My parents always reminded us growing up that August 14 was the end of WWII, the day Japan had surrendered. I almost forgot about it until I just looked at the date on the computer as I made my internet rounds before I went to bed. For my parents this a very important date, and they wanted us to understand how it shaped their lives.
My mother said that day everyone was waiting to hear if Japan was going to surrender. The two atomic bombs had been dropped the week before and Japan was given an ultimatum to surrender or we would drop more. My dad was on Saipan so my mother was glued to the radio for days. She was listening to WKDKA from Pittsburg because that was the big station in her area, helping with the clean up after dinner when the news came from CBS New York. She and her sisters dropped everything they were doing and jumped in the Dairy truck and headed to town to celebrate. My grandparents had a dairy and vegetable farm. Gas was rationed then so they only used the dairy truck because they made daily deliveries with it and was able to have more gas for it.