| Original caption: “GIs at the Rainbow Corner Red Cross Club whoop it up after buying the special edition of the Paris Post, which carried the banner headline ‘Jap[anese] Quit.’” American servicemen and women gather to celebrate Victory over Japan (V-J) Day outside the Rainbow Corner, established by the American Red Cross in the Hotel de Paris on the Boulevard de la Madeleine. They hold copies of the Paris Post, published August 10, 1945. Emperor Hirohito (April 29, 1901 – January 7, 1989) told his cabinet the night before, after the 2nd atomic attack on Nagasaki, that he wished to end the war. A vague message was sent, without consulting the military censors, by Morse Code to the world that seemed to endorse the Potsdam Declaration. But it would be another 4 days before Japan actually agreed to surrender. American Red Cross Commissioner to Great Britain and Western Europe, Harvey D. Gibson (March 12, 1882 – September 11, 1950), announced the opening of 3 large and well-equipped Red Cross clubs this week in the heart of Paris on September 8, 1944. All 3 have restaurants and sidewalk cafes, said to be “splendidly adapted for entertaining service men.” Special entertainment programs were put on each evening. Several smaller hotels near these centers were converted into dormitories. Red Cross Clubs operated at Cherbourg, Rennes, Laval, and LeMans; mobile units included 80 clubmobiles, 12 cinemobiles, and 12 trailer kitchens serving coffee and doughnuts. The Red Cross used DUKW “Ducks” amphibious 6-by-6-wheel-drive trucks to take arriving American soldiers from transports to Red Cross Clubs. This was called the Red Cross “duckmobile service.” In Paris, the celebrations really took hold. Yank Magazine reported, “The GIs managed to keep their V-J spirit bottled up through most of the phony rumours, but when the real thing was announced, the cork popped with a vengeance. A spontaneous parade, including jeeps and trucks and Women’s Army Corps (WACs) and GIs and officers and nurses and enlisted men snaked from the Red Cross Club at Rainbow Corner down to the Place de l’Opera and back. Jeeps crawled along in the victory celebration so loaded down with cheering GIs that the shape of the vehicles could hardly be discerned. Some GIs showed up with flags to add both color and an official note to the procession. By the time the demonstration hit its full stride, trucks and cars were moving five abreast, with pedestrian celebrants marching before, behind, and between. The whole show was a soldier – especially an American soldier – performance. French civilians were happy and pleased, and they showed it, but they still went about their work as much as usual as was possible. They had been drained of celebration first when their city had been freed and later when the European war had ended.” The most unusual note of the day was the spontaneous contribution campaign for the Red Cross, which started with nothing except good humor when a soldier at Rainbow Corner pinned a couple of franc notes to a tree. That afternoon, this gag raised 14,000 for the American Red Cross. Photographer Technician 3rd Class Gus Lempeotis (January 27, 1918 – February 28, 1993) was assigned to the Signals section of the Headquarters of the Southern Line of Communications (SOLOC), which managed supply in liberated France from November 30, 1944. He enlisted in his hometown of Chicago on July 7, 1941. After the war, he returned there to raise a family. A devout Greek Orthodox, he dedicated his memorial fund to the church. | |
| Image Filename | wwii1590.jpg |
| Image Size | 816.44 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 2900 x 2228 |
| Photographer | Gus Lempeotis |
| Photographer Title | United States Army Signal Corps |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | August 10, 1945 |
| Location | |
| City | Paris |
| State or Province | Île-de-France |
| Country | France |
| Archive | National Archives and Records Administration |
| Record Number | NWDNS-111-SC-210208 |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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