Buckingham Palace has announced that the King will address the nation next week to commemorate the 80th anniversary of VJ Day.
King Charles has already recorded an audio message that will air on August 15, the date marking Japan’s surrender to the Allies after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, effectively ending the Second World War.
The broadcast will precede a remembrance service attended by the King and Queen, Second World War veterans, and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire.
The ceremony, to be televised live by the BBC, will honour all who served in the Asia-Pacific theatre, such as Burma Star recipients, British Indian Army veterans, ex-prisoners of war, and those who fought in decisive battles like Kohima and Imphal in India.
Hosted by the Royal British Legion with Government support, the event will feature the King and his wife laying floral tributes alongside other senior dignitaries.
A national two-minute silence will end with an aerial display by the Red Arrows, and the service will close with a flypast from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight before the King and Queen join veterans at a reception.
While Charles and Camilla attend the National Memorial Arboretum, the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh will take part in a service at the Scottish National War Memorial at Edinburgh Castle, organised by Royal British Legion Scotland.
Meanwhile, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester will join the congregation at the Far East Prisoners of War VJ Day 80th Anniversary Service at Norwich Cathedral, before attending a second memorial dedicated to the Children and Families of Far East Prisoners of War in Suffolk.
Before VJ Day, Sophie will meet Second World War veteran Jim Wren, who served aboard HMS Repulse when he was captured and detained on the Indonesian island of Sumatra until the war’s end.
Commemorations for the 80th anniversary of VJ Day will conclude later in the autumn with a veterans’ reception at Windsor Castle.
