WHILE victory in Europe was declared in May 1945, British and Commonwealth soldiers continued to fight Japanese forces across Asia and the Pacific until August. It wasn’t until Victory over Japan (VJ) Day that the Second World War finally came to an end in the Far East. This year, we marked the 80th anniversary of VJ Day.

On August 15 I attended two commemoration services. The first was a 9am flag-raising ceremony in Falmouth. The second took place at the Burma Memorial in Portscatho, a beautiful site overlooking the beach and right out to sea.

Despite the sweltering afternoon, many gathered at The Lugger to honour those who served, and those who fell, in the Burma Campaign. The stone memorial stands proudly thanks to James Allan, a Portscatho resident and former company commander in the 2nd Battalion Green Howards who served in Burma and witnessed the bodies of comrades left without proper burials. In their memory, he established this lasting tribute.

Attached to the wall near the memorial were the names of 26,380 individuals who died in the Burma Campaign with no known place of rest. The youngest among them was just 15. The oldest, 51. They were all younger than I am now when they died. The average age was only 23. The trauma that two consecutive generations went through and lived with the shadow of for the rest of their lives, often unspoken, is shattering.

What happened as a result of those two world wars and the preservation of the memory of them has helped to keep the spectre of full-blown war in Europe at bay for a long time. Now the ground has shifted. The first duty of a Leader is to keep their country safe. We know from the bitter experience of our grandparents what happens when the security of Europe is breached and the situation in Ukraine is too loud an echo to ignore. The Prime Minister is right to lead from the front with other European allies, to support the integrity of Ukraine and President Zelenskyy in Washington last week. He is also right to repair the holes caused by 14 years of Conservative cuts to our military. Military spending hasn’t been at 2.5 per cent of GDP since the last Labour government and the lead this Prime Minister is taking in international diplomacy needs a military commitment to match. Europe needs to be able to secure its borders into an uncertain future.

People question on my social media why we commemorate VJ Day, VE Day, D Day as well as Remembrance Day in November. Part of it is to remember that trauma. Every year we are losing the people who can remember. We must take on their memories and remember for them. The horror of what war in Europe can lead to must never be forgotten for the human impact it had, and for the people who had to give up almost their entire generation to stop it.