, 400 in the war, 400,000 gave their lives, 700,000 came home wounded. The majority of those came from the Pacific. US midway was named the landmark victory history of the Navy in 1942. Only six month after Pearl Harbor which is amazing to think in terms of the devastation that happened at Pearl Harbor. Later it was named after that landmark battle. A lot of the one Pacific spots for the Navy and the Marines. The Army was there also. It was an amphibious war but they all went together and MacArthur came up through the Philippines, my uncle was a soldier. It was predominantly Navy but there were two focuses, Admiral. Nimitz led a thrust to the Pacific, General. MacArthur pushed up from Australia to the Philippines. Did it look at times like the US and allies might not win the war? I think it to be getting our Armed Forces was smaller than Romania's Procopio way down, we were way down and ill-equipped and not will change. Many people were very concerned a what the outcome might be. This is really a period of incredible anxiety for people in San Diego and Oliver. Yes. In San Diego, in the early days after Pearl Harbor, there were artillery guns aimed at the Pacific. There is a real fear of Japanese invasion. We have photos of barrage balloons in Balboa Park. Your of a Japanese Air Force attacking San Diego. Will recall -- was a bomber plant, a huge complex all covered with camouflage netting, for fear of the Japanese invasion. Some of that was covered with chicken feathers to make a natural terrain. The problem with that is those carried leaves and life. We had the plant workers to have to be deloused what they supported the war effort. It was absolutely a time of uncertainty. You mentioned Balboa Park, where some of the buildings in Balboa Park turned over to hospital duty? Yes. Just about the entire Balboa Park was given to the Navy medical center. A lot of us old-timers, Navy hospital literally comprise 200 A lot of us old-timers, Navy hospital literally comprise 241 different buildings in the downtown area with more than 10,000 beds by the end of the war. There are photos of sailors doing aqua therapy for Burns in response. Every -- in the lily ponds. How to think the war changed San Diego? In some respects, in the long view, it gave it something of an industrial base. For so many years prior to that, San Diego have been something of a sleepy backwater town. For decades, city leaders had tried to convince the Navy we had huge potential. World War II drove at home like nobody's business. As a result of that, so much investment by the Department of Defense was made in San Diego and at the end of the war it remains, a lot less repurposed into work the Cold War. It really became a seminal threshold in the development of San Diego as a military-industrial complex balance with tourism, quality of life, etc. The population went through the roof. More than triple. I'm told thousands of veterans when they were active duty came through San Diego. Solid San Diego is all about, made a mental note, and here they are today. The men and women who lived through World War II are referred to as the greatest generation. What kinds of interactions have you had Our mission Museum is to perpetuate their memories and actions in their time of service. We do it through Senate race -- ceremonies, we collect their artifacts, we reserve their photographs and documents, their personal memories, we have biographies, we even have a play written about the time in our military history reference library in the basement of Museum. We are a repository for memories and artifacts of that period. What's the reaction to those exhibits? It brings tears into their eyes. They get to tell their children and grandchildren about where they were and what they saw. Not only World War II vets but all the current modern minutes. It's a moving experience for them. We're a colorful building inside with the way we are decorated. It's a historic venue and it's a picturesque venue also. You get World War II vets on the USS midway. All the time. We have more than two dozen who volunteer as docents. They come to Bishop -- the ship, I can't tell you how many times I will see a family little kids walk up to a World War II veteran, and the kids are enthralled by the stories. By the time he's time, they want their picture taken with him. Equally important to preserve legacy inspire future generations. These veterans are helping us do that in the mid-90s every day. A lot of people have been concern for abusing this living memory, people are passing on another generation is taking over. It becomes more important to compile all that information, to get all those histories and get it on record and preserve it right now. We work very hard to do that, we're not the only ones here in San Diego. The aviation Museum MMR and other groups are collecting oral histories. We're partnered with the oral history project back in Washington DC. We send a copy back there as well as our own archives. I want to ask about this big event planned at the USS midway Museum to commemorate the end of World War II. Yes. And to honor the greatest generation. They have an opportunity the San Diegan's to shake the hand of a member of the greatest generation. More than 120 World War II veterans and 250 family members on the list right now where barely keeping up with phone calls. We have a USO show, to entertain them with Bob Hope, Betty Grable, celebrity look-alikes from the World War II Museum in New Orleans are flying in just for that night. Fireworks and swing dancing, we're going to take San Diego back to 1945 to really help understand and appreciate what so many people sacrifice of life we have today. Equally important to sleet those brave young men -- salutes those brave young men. Rod Melendez, executive director, Veterans Museum and Memorial Center And Scott McGaugh, marketing director, USS Midway Museum, thank you for being here.