80 years since VJ Day

Today marks 80 years since the announcement by Emperor Hirohito, in the first time a Japanese monarch had ever broadcast on the radio, of his country's surrender to the Allies, although the formal signing of the surrender did not take place until 2 September.

The Pacific War was just as ugly and brutal as the European one. Japanese war crimes are not as well known as German ones in the West, mainly because they happened to non-white people. The Allies may have been the good guys, but there was a strong strain of racism in their propaganda - not to mention their treatment of Japanese Americans.

It says a lot that Japan is a changed country, a cultural and technological powerhouse, viewed much more positively than 80 years ago. Because there is such a thing as magnamity in victory and we applied it to Japan - not to mention Germany and Italy.

At the end of the day, after a war is over, you have to live with these people again unless you destroy them completely - at massive cost to your own souls for one thing. Something that many people would do well to remember.

Unfortunately, with rising militarism around the world, I fear we might see another massive war in my lifetime.

I hope and pray this is not the case.

The Greatest Gathering - or that's a lot of trains

As you may already know, 2025 marks the 200th anniversary of the opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, the first public railway that used steam engines. As a result, a large number of events are taking place around the country to mark what is called "Railway 200".

One of the highlights of this anniversary year, clearly marked as such from when it was first advertised, was The Greatest Gathering, taking place at the Alstom train works in Derby from 1 to 3 August.

The coat of arms of the city of Derby

It most definitely lived up to the name, with the number of items of rolling stock going into three figures. I was there from around 11.30am to just before closing time and I still didn't get to see anything.

Many others will have covered this in their own articles, so I will just show some of my pictures with some of my own comments.

There was a heritage bus service running to the station with vintage vehicles from around the country, but I didn't get this.

These two were from The Cab Yard, a museum under development near Swansea. The 442 cab in the left is a cab simulator, but this required booking and was full up for the day.

Locomotive present ranged from 1825's Locomotion No.1 to...

The brand new Class 93 from Stadler, a tri-mode locomotive (25kV overhead, diesel engine, battery)

Making its "debut" here - the Watercress Line's recently acquired Class 150, in a Regional Railways vinyl livery. This is the first of the "Sprinter" family to enter preservation and probably not the last.

HST power cars were rather prevalent - the yard near Derby station also had a bunch of them.

There's a lot more that I could share. It was definitely a highly memorable day and a testament to the skill of everyone involved that it came off.

Looking for those cruise missiles - a visit to Greenham Common

It's said that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Well, the road to nuclear annihilation is paved with the same stuff most British roads are paved with.

Had the Cold War (maybe the First Cold War now?) ever gone hot, then 24 vehicles, each armed with four nuclear cruise missiles, would have come down this road and made their way to pre-planned launch sites in the Berkshire countryside, ready for orders to launch weapons on targets in the Soviet bloc.

Greenham Common is of one of the most well-known sites to British students of the Cold War period. This one-time RAF base played host to American nuclear bombers like the B-47 Stratojet, but is best remembered from being one of the two locations that hosted BGM-109G Gryphon cruise missiles in the 1980s.

(The other, RAF Molesworth, is still an active facility)

Known simply as Cruise to many or the GLCM (Ground Launched Cruise Missile or "glick-em"), the Gryphon was the Tomahawk's land-based cousin, developed and deployed as a response to the Soviet deployment of the RT-21M/SS-20 'Saber' intermediate-range ballistic missile, capable of nuking pretty much anywhere in Europe from well within the USSR in under 15 minutes.

While the Gryphon was by no means as fast as that, its ability to fly long distances at low altitudes using terrain matching systems to keep on course meant that the Soviet Union ended up seeing it as a potential first-strike weapon. They invested considerable amounts of time, money and energy looking for evidence of a planned US first strike.

The presence of the Gryphon at any rate was controversial to put it mildly. Anti-nuclear Peace Camps, eventually women-only were set up outside the entrances to Greenham Common to protest and disrupt operations on the site. 

This included breaking into the control tower and reading all the emergency situation documents and writing on the pages to confirm this. When base security didn't show up for five-and-a-half hours, the women started turning the lights on-and-off to get them to show up, because if they just left, the Ministry of Defence would deny it.

A "battle" between the USAF, the police and many locals on one side, with the protestors on the other ensued. Rocks were thrown, statements were cooked up, fences were cut and it became rather difficult for the missile unit to do any exercises outside the base because protestors kept turning up. In the event of an actual war, I suspect those women might have dealt with in a much more lethal way.

Eventually, the INF Treaty of 1987 saw the missiles removed in 1991 for destruction and the base closed shortly afterwards.

I think all the double entendres have been used here (Review: 'Star Trek' 3.23, "All Our Yesterdays")

I spent five years as a pupil librarian at school, but I never encountered one that acted like Mr Atoz.

This post contains spoilers for Strange New Worlds.

Capital Ring Section 2, Green Chain Section 8a/9/9a

Storm Floris mainly hit the north of the country, but its effects were definitely felt down in London yesterday as I did another long walk. Blustery wind for much of day and occasional rain; I gave serious consideration to going home early if things hadn't improved after lunch.

Ironically, I also did over 21,000 steps when I was at The Greatest Gathering in Derby on Saturday - post on that to follow.

Section 2 of the Capital Ring goes from Falconwood to Grove Park. Well, not exactly as the actual start points are next t a bridge over the A2 and somewhere called Marvels Lane, which is lacking in any Brie Larson.

As walks go, it didn't have many highlights - the area is very suburban in character.

This building is Conduit Head, which was part of an underground tunnel system designed to bring water to Eltham Palace, where Henry VIII grew up. Falling into mostly ruin in the 17th century, only the medieval hall survives with an Art Deco mansion from the 1930s surrounding it. English Heritage now run the place and charge a steep admission fee for entry - I skipped that as I didn't have time. Also doing some Taskmaster-related events if that's your jam that you need to place on a shelf without stepping out of a circle.

I went through Mottingham too, where W. G. Grace lived for thirty years. You know an area is posh when the houses have names.

The highlight of this particular section is King John Playing Fields, which has a spectacular view of nearly all the prominent structures of London.

A shame that it's not accessible by wheelchair - even the gate would be a bit of squeeze for larger people.

Also, this house either has a lot of genuine rubbish for collection or a fly tipper is really showing that they just don't care.

("Fly tipping" is the British term for illegal dumping)

I'd decided that this section was too short for a day's walk and doing Section 3 to Crystal Palace would be far too long an addition. Therefore, I did some of the Green Chain after lunch, heading through Chinbrook Meadows and then Elmstead Woods before going to the station there.

Elmstead Woods, despite being surrounded by London is the sort of place where you could, where it not for the noise of traffic and aircraft, think you were on some alien planet. I found myself thinking of Blake's 7, although they never actually filmed there.

Anyway, I have another walking-related trip planned this week, with a connection to another popular franchise.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer #2

So, I just saw Buffy push Jayne Cobb  into a cremation oven ("Never Kill a Boy on the First Date", in case you're wondering) and it was a bit of weird feeling.

Buffy is one of those characters who manages to be annoying and endearing, sometimes in the same scene. She would try the patience of an awful lot of people who would still risk their lives for her and if she ever met the Doctor, they'd get on like a spaceship on fire. Having probably caused the fire in the first place.

(Ten would be the obvious choice based on mutual levels of banter, but it would be funnier to have her paired up with a more strait-laced incarnation like Five. Or someone socially awkward like Thirteen)

It's the sort of same reaction I got with Ellie from The Last of Us, who is basically Ellie the Zombie Slayer, only they don't call them that in that show.

She does seem to spend an awful lot of time in very short dresses, even at school. I can imagine her and Sydney Bristow snarking about each other's outfits in an Epic Rap Battles of History, but don't ask me to write that.

The times when stunt doubles are involved is fairly obvious, but perhaps I am just good at spotting those scenes.

I'm definitely having a lot of fun with this and the show stands up very well. Even if the Scoobies could do with mobile phones. Something that will need to be addressed in the new show with the "Scooby Twos" as I'm calling them.

Edit 2 August: That wasn't Adam Baldwin, even if it did look like him.