On 5 May, the Netherlands marked 80 years since liberation, but that was not the end of the story. For the entire Kingdom of the Netherlands, freedom did not begin on 5 May. It came later, on 15 August 1945.&nbsp;From 5 May to August 15&nbsp;During the Second World War, Japan, an ally of Nazi Germany, occupied the former Dutch East Indies (Indonesia). The European community was separated from the Asian population and imprisoned as prisoners of war or in civilian internment camps. Millions of Indonesian men, along with Dutch and Allied prisoners of war, were forcibly put to work—for example, on the Burma Railway. Many lost their lives, and millions of others endured the consequences of hunger, violence, humiliation, and terror.&nbsp;On 15 August 1945, shortly after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan capitulated. This marked the official end of the Second World War, even though it did not bring peace for all. Two days later, on 17 August 1945, Sukarno and Hatta declared Indonesia’s independence. What followed was a period in which the Netherlands attempted to reverse Indonesia’s independence through the mobilisation of military troops and the use of great violence. Under international pressure, they withdrew, and in December 1949 the Netherlands recognised Indonesia’s independence.&nbsp;From that point, many residents chose to relocate to the Netherlands, creating an active community of Indo-Dutch, Moluccans, Papuans, Peranakan Chinese, and many other indigenous groups from modern Indonesia.&nbsp;This group of people shared the same history: the loss of their motherland, the experience of the war in Asia, the impact of extensive displacement, and the cold welcome they encountered in the Netherlands. These experiences lived on in the generations that followed. Even 80 years later, the scars of the Second World War remained visible among this group of Dutch citizens—both in the families who lost loved ones in the violence, and on a broader scale, in the way the war continued to shape perspectives on the world.&nbsp;How young people keep the Indies heritage alive&nbsp;Who was born in the Netherlands after the war know freedom as a given fact. But in Indo families, another history lives on. From occupation, to repatriation and years and years of silence. &nbsp;Many of those who experienced this are no longer with us, but their stories should live on. Like Maddy Batelaan (then 17 y/o) said at the Indies Monument: “Trust us with your story, we will carry it along.” Maddy is a member of <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.instagram.com/jong.1508/">Jong 1508</a>, a young people’s initiative that organises the Indies Generation Tables, where young and old come together to talk about trauma, but also about traditions and memories that were never written down. &nbsp;That’s how Maddy and many other young people keep the past alive. Because freedom is not something you only receive, you also pass it on.&nbsp;

Why August 15 Matters [Article written and kindly shared by the Dutch National Committee for 4 and 5 May]

A War That Started in Asia&nbsp;While the global war formally began in Europe in 1939, the Second World War in Asia had already started earlier, with Japan’s full-scale invasion of China in July 1937, a conflict known as the Second Sino-Japanese War. Following a skirmish near Beijing on July 7, hostilities escalated rapidly. Japan sought to dominate East Asia, seizing major cities such as Shanghai and Nanjing, where its forces committed horrific atrocities against civilians.&nbsp;Though China initially stood alone, it continued to resist, sustained in part by limited support from the Soviet Union, Britain, and the United States. As Japan expanded across the region, Western powers began to take notice. Following the freezing of Japanese assets on July 26, the United States imposed an oil embargo on August 1, 1941, and in December, Japan struck back with a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor (7 December 1941). That event drew the US fully into the war and ignited a fierce and complex conflict across the Pacific.&nbsp;In the first months of 1942, Japan captured territory after territory - from Hong Kong to the Philippines to the Dutch East Indies - gaining access to vital resources. But by mid-1942, the tide began to shift. At the Battle of Midway, U.S. American forces dealt a major blow to Japan’s naval power. From that moment on, the Allies began their long and bloody reconquest, island by island, across the Pacific.&nbsp;&nbsp;Hiroshima and Nagasaki&nbsp;By the beginning of 1945, Japan’s position had become increasingly challenging. US forces had reached the Japanese mainland, and American bombers inflicted heavy civilian losses. In March, the firebombing of Tokyo killed at least 80,000, and possibly up to 100,000 people, in a single night.&nbsp;In August, the war reached its violent end. On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima; on August 9, another fell on Nagasaki. The destruction was immediate and total. Tens of thousands perished instantly, and many more died later from injuries and radiation exposure. These bombings remain among the most debated military decisions in history, viewed by some as a necessary step to force surrender, and by others as an unprecedented use of mass terror.&nbsp;The very day Nagasaki was bombed, the Soviet Union launched a large-scale invasion of Manchuria in China, at that time a vassal state of Japan, a development that stunned Japan’s leadership and accelerated its path to surrender.&nbsp;Japan declared its intention to capitulate on August 15, with the official signing occurring on September 2, 1945, marking the end of the Second World War. Yet in many parts of Asia, true peace was still far from reach.&nbsp;The War’s end and the rise of independence Movements&nbsp;The end of the war in Asia marked the fall of the Japanese empire, but it did not immediately bring self-determination to the region. Unlike Western Europe, where liberation often meant the restoration of national sovereignty and democracy, in Asia, the term took on a more complex meaning. “Liberation” meant the defeat of Japan, but for many, it also raised hopes of being freed from centuries of Western domination.&nbsp;Before the war, most of Asia was under some form of foreign control: India and Malaysia by the British, Indochina (now the staets of Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia) by the French, Indonesia by the Netherlands, and the Philippines by the United States of America. Japanese occupation, although brutal and exploitative, disrupted these colonial structures and, in some cases, inspired visions of a different future. As the war ended, those hopes sharpened into demands.&nbsp;For many independence activists, such as Aung San in Myanmar and Sukarno in Indonesia, the conflict provided a chance to assert their aspirations for sovereignty. They believed that with Japan’s defeat, new Asian nations could emerge in the vacuum left behind.&nbsp;However, the return of the colonial powers complicated this vision. Western governments moved swiftly to reassert control: the British reclaimed Malaysia and Hong Kong; the French returned to Indochina. These efforts to restore prewar authority triggered further unrest and violence. In many regions, independence was won only after long and brutal wars, some stretching into the 1950s and beyond.&nbsp;A New Balance of Power&nbsp;Alongside the decolonial ferment, a new global order began to take shape. In 1943, Chinese Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek joined Roosevelt and Churchill at the Cairo Conference, a moment that symbolised, for the first time, the recognition of a non-Western leader as a full partner in Allied strategy.But this recognition was quickly complicated. US relations with China deteriorated during the war, and by 1949, the Chinese Communist Party had taken control of the mainland, altering the political balance in Asia. Meanwhile, Japan, occupied from 1945 to 1952, underwent a profound transformation. Its imperial structures were dismantled, and the country was reshaped into a parliamentary democracy.&nbsp;Still, the enduring legacy of the Pacific War was not just in reshaped institutions or new alliances. It lay in the irreversible collapse of the old imperial order. The war had shattered the illusion of Western invincibility and unleashed repercussions that would redraw the political map of Asia.&nbsp;Remembering Hiroshima&nbsp;and NagasakiAs the world marks the anniversaries of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we are reminded not only of the terrifying power of the atomic bomb, but of the fragility of peace, and the deep scars left by decades of war and colonisation.&nbsp;For many in Asia, the end of World War II did not mean liberation in the Western-European sense, but a turning point that intensified the struggle to shape a future no longer defined by foreign domination.&nbsp;

Beyond Hiroshima and Nagasaki: War, Memory, and the Struggle for Independence in Asia 

From Immigration to Exclusion&nbsp;Japanese immigration to the U.S. began in the late 19th century, with many settling on the island of Hawai’i and along the West Coast. These early immigrants, known as Issei (first generation), arrived mostly to work on sugar plantations and built tight-knit communities despite facing harsh discrimination. Their children, born in the United States, were called Nisei (second generation Japanese-Americans) and were American citizens by birth.&nbsp;Despite their contributions to American society, Japanese Americans faced exclusionary laws that prevented them from owning land, denied citizenship to the Issei, and even outlawed interracial marriages. Suspicions against Japanese Americans reached their peak after the attack on U.S. naval base Pearl Harbor, carried out by the Japanese Empire’s airforce on 7 December 1941.&nbsp;Executive Order 9066 and Incarceration&nbsp;In February 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, forcibly removing around 120,000 Japanese Americans – many of them U.S. citizens – from their homes to concentration camps. Families lived in harsh conditions, surrounded by guards and barbed wire. Many lost their homes, jobs, and dignity. The government labeled the camps “relocation centers,” hiding the injustice behind euphemisms.&nbsp;Fighting for a Country That Imprisoned Them&nbsp;Despite their treatment, over 33,000 Japanese Americans served in the U.S. military. The 100th Infantry Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team fought in Italy, France, and Germany and contributed to the Allied effort of liberating Europe. Their campaigns included breaking through the German Gothic Line in Italy and rescuing the “Lost Battalion” in France. More than 30 men were killed and many more wounded during the rescue of just over 200 of these soldiers in the Vosges Mountains in the northeast of France. At the end of the campaign, the 442nd Regiment counted more than 800 casualties.&nbsp;Meanwhile, in the Pacific and Asia, the U.S. Military Intelligence Service (MIS) had a vital but secret role. Japanese American linguists translated documents, interrogated prisoners, and played a crucial role in the U.S. war effort in the Pacific. Their post-war work during the Allied occupation of Japan (2 September 1945 to 28 April 1952) helped rebuild the country and foster U.S.-Japanese relations.&nbsp;Women’s Changing Roles&nbsp;Japanese American women also contributed to the war effort. While barred from combat, some served in the U.S. Women’s Army Corps (WAC) and the Army Nurse Corps. Others supported the war from within the camps or relocated to fill labor shortages. The war forced a shift in traditional gender roles and opened up new educational and career opportunities for women.&nbsp;&nbsp;After the war&nbsp;Upon returning home, many Nisei veterans faced continued racism, vandalism, and exclusion. Yet their service helped break racial barriers. In 1952, the Issei were finally granted the right to become U.S. citizens. Later, in 1988, the U.S. government issued an official apology and paid reparations to survivors of American concentration camps during World War II. After 9/11, Japanese Americans were among the first to speak out against discrimination toward Muslim and Arab Americans, vowing that the injustices of WWII would never be repeated.&nbsp;Together with the 100th Infantry Battalion, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team became the most decorated unit in U.S. military history for its scope and length of service, a testament to the courage and dedication of these soldiers despite the discrimination they endured.Sources:&nbsp;&nbsp;<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="Hyperlink SCXW131810909 BCX8" href="https://goforbroke.org/history-in-a-minute/">History in a Minute – Go For Broke</a>&nbsp;<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="Hyperlink SCXW131810909 BCX8" href="https://encyclopedia.densho.org/Japanese_Americans_in_military_during_World_War_II/">Japanese Americans in military during World War II | Densho Encyclopedia</a>&nbsp;<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="Hyperlink SCXW131810909 BCX8" href="https://nisei-legacy-tours.com/">Nisei Legacy Tours - Home - Follow the Go for Broke spirit</a>&nbsp;<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="Hyperlink SCXW131810909 BCX8" href="https://www.100thibv.org/">100th Infantry Battalion Veterans (Club 100) | Honolulu, Hawai‘i</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;

Nisei: The Story of Japanese American Soldiers in WWII

Photo correspondents from the various Soviet republics captured the advance of the Red Army in pictures. In the exhibition, more than 50 photographs document this route at different sections of the front – from Karelia via Estonia and Lithuania, Belarus and the Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Serbia, East Prussia, Hungary, Austria and Czechoslovakia to the east of the German Reich. They show destruction and human suffering, the Majdanek concentration and extermination camp liberated by the Red Army, the march of German prisoners of war through Moscow, as well as the successive ends of the war in Bucharest, Belgrade, Katowice, Budapest, Königsberg and Danzig.The photographs of the surrender of the Wehrmacht in Berlin-Karlshorst, the victory celebrations in Leningrad and Prague and the meeting of American and Soviet soldiers and officers mark the end of the Second World War in Europe in the exhibition.

Germany

The last year of the war. June 1944-May 1945 from the perspective of Soviet war photographers

<h4>Embark on a Journey Through Time: Experience the German Occupation Like Never Before</h4>Calling all military history enthusiasts and anyone captivated by the incredible stories of resilience during the German Occupation! Begin your journey with the turbulent events leading up to May and June 1940—the fateful months when German forces arrived, forever changing life on the Islands. Witness the transformation of this peaceful landscape into a critical stronghold bristling with fortifications, and understand how the occupation left a lasting impact on both the land and its people.<h4>Tour Highlights</h4>This immersive experience takes you to some of the most iconic and significant sites of the German Occupation:<ul><li>Batterie Moltke and MP3, Les Landes, Saint Ouen: Explore this powerful coastal battery and its preserved history.</li><li>The Channel Islands Military Museum: Discover rare artifacts and poignant stories within this rich repository of wartime history.</li><li>Sechsschartentürme, Resistance Nest La Mare Mill, Saint Ouen: Witness these imposing towers of defense.</li><li>Strongpoint Corbiere, La Corbière Point, St. Brelade: Marvel at the intricate engineering and strategic importance of this stronghold.</li><li>Batterie Lothringen, Noirmont Point, Saint Brelade: Walk among the remnants of this formidable battery.</li><li>4.7cm Anti-Tank Gun Casemate, Millbrook, Saint Lawrence: Step into this chilling reminder of wartime ingenuity.</li></ul>All entrance fees to the Military Museum are included, and interior bunker access fees will be collected on the day, should access be available.<h4>Tailored Just for You</h4>As a private tour, this experience is crafted entirely around your schedule and interests. Simply visit our website, select the Full Day tour option, and note “German Bunkers &amp; Fortifications” in the special requests box. Explore available dates on our calendar, or contact us directly for additional options.<h4>More Than a Tour: A Living Experience</h4>At History Alive and Jersey Military Tours, we believe in making history come alive. Each tour is designed to provide a rich, engaging, and flexible experience. Routes and stops may vary, ensuring every tour is tailored to weather conditions, timing, and your interests.<ul><li>Lunch Stops: Full-day tours include breaks at local spots where you can purchase refreshments and food.</li><li>Comfort First: We’ll ensure there’s time for comfort breaks and refreshments throughout your journey.</li></ul>Don’t just read about history—live it. Join us for a once-in-a-lifetime exploration of the Channel Islands’ German Occupation and uncover the stories that shaped our world.Visit our website today to learn more and book your tour. Your adventure into the past awaits!

Jersey

German Bunkers & Fortifications Tour

The exhibition The Underground Camera is inspired by the celebrations of Amsterdam’s 750th anniversary and 80 years of liberation. With their photographs, The Underground Camera group made a significant contribution to the image of the Second World War. The photographers were recruited by members of the resistance, with the aim of informing the Dutch government in London. They worked independently and under the dangerous conditions of an occupied city, with hard-to-obtain, often poor-quality equipment. The exhibition provides an impressive picture of the consequences of hunger and cold in the dismantled Amsterdam at the end of the war.The group of photographers included Cas Oorthuys, Emmy Andriesse, Charles Breijer, Kryn Taconis, and Ad Windig, among others.The exhibition will be opened on Thursday 1&nbsp;May by the mayor of Amsterdam Femke Halsema. Join us from 17.30 until&nbsp;21.00 hrs for this celebratory event at Foam. Learn more: <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.foam.org/events/opening-ondergedoken-camera">Opening The Underground Camera | Foam: all about photography</a>

The Netherlands

The Underground Camera

Interview with multimedia artist  Natalia Grezina

Today, on the 80th anniversary, people gather at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park to remember one of the most devastating choices of the Second World War. Designed by architect Kenzō Tange, the park honors the countless lives lost and forever changed, and carries a message to the future: No more Hiroshimas. No more war. 🕊️ Join us in remembering, and in committing to peace.

Commemorate the end of WWII – 80 years later

Featured events

The last year of the war. June 1944-May 1945 from the perspective of Soviet war photographers

German Bunkers & Fortifications Tour

The Underground Camera

Our videos

Interview with multimedia artist Natalia Grezina

Hiroshima, 80 years later

Blog

Why August 15 Matters [Article written and kindly shared by the Dutch National Committee for 4 and 5 May]

Beyond Hiroshima and Nagasaki: War, Memory, and the Struggle for Independence in Asia

Nisei: The Story of Japanese American Soldiers in WWII

Register your event on Europe Remembers