Rhode Island is the only state that honors the anniversary of the end of World War II with a legal holiday, according to WPRI.
The holiday was established in 1948, making this the 75th year Rhode Island will honor the holiday. Currently, the legal name of the holiday is “Victory Day.”
However, Representative Jennifer Stewart of District 59 in Pawtucket has plans to rename the holiday. She introduced Bill 5452 on February 8, proposing to rename the holiday to “Peace and Remembrance Day.”
According to Robert Watt, an organizer on the committee to rename the holiday, the reason Rhode Island still honors the holiday is because approximately one in 10 Rhode Islanders fought in World War II.
“Because of the proportion, it’s always been felt that the celebration of the peace on conditional surrender by the emperor on August 14 could be remembered because of the losses of life of comrades who fought in the ‘Great War,’” Watt said.
Stewart said that the goal of the name change would be to promote peace in the community. According to the WPRI article, the holiday has only ever legally been named “Victory Day.” However, the holiday has had nicknames that provide the message of victory over other countries who were involved in the war that sometimes invoked prejudiced ideas.
“Although officially referred to as ‘Victory Day’ since 1948, this R.I. holiday has often been known popularly as ‘VJ Day’ or ‘Victory over Japan Day’ given the proximity of the holiday’s date (the second Monday of August) to the use of the atomic bombs on Japan (August 6 and 9, 1945) and the announcement of Japan’s surrender (August 15, 1945),” Bill 5452 states. “The association with ‘Victory over Japan’ persists, despite the State’s efforts and resistance.”
According to Stewart, renaming the holiday “Peace and Remembrance Day” allows for the remembrance of the hard work of veterans, while taking away from the idea of “militarism.”
In order for the bill to be passed into law, it has to go through a hearing and then it must be approved by the committee. The hearing took place on April 5 and according to Watts, there were about 60 pieces of written testimony submitted, and of those 60, approximately 57 testimonies were in favor of the bill.
According to both Stewart and Watts, they don’t expect much pushback on the bill, however, they said that if there were to be any controversy over the bill, they predict it will be from veterans who have an affinity for the holiday due to their service for their country.
“They have a great amount of personal pride having been on the winning side of that ‘Great War,’” Watts said. “And we don’t mean to demean that service in any respect whatsoever…if you told all the veterans ‘do you want peace or do you want war?’ they’d all say peace.”
Stewart said that she still proposes the holiday be patriotic and represent the ideals of the sacrifices that were given by all people who were involved in the war. The committee asks for the support of the public. For more information, the bill is available to the public online.