Veterans Commemorate 70th Anniversary of Allied Victory Over Imperial Japan at WWII Memorial (photos)

On Sept. 2 1945, Imperial Japan formerly surrendered to the Allied Powers aboard the battleship USS Missouri, marking the end of World War II.

Exactly 70 years later, veterans of that global conflict gathered at the National World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., for a solemn wreath-laying ceremony. The event was sponsored by the Friends of the National World War II Memorial and the National Park Service. World War II veteran and former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole was the featured keynote speaker. Lt. Dole was badly wounded by German machine gun fire in Italy in 1945. During the ceremony, Dole joked that he was running for president in 2016.

Among those who participated in the wreath laying were Robert Kenneth Kaufman, 95, of McLean Virginia, who witnessed the surrender of Japan on the deck of the USS Missouri. Another wreath layer, Abe Levin saw service as a lieutenant in the Soviet Army. Andrew Henry Abugelis, 92, saw action on the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown, where he served as a plane handler. Bill Schrader, one of the youngest participants at age 89, was an Army Air Corps B-24 gunner serving in the Pacific. George Carroll, age 96, of Falls Church, Virginia, was a Coast Guard ensign aboard the USCG cutter Taney during the Battle of Okinawa, where he witnessed a Kamikaze pilot hit another ship close by his.

Ernest J. Yamartino, Sr., who enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps on June 14, 1944, is pictured proudly holding a photo of himself in uniform, age 19. He was involved in some of the heaviest fighting in Okinawa and was poised to take part in the invasion of Japan when he received news of the surrender. After the ceremony, Yamartino was surrounded by part of his extensive family of six children, 13 grandchildren and six great grandchildren.

Then, there was Frank B. Yanick, Sr. After graduating from high school in 1940, Yanick enlisted in the U.S. Navy and spent five years on the USS Phoenix with a total of six years of service. Yanick participated in more than 25 different engagements, including the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Guadalcanal campaign, the Battle of Leyte Gulf and the Battle of Surigao Strait. Yanick’s initial duty on the Phoenix was the “trigger man” on a five-inch anti-aircraft battery.

The debt America owes to these and other members of “The Greatest Generation” is incalculable.

View our photos of the ceremony by clicking on the photo icons below. (All photos by Jeff Malet).