{"id":346046,"date":"2025-08-15T08:19:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T08:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/346046\/"},"modified":"2025-08-15T08:19:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T08:19:10","slug":"lone-piper-plays-at-edinburgh-castle-to-mark-80th-anniversary-of-vj-day-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/346046\/","title":{"rendered":"Lone piper plays at Edinburgh Castle to mark 80th anniversary of VJ Day"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Your support helps us to tell the story<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 cKWiEj\">From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it&#8217;s investigating the financials of Elon Musk&#8217;s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, &#8216;The A Word&#8217;, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 cKWiEj\">At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 cKWiEj\">The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.<\/p>\n<p><strong class=\"sc-1uza6dc-1 huxBsk\">Your support makes all the difference.<\/strong>Read more<\/p>\n<p>A lone piper has played on the battlements of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/edinburgh-castle\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Edinburgh Castle<\/a> to commemorate the 80th anniversary of VJ Day, which marked the end of the Second World War.<\/p>\n<p>Senior Pipe Major Peter Grant was one of six armed forces bagpipers playing simultaneously at locations in the UK and east <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/asia\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Asia<\/a> on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>The pipers all played the traditional tune When The Battle\u2019s O\u2019er, and a wreath was laid at the Japanese Garden of Peace in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/hammersmith\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Hammersmith<\/a>, London.<\/p>\n<p>Two other UK pipers played at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire and the Cenotaph in London.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the three pipers in east Asia played at the British Army camp in Kathmandu, Nepal, the Royal Gurkha Rifles Memorial in Brunei, and on board aircraft carrier <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/hms-prince-of-wales\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">HMS Prince of Wales<\/a>, which is currently at sea in the Far East.<\/p>\n<p>Other events to mark the 80th anniversary of VJ Day are also taking place on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>A national two-minute silence will be held at noon and the Red Arrows will join historic Spitfire and Hurricane aircraft for a flypast over the commemorations at the National Memorial Arboretum.<\/p>\n<p>A number of public buildings around the UK are also set to be lit up on Friday evening.<\/p>\n<p>Sites in Scotland will include Stirling Castle, Scone Palace, Ness Bridge, the Kelpies, Glasgow Bridge, Hamilton Town House and Edinburgh City Chambers.<\/p>\n<p>By 1945, some 365,000 British and 1.5 million <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/commonwealth\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Commonwealth<\/a> troops had been deployed across Asia and the Pacific.<\/p>\n<p>More than 90,000 British troops were casualties in the war against Japan, and nearly 30,000 died, while more than 12,000 Britons were among the 190,000 Commonwealth troops held as prisoners of war by the Japanese.<\/p>\n<p>Of the Allied forces, the US suffered the greatest losses, with more than 100,000 killed in action.<\/p>\n<p>In an audio message released at 7.30am on Friday, the King paid tribute to the \u201ccourage and camaraderie\u201d of those who fought in the Pacific and Far East in what he said was \u201chumanity\u2019s darkest hour\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>He also acknowledged the hardships suffered by \u201cinnocent civilian populations of occupied territories\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTheir experience reminds us that war\u2019s true cost extends beyond battlefields, touching every aspect of life \u2013 a tragedy all too vividly demonstrated by conflicts around the world today,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn this landmark anniversary, we should also pause to acknowledge that in the war\u2019s final act, an immense price was paid by the citizens of Hiroshima and Nagasaki \u2013 a price we pray no nation need ever pay again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added: \u201cBut in recalling so much suffering, we must not lose sight of how great was the cause and how sweet the victory.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":346047,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,1102,4884,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-346046","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-edinburgh","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-scotland","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115031806586734662","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}