"The tumult and the shouting dies,

The captains and the kings depart. Still stands our ancient sacrifice,

An humble and a contrite heart."

This looks like V-J Day as the Gazette goes to press in a sunny and remarkably invigorating atmosphere. The morning began with clear skies and a feeling of both warmth and coolness in the air, the best that August can offer.

Early news broadcasts contained no hint of Japanese surrender, but by 8 o'clock the radio flashes were indicating the decision of Japan to surrender on the terms of the Potsdam declaration. Confidence began to appear more and more, and the day of liberation from war seemed to be at hand.

The first atomic bomb was dropped on Japan Sunday, but the Vineyard knew nothing of It until yesterday, and then only through the radio announcements. In the night there was wind and rain, and this morning a heavy fog wrapped the Island, not as impenetrable, however, as that which still shrouds the scene of destruction in Japan.
The events have no association except in our own minds, but this is how Islanders will recall the time when the release of atomic energy was made known to the world.

D-Day services marked the opening of the European invasion by the Allied armies, as hundreds of people attended their neighborhood churches for a moment of prayer for the success of Allied armies and a speedy peace. Some of the churches had but the one special service, while others had several throughout the day, in order that those employed in their various tasks might be enabled to attend.

Enthusiasm of a variety that was wild by Island standards followed the 7 o'clock broadcast on Tuesday night that Japan had surrendered. The natural instinct and tendency to celebrate was manifested by just about every person able to walk and appear out of door; and it seemed, in the down-Island section, at least, that all were present.

Fifty years after the sinking of the United States naval fleet at Pearl Harbor, a group of Island veterans and their supporters gathered Dec. 7 in Oak Bluffs for breakfast to remember the day and honor their countrymen who lost their lives in this and other battles of World War II.

Every parking spot at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Hall on Towanicut avenue was filled at 9 a.m.

The United States Navy has taken land at Katama for use in its new gunnery range without lease, purchase, condemnation or any prior consultation with the owner. Edward T. Vincent is the Vineyarder who has been having the unusual experience of losing his property through outright seizure, and of receiving short answers to his questions.

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, on Dec. 7, 1941, is a landmark in the life of this nation, by which we judge where we are and where we were. The moment the news came over the radio that Sunday afternoon, it caught a nation in one instant like some great group photograph.

Fifty years have passed, and now we look back to pay homage to those who offered their lives and energies to fight fascism and imperialism, and to re-examine a symbolic moment in history.

The contours of Peaked Hill, as viewed from the Middle Road, have changed almost beyond belief, due largely to the construction of the road which winds around its steep sides and has been carved deeply into them. The hill is topped by one of the skeleton towers so largely used for signaling purposes, and is now manned by a detachment of the U.S. Army Signal Corps. The handful of men assigned here, presumably in connection with the tests now going on to prove or disprove the effectiveness of coastal defenses against invasion, is quartered in tents on the hill.

The Vineyard called out its civilian defense organizations on Friday and again on Tuesday to tackle actual problems such as might follow the dropping of bombs by hostile planes. The whole affair was a kind of sham battle hitherto unknown, in which men, women and children were summoned from peaceful occupations in civil life to show how they could defend their community against the demoralization and damage of bombing. No planes roared overhead, but the practice was none the less realistically carried out.