80th anniversary of VJ Day marked at Belfast Cathedral

Friday August 15th 2025

Dean Stephen Forde leads the VJ Day commemoration in Belfast Cathedral.

An Act of Remembrance was held in Belfast Cathedral at 12 noon on Friday August 15 to mark the 80^th anniversary of VJ Day.

Led by the Dean of Belfast, the Very Rev Stephen Forde, the service coincided with a special British Legion service at the National Arboretum, in Staffordshire, attended by the King and Queen.

Canon Raymond Fox at the VJ80 commemoration service in Belfast Cathedral.

The Act of Remembrance in St Anne’s Cathedral commemorated the final ending of the Second World War with the unconditional surrender of Japan on August 15 1945. It was held next to the Burma Star Association commemorative mosaic, with the Burma Star Association Standard.

Dean Forde said: “While VE Day on May 8 1945 marked the end of fighting in Europe, many from these shores engaged in further intense battles in Burma and the Far East. Others endured the appalling conditions of the Japanese Prisoner of War Camps until the surrender of Japan on August 15.

“For many of those posted to the Far East, it would be up to a year before they finally returned home to Northern Ireland.”

The simple service, he said, remembered ‘the suffering of all those who served from these shores in Burma, the Far East and in the Pacific.’