50 Years Later, O.C. Veterans Recall the Glory of V-J Day

Margie Leal remembers Aug. 14, 1945, as the day that Americans began smiling again.

Fifty years later, Leal, a retired aircraft worker and Garden Grove resident, remembers the unconstrained joy of her family and neighbors when word flashed across the Pacific that the Japanese government had surrendered to the United States, bringing an end to World War II.

“It was so unexpected. It happened so fast. We lived in Santa Maria, and a lot of families in our neighborhood had boys in the military,” said Leal, 67. “My mother started crying because my brother, John, would be coming home alive. My dad was at work, but she got all of us together, and we walked to church to give thanks.”

V-J Day symbolized both the end of World War II and the beginning of the transformation of Orange County from a predominantly rural area of orange groves and bean fields dotted with occasional oil wells to a bedroom community of Los Angeles. The booming Southern California economy that followed lured hundreds of thousands of people such as Leal to the county.

But while many Orange County residents old enough to remember the war have vivid memories of V-J Day, the day has been obscured by the passage of time for others. The official surrender took place about two weeks later, on Sept. 1.

“Those of us who lived through World War II refer to it as The War, said Tina Urone, a retired English teacher from Irvine. “It was an interesting and exciting time, but we were all very happy when it was over.”

Urone, 74, was a staff sergeant in the Women’s Marine Corps in San Diego when Japan surrendered. She remembers hopping into a convertible with another female Marine and two male Marines and driving downtown, where they joined a raucous celebration.

“Everyone was dancing and screaming with joy. We danced and screamed too. Afterward we did other things, but I don’t think I can mention them,” she said with a chuckle.

Former Costa Mesa Mayor Jack Hammett, 75, was a Navy corpsman who survived the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor. He was at the naval base at Port Hueneme when Japan surrendered. But Hammett said he cannot remember a thing about that day.

“Toward the end of the war, all of us were anticipating with dread the invasion of Japan,” Hammett said. “I’m sure I was overjoyed that the war was over, but try as I may, I can’t remember anything about V-J Day. For most of us, V-J Day meant that we had outlived the war. Everyone knew that invading Japan would be like the battles of Stalingrad and Berlin--long, drawn-out and bloody. It would’ve been carnage.”

Kay Van Hook, who retired from the Orange County Planning Department, was a Marine corporal at Camp Pendleton when Japan capitulated. When told of the surrender, Van Hook, now 75, and other Marines went to a recreation area on base and celebrated.

“We had beer and snacks, and everybody was quite jubilant. But everybody, especially the women, was wondering what was going to happen now that the war had ended,” she said. “There was going to be a big change in our lives.”

Van Hook, a Santa Ana resident, said she was proud of the role played by female Marines during the war. “We joined to free a Marine to fight. So many of us joined that there were enough men available to form the 6th Division. There would not have been a 6th Division were it not for the women in the Corps,” she said.

The Marine 6th Division had been chosen to join the Army invasion of Japan, which was planned for late 1945.

Many World War II veterans and Americans who lived through the three-year war do not question President Harry S. Truman’s decision to drop the atom bomb on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

“Its use was legitimate,” Hammett said. “You can’t really understand the relief that we felt when we learned about the bomb. You can’t appreciate how we felt unless you’ve been in combat. The country was tired of war and American boys getting killed. None of us wanted to die.”

Leal said she is angered by historians who question whether it was necessary to use the atom bomb on Japan.

“My brother was still in the Pacific and another brother was waiting to be drafted. They are both alive. I’m not sure they would still be here if the war had dragged on for another year,” she said.