Take your place to commemorate 80th anniversary of VJ Day, RBL urges WW2 veterans

The Royal British Legion has called on Second World War veterans who served in the Far East to be part of the commemorations to mark VJ Day's 80th anniversary.

The UK government and the charity have collaborated to host a service at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire on VJ Day on 15 August, the RBL has announced.

It comes as new research commissioned by the RBL revealed there are around 8,000 Second World War veterans in their late 90s and early 100s in England and Wales.

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Veterans who fought in the Far East and the Pacific and their families on their behalf have been invited to register with the organisation to join the commemorations.

"The 80th anniversary of VJ Day is likely to be one of the last opportunities as a nation to thank those veterans still with us today for their service and sacrifice," Mark Atkinson, RBL's director general, said.

"We now have a better understanding of how many Second World War veterans are left, and it is more important than ever that we pay tribute whilst they are still with us."

Mr Atkinson added that the nation needs to unite as they did when they marked VE Day's 80th anniversary earlier in the year.

The RBL said that the veterans included are those who served in Myanmar in the Pacific and Indian Ocean territories, those who were prisoners of war throughout the region and veterans stationed in the UK or Commonwealth countries who contributed to the logistical and intelligence war effort in the Far East.

The latest research, which was commissioned to coincide with the 80th anniversaries of the Second World War, said that the number of World War Two veterans is likely to reduce to fewer than 300 within a decade.

The thousands of WW2 veterans are aged between 98 and 110, according to the research.

One of those veterans, Owen Filer, who served with the British forces in India on VJ Day, will attend the service.

"This is a significant moment for my generation and for all those who served out there and back home before Japan surrendered," the 105-year-old said.

"It will be an honour to be with the Royal British Legion and fellow veterans 80 years after the world went through so much, and to remember those who never made it back."

He encouraged other veterans to register to go to the service.

Veterans of the Far East campaigns, or their families or carers on their behalf, can register on the RBL's website to attend the VJ Day 80 Service of Remembrance here.

VJ Day marks the anniversary on 15 August 1945 when Japan announced its surrender to the Allied forces after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, effectively ending the Second World War.

During World War Two, around five million men and women served in the British Armed Forces, with millions more mobilised from countries including pre-partition India, Canada, and Australia.