Mayor Rakhia Ismail joined army, police and council representatives along with families of veterans at Islington Green

VICTORY over Japan (VJ) Day was marked on Saturday in Islington with representatives from the army, council and the family of veterans attending a service at the war memorial in Angel.

Up to 30 members of the Islington Veterans’ Association gathered at 10.30am in Islington Green, joined by mayor Rakhia Ismail and the deputy lieutenant of Islington Dr Charles Goodson-Wickes, who both laid wreaths.

The ceremony began at 10.55 am and included the Last Post, a two-minute silence and Reveille.

It is estimated that there were 71,000 British and Commonwealth casualties of the war against Japan, including more than 12,000 prisoners of war who died in Japanese captivity.

More than 2.5 million Japanese military personnel and civilians are believed to have died over the course of the conflict.

Peter McCafferty, pageantmaster, said: “I am reminded that the words always used at the end of the two minutes’ silence come from the inscription on the monument to the fallen at Kohima in India during the invasion by Japan in April 1944: ‘When you go home tell them of us and say, For your tomorrow we gave our today.’

“We are full of gratitude and admiration for the ultimate sacrifice shown by so many in such awful conditions to secure the 75 years of ‘tomorrows’ we have known of freedom and peace.”