Now that the 70th anniversary of both of those events has come and gone, I'm moved to comment about August 14, 1945, in Detroit. That morning had a pretty good rainfall, and the early afternoon found me in the alley behind 12316 Sorrento with my model PT boat [[No, not Kennedy's, he was still unknown then) pushing it through all the neat puddles the rain had left behind. Just as I was about to push it in to some Jap island [[yes, the term "Jap" was not politically incorrect back then) to win it for our guys, I heard Mom out front hollering like I never heard before. I called back to her, and she came running into the alley with the most wonderous smile on her face I had ever seen. "The war is over!!! The war is over!!!" she shouted over and over. My nine-year old brain had a tough time comprehending at first, but then joy overtook me as I thought my older brother might be coming home.

"Hurry!" she commanded, "We're going downtown to celebrate!". Aunt Gretel had quickly made a poster for the back of Dad's 1940 Chevy,"We Hit the Jap Pot". I thought it was cute then. I still do today.

Five of us jumped in the car; Mom, Dad, Auntie, me, and my kid brother, Dave, all long gone but me. Over to Grand River, alongside the Tower Theatre, and a right turn towards downtown. Every car horn was honking. To this day, I never heard anything more like it. Moving towards downtown, by the time we hit Livernois, all six lanes of Grand River were heading southeast. I wonder to this day what some poor soul did, trying to get out to Redford or points northwest.

The confetti was everywhere. Every car had people hanging out every window possible, cheering, yelling, screaming, and....yeah....kissing. Although I wasn't much into that at the time.

It must have taken an hour for us to get from Livernois to Joy Road....I remember that because that was where the Riviera Theatre was. By then, Grand River was bumper to bumper with immobile autos, although no one really cared. The celebration was absolutely enormous. [[My wife remember that she was vacationing at Island Lake in Oakland County, and her folks took the car into Brighton for a small, although just as enthusiastic, celebration).

Finally, after no moving for a good 30 minutes, Dad was able to turn west onto Joy Road, where he found a Greek restaurant, and took us all to dinner. That was special, because in those days we NEVER went to a restaurant for dinner! Mom, Dad, and Auntie had a beer; brother Dave and I had a root beer. All ate well, as I recall.

Anyway, the war was over, thank God. Auntie's husband, Uncle Harold, and my older brother, Rudy, came home in one piece, both saying they had been re-deployed and ready for the Honshu Invasion. The nuclear bomb, horrible as it was, prevented even more horrible bloodshed of Japanese and Allied lives. I suspect there would have been 2 million casualties had that taken place.

Yes, America and its allies won the war. More importantly, we helped to re-build both Germany and Japan in the years that followed. I don't think Hitler and/or Tojo would have been anywhere near so kind.

God bless America.