VJ Day in Ottawa

Heroes Remember

VJ Day in Ottawa

Transcript

On VJ Day, I was lucky enough, the phone from Ottawa to Washington was posted at our, our headquarters and I was lucky enough to man it for an hour or so, which is historical for me, and then Mackenzie King came in and received the news from Washington, talked to Washington, and the Prime Minister, Mackenzie King came in and received the news that, that, not from me but from Washington, that the, that the war was over. Then, the ticker tape flew out the windows. We were deprived. We could throw nothing out. And the people flooded the streets and ticker tape was coming out of every window everywhere. Cases were just flying. But we couldn't, not a scrap of paper went out of our office. So we felt sort of deprived. Interviewer: So, tell us a little bit about, about VE Day or, or the end of the war and when you were in Ottawa. Tell us a little bit about what happened. Well right, well right after VJ Day, we, that day, that afternoon, it was a ticker tape, it was just automatic, all through the streets. Everybody just flooded the streets and there was paper coming out the windows everywhere. It was not an organized thing, it was just everybody. Not in the district I was in anyway, and it was downtown Ottawa. But anyway, then after that, they had an ecumenical service and it was on, I forget the name of the church on Wellington Street. The Prime Minister was there and they headed to the churches and we went to church at 7:00 o'clock. And then there was dancing in the streets. So that was... Interviewer: Was, was, was the celebration, did it last for a long time? Oh, oh yes, I guess a lot of people, I don't think as long as Halifax's lasted but it, it lasted. Ottawa was a pretty conservative place then, you know, they didn't have any night clubs in Ottawa. They went to Hull for their night life. And you know, it was, church was the biggest social event of the week! Anyway, and that wasn't on station, eh. So it would have been different, I suppose, in barracks, but I wasn't in barracks.

Description

Because she worked in a top secret intelligence office, Mrs Grégoire did not get to celebrate much on VJ Day but she describes the ambiance in Ottawa on that day.

Christina Janet Grégoire

Mrs. Grégoire was born in Campbellton, New Brunswick, on March 1, 1925, and grew up in Sillarsville, Québec. In March 1943, when she was 18, she joined the Air Force in Montréal. After training at Rockcliffe and a first posting in Scoudouc she was given a Top Secret rating by the RCMP before being assigned to the Air Force Headquarters Intelligence Directorate in Ottawa. She was discharged after VJ Day and released in November 1945. She now gives workshops for the United Church and is involved in volunteering in various Hospital Veterans' Wards.

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