Dr. Jerry Sanson
Louisiana Maneuvers and Military Museum Staff
President Harry Truman welcomed guests including his wife and daughter, Bess and Margaret, members of his cabinet, high-ranking British and American military officers, and leaders of the House and Senate, along with White House reporters to his office on his 61st birthday, May 8, 1945. The day was a celebration, but not just of his nativity. He was there to announce the news to the American peope in a radio broadcast that Germany had surrendered and to issue his official proclamation recognizing the end of World War II in Europe.
The press conference portion of the event started at 8:35 a.m., but Truman cautioned reporters that the message was not to be released to the public until 9:00 a.m. eastern war time and especially emphasized that the content of two ancillary messages absolutely be kept private until that time. One of these was a message to Japan warning that now that the war in Europe was over, “We are going to be in a position where we can turn the greatest war machine in the history of the world loose on the Japanese.” The other was a message of congratulations to General Dwight Eisenhower and his troops in Europe.
Truman first lamented the absence of President Franklin Roosevelt, commander-in-chief until his death less than a month before. He remembered American casualties and their families—those “whose most priceless possession has been rendered as a sacrifice to redeem our liberty.” He acknowledged his thanks to God, urged his listeners to work until the rest of the job was completed in the Pacific, and then read aloud Presidential Proclamation No. 2651:
“The Allied armies, through sacrifice and devotion and with God’s help, have wrung from Germany a final and unconditional surrender. The western world has been freed of the evil forces which for five years and longer have imprisoned the bodies and broken the lives of millions upon millions of free-born men. They have violated their churches, destroyed their homes, corrupted their children, and murdered their loved ones. Our Armies of Liberation have restored freedom to these suffering peoples, whose spirit and will the oppressors could never enslave.
“Much remains to be done. The victory won in the West must now be won in the East. The whole world must be cleansed of the evil from which half the world has been freed. United, the peace-loving nations have demonstrated in the West that their arms are stronger by far than the might of the dictators or the tyranny of military cliques that once called us soft and weak. [Reporters recorded that the President chuckled after he finished this statement and then continued his reading aloud.] The power of our peoples to defend themselves against all enemies will be proved in the Pacific war as it has been proved in Europe.
“For the triumph of spirit and of arms which we have won, and for its promise to the peoples everywhere who join us in the love of freedom, it is fitting that we, as a nation, give thanks to Almighty God, who has strengthened us and given us the victory.
“Now, therefore, I, Harry S. Truman, President of the United States of America, do hereby appoint Sunday, May 13, 1945, to be a day of prayer.
“I call upon the people of the United States, whatever their faith, to unite in offering joyful thanks to God for the victory we have won, and to pray that He will support us to the end of our present struggle and guide us into the ways of peace.
“I also call upon my countrymen to dedicate this day of prayer to the memory of those who have given their lives to make possible our victory.
“In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States of America to be affixed.”
