JOY was unconfined when the war finally came to an end in August 1945. VJ Day - Victory over Japan - was the occasion for street parties, bonfires, open-air dancing and other public celebrations.
As this newspaper reported on August 16, 1945, Edinburgh went on holiday as it had rarely, if ever, done before. “By last night, celebrations had worked up to a climax of excitement which packed the principal streets with an almost immoveable mass of people, singing, cheering, and letting off fireworks.”
Indeed, the only thing that marred the day, apart from the uncertain weather, “was the old story of the queue, intensified by the housewife’s recollections of difficulties of VE Day. Every food shop had a long queue from early morning, and by ten o’clock there was hardly a loaf to be bought in the city. Patiently the crowds had to resign themselves to waiting until the next deliveries.”
The photograph was taken in Stockbridge, where the queue of shoppers was glad to note a fresh delivery of bread at the local baker’s.
Read more:
Herald DiaryEverywhere, people were making merry.
In Glasgow, almost every city-centre pub, and many in the districts, ran dry on the 15th, and closed two hours before the end of their permitted hours. George Square was a cacophony of bagpipes, whistles, drums, mouth-organs, shouting and singing
In London’s Piccadilly Circus, elated crowds devised a new game. Uprooting a bus shelter, they challenged revellers to jump on the roof, and stay on.
As a picture agency reported: “If anybody kept their seat for ten seconds while the ‘bearers’ shook and slanted the roof, it would have been a record.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here