Should RI rename Victory Day? The suggestion sparks a war of words

PROVIDENCE – If you want to ignite a war of words at the State House, suggest changing the name of the Rhode Island-only holiday known as Victory Day.

That’s what happened this week – for the second year in a row – when a public hearing was held on Rep. Jennifer Stewart’s bill to change the name of the holiday that falls on the second Monday of August from “Victory Day” to “Peace and Remembrance Day.”

Despite its official name, the bill [H7326], which sparked this heated exchange, notes that Victory Day is still known to many as “Victory over Japan Day … given the proximity of the holiday’s date” to the use of the atomic bombs on Japan and the announcement, soon after, of Japan’s surrender.

Changing the name to “Peace & Remembrance Day,” would “recognize that the U.S. engaged in racially discriminatory treatment of first and second generation Japanese Americans residing on its mainland … [and that] historians have cast doubt on the military necessity of using the atomic bombs,” the bill reads.

Acknowledgment of past wrongdoing or insult to veterans?

“We feel this bill is an insult to our WWII veterans and to the history of World War II,” John P. Gallo Sr., representing the United Veterans Council of Rhode Island, wrote legislators about the bill.

“This bill is one more attempt to whitewash our history and erase our past,” wrote Tom Padwa of Warren. “Yes, the atomic bomb attacks on Japan had horrific consequences, but let’s not forget that they happened.”

From the other side of the debate came letters of support for the legislation that Stewart, a Pawtucket Democrat, proposed, including from Asian-American Rhode Islander Catherine Chung, who wrote:

“Our country’s dark history of the state-sanctioned incarceration of approximately 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II, followed by the prohibition of their return to the West Coast, left a legacy of intergenerational trauma.”

“Renaming ‘Victory Day’ will symbolize an acknowledgment of past wrongdoing and our state’s commitmentto rectifying historical injustices,” she continued.

Added Alex Denisevich of East Greenwich, acknowledging he has lived in Rhode Island for only seven years, but “for all of those years, I am always ashamed to tell friends, family members, whoever, that the reason I have off onthe second Monday of August is because the state I now live in refuses to stop celebrating a holiday thatexists only to celebrate the murder of millions of people.”

What is Victory Day: And why is Rhode Island the only state that observes it?

Debate spills onto the House floor

In her turn at the microphone before the House Committee on Special Legislation, Stewart, who teaches history and political science at Moses Brown School in Providence, said changing the name would also recognize that “military victories are built on civilian injury and death.”

“This is a fact we need to remember … when we watch the news about Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, Syria and other places,” she said.

But Rep. Patricia Morgan, R-West Warwick, argued back: “This is a victory day and it’s a victory day for America because we had people who were willing to step up for our values.” She called the legislation an “atrocity” tantamount to “taking away the honor and the bravery that those men deserve.”

Stewart responded: “This bill … does not take away anything. There’s Veterans Day and there’s Memorial Day as well [but] we are the only state that has a Victory Day, and as far as I understand, we weren’t the only state in the United States who had people who sacrificed and fought in WWII and subsequent wars.”

Rep. Samuel Azzinaro, D-Westerly, recalling the bombing of Pearl Harbor, said he’s proud “we are the only state that recognizes this day as a ‘Victory Day’ because it was unconscionable what happened to us on that December 7th Sunday morning.”

The bill was held for further study.