President Donald Trump continued his inaccurate insistence Wednesday that World War II ended for the U.S. on May 8, 1945, when Nazi Germany capitulated.
That date, however, precedes an additional three months of American fighting against the Japanese that occurred until World War II ended in its entirety in August, shortly after nuclear bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
“It was American tanks and ships and trucks and airplanes and service members that vanquished the enemy 80 years ago this week,” Trump said. “Without America, the liberation would never have happened. And so we have to pay tribute and homage to those people that gave us victory.”
The Battle of Okinawa, among the bloodiest of World War II, did not end in American victory until June 22, 1945—a month-and-a-half after the date Trump asserts marked the end of the war.
Fighting on and around Okinawa claimed the lives of more than 12,000 U.S. soldiers, sailors and Marines.
Trump said that the allied powers would not have won World War I or World War II without U.S. involvement. He added that the U.S. does not get enough credit for how it “rebuilt the world” after both wars.
And he added in the Oval Office on Wednesday that America must celebrate its wartime victories of yesteryear more often.
The president said such celebrations will begin on Thursday, which he proclaimed will now be known as “Victory Day for World War II.” He added that Nov. 11, which is already celebrated nationwide as Veterans Day, will now also be celebrated as “Victory Day for World War I.”
Don’t get excited about getting an extra holiday, though: “We’re not going to have days off because we don’t have enough days in the year,” Trump said. “We have too many celebrations already.”
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