O’Sheas Celebrated When World War II Ended 75 Years Ago

On August 14, 1945, President Harry S. Truman announced that the Japanese had surrendered, ending the six-year long World War whose battles covered much of the globe and killed about 405,000 Americans.

“Peace came as Springfield workers were en route to their homes and dinner tables” on August 14, reported the next day’s Journal. “As the news spread, residents, some dressed in their finest, and others in slacks and other modes of sports wear, began a mass migration toward the business district (downtown). Family cars went speeding toward the center of activity.”

One of those was the O’Sheas’. Chief Executive Officer of O’Shea Builders, Bud O’Shea, was 11 and his older brother, Pat, was 13 at the time. They and their brothers had helped the war effort by tending the family’s large “Victory Garden” and taking care of the family’s chicks and chickens, which provided the family meat since it was rationed to provide enough for soldiers. Their father, Harold (owner of Harold O’Shea Builders), couldn’t serve in the war for medical reasons, but he worked as superintendent for the construction of a war plant in Springfield -- the Lincoln Ordnance Depot (located near what is now Interstate 55 and Toronto Road).

Several of Bud’s cousins served. Robert O’Shea, the son of Harold’s brother, Ralph, was in the Army Infantry and was captured at Normandy. “He was held in prison,” Bud says. “Robert wore glasses and they took them away from him.”  James O’Shea’s sons, Tom and John, served in the Air Force and Navy, respectively. On Bud’s mother’s (Jane’s) side of the family, his uncles James Trihey and Frances Zock also served.

 “I remember the war ending,” Bud’s youngest brother, Paul O’Shea, recalls. “We went downtown to the celebrations of people just getting out.”

Bud remembers it vividly. “Dad said, ‘Let’s go downtown!’ when he heard the news. People were just jubilant. It was bumper to bumper traffic. Cars were hardly moving. Horns were honking and my dad’s leg was sore from pushing and releasing the clutch so much!”

“Springfield Goes Wild as Peace Comes” was the headline on next day’s Journal. A photo of the intersection of Fifth and Monroe Streets showed “thousands” of people packed into the streets and sidewalks, amid cars. “In a great cacophony of exhilaration and celebration, Springfield, its streets seething with milling crowds of merrymakers, gave vent to its pent up emotions in a carnival of joyousness unmatched in the city’s history,” reported the paper. It described people throwing confetti and streamers out of building windows and bonfires “roaring” at every intersection downtown.

“A constant procession of cars, moving at snail’s pace, edged slowly through the streets, as their occupants, dangling cowbells, tooting horns and ringing bells, added to the mighty clamor…Toilet tissue, almost a collector’s item due to its absence from stores in recent weeks, was in great abundance, hurtling from buildings and trailing from the windows of automobiles…”

The Japanese signed formal surrender papers on September 2, but Springfield didn’t celebrate that like it did Truman announcing their surrender on August 14. Both days are often referred to as “V-J Day” for “Victory over Japan.”