COMMUNITIES throughout the Tyne Valley commemorated the 75th anniversary of Victory over Japan (VJ) Day on Saturday.

Wark and District RBL, together with other villagers, attended a ceremony at Wark's war memorial.

The Standard was paraded and, after the Exhortation was spoken, lowered during observation of the two minute silence after which it was raised and the Kohima Epitaph was recited.

In Corbridge, a short ceremony by the lychgate war memorial entrance to St Andrew’s Church was followed by a lowering of the Standard, a two minute silence at 11am and then a wreath laying.

North-East charity Daft as a Brush Cancer Patient Care held a celebration event at Gosforth, with charity founder Brian Burnie, who is currently on a 7,000 mile trek around the British Isles, welcoming centenarian Len Gibson, a Far East War veteran as star guest.

It is only three months since VE Day was widely celebrated, but VJ Day marks the true end of the Second World War and also marks the point at which much suffering by Commonwealth soldiers and the local populations of Far East countries could be relieved.

It was some time before fighting soldiers, and those taken earlier as POWs, were returned home by which time much of the celebrations had finished and the euphoria dissipated; they could very well have felt part of the ‘Forgotten’ war.