Sixty-four years ago today, the  Japanese  surrendered and New York erupted in a frenzy of joyous celebration.   Strangers kissed  strangers and  strangers together mourned  and remembered their losses.
     In a world  now where the big question is ‘What’s the New New?’ nobody thinks much about World War Two anymore. Unless , of course, a Spielberg or Tarantino make a  movie about it.
        In a touching article in The New York Times  today,  veteran Albert Perdeck talks about how traumatized he still is by the memories he has from the war – and how he has struggled to get anyone to pay attention to remembering this date: August 14, 1945 — otherwise known as VJ-Day.
      The  retired postal worker, who fought in the Pacific, and now lives in  New Jersey, told The New York Times: ” Attention Must Be Paid.”   He told ‘The Times’  he can still hear the cries of his fellow soldiers who were wounded, lost, mutilated.   He was only 19 during that war. Now he’s 84.  He can still see the mangled bodies of friends and fellow soldiers, he says  – and those he killed. 
         So — for Albert Perdeck — and all the other forgotten soldiers. Let us remember…..