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| Japanese surrender ceremony |
interesting ironic flavor. August 15, 1945, as all pre-Baby Boomers probably know, was the day that Japan announced its surrender to the Allies, marking the end of the most devastating war in world history (because of the time difference, it was actually August 14 in the United States). Unlike many other conflicts, World War II, from an Anglo-American point of view at least, was straightforward. It was a reluctant fight by western democracies, against totalitarian tyranny. 
August 15, 1969 was the opening day of the Famous Woodstock Music & Art Fair, billed as "An Aquarian 
Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music". It occurred at the height of the Vietnam War protest movement. Generally, but certainly not universally, the World War II veterans (the parents of most of the Woodstock participants), opposed the anti-war movement and couldn't or wouldn't understand the "hippies" that the 500,000 festival attendees represented.
The irony, of course, is that those brave men and women whose generation sacrificed so much blood and treasure in the 1940s did so to preserve the very freedoms that Woodstock represented - freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, and freedom to be the individuals they chose to be. How many of either group understood that relationship on that rainy August weekend in 1969? Whether they did then, hopefully we can today, and savor both events as great American moments.
August 15, 1969 was the opening day of the Famous Woodstock Music & Art Fair, billed as "An Aquarian 
Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music". It occurred at the height of the Vietnam War protest movement. Generally, but certainly not universally, the World War II veterans (the parents of most of the Woodstock participants), opposed the anti-war movement and couldn't or wouldn't understand the "hippies" that the 500,000 festival attendees represented. 
The irony, of course, is that those brave men and women whose generation sacrificed so much blood and treasure in the 1940s did so to preserve the very freedoms that Woodstock represented - freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, and freedom to be the individuals they chose to be. How many of either group understood that relationship on that rainy August weekend in 1969? Whether they did then, hopefully we can today, and savor both events as great American moments.
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