Afterword

When I began to gather these endings, I thought I was writing about signatures, and I spent many evenings with dates, hours and the names of rooms; but the longer I stayed with them, the more I found that every signature stood on top of countless smaller decisions, made by people who were tired, frightened and often far from home, to stop rather than to go on. I hope that you, too, have felt that weight beneath the dates as you travelled through these pages with me.

I have tried to remember the dead of every side with the same care, because the endings belonged to all of them, and because the quiet that followed each surrender was shared by families who had stood on opposite sides of the same war. If a chapter has made you pause, light a candle or keep a moment of silence, then the book has done what I most wished it to do, and I am grateful for every minute you have given to these people.

The war ended one front at a time, and peace has to be kept in the same way, one town, one school, one friendship and one careful conversation at a time. I wish you safe journeys through history and through your own days, and I hope that when you next hear a church bell or a station clock, you will think for a moment of the many mornings on which the guns fell silent.

The Chapters at a Glance

Prologue, Listen for the Many Endings: the Second World War did not end on one day but on many days, in tents, schoolhouses, palaces and on a ship's deck, from the autumn of 1943 to the last soldier who came out of the jungle in 1974; the chapter also explains the demand for unconditional surrender made in January 1943 and how it shaped every ending that followed.

Chapter 1, Begin in an Olive Grove: on 3 September 1943 a general signed a short, secret armistice in a tent among olive trees, and the first partner of the Axis left the war; the chapter follows the weeks of quiet talks, the two broadcasts of 8 September, the confusion that followed, and the longer armistice signed at the end of that month.

Chapter 2, Watch the Partners Step Away: in 1944 the smaller partners of the Axis left the war one after another, and each departure was a dangerous negotiation of its own; the chapter tells the story of four armistices, from the northern country of lakes and forests to the kingdoms and regencies of the south-east.

Chapter 3, Draw the Peace in Advance: while the fighting continued, delegates met in a mountain hotel in July 1944 to plan the money and trade of the post-war world, and in a quiet mansion that autumn to draft a world organization; the chapter shows how peace was being designed before the last battles were fought.

Chapter 4, Ring the Bells Carefully: for millions of people the war ended street by street, as towns and capitals were freed in 1944 and 1945; the chapter follows the return of bells, lamps, letters and schools, the anger that had to be brought under the law, and the long wait for news of the missing.

Chapter 5, Sit at the Round Table: at a palace by the sea in February 1945, three leaders decided on zones of occupation, the voting rules of a future world organization and the entry of the eastern ally into the war in Asia; the chapter looks at what the table settled and what it left open.

Chapter 6, Shake Hands on the Bridge: on 25 April 1945 two endings met on the same day, as soldiers from the west and the east shook hands at a river and the delegates of fifty nations opened the conference that would write the Charter of the United Nations; the chapter also remembers the death of a president in April.

Chapter 7, Sign It Twice: in the first days of May 1945 the war in the west ended in pieces, in a palace in the south, in a tent on a heath, in a schoolhouse at 2:41 in the morning of 7 May and in a second ceremony near midnight on 8 May; the chapter explains why two days of victory are remembered.

Chapter 8, Turn the Lights Back On: after 8 May the news of peace still had to travel to islands, ports and pockets of resistance, and the last fighting in the west ended only on 20 May; the chapter follows the end of the blackout and the millions of people who were far from home.

Chapter 9, Read the Declaration Slowly: at a lakeside palace in the summer of 1945 the victors decided the future of the defeated in the west and issued a declaration to the island empire; the chapter follows the weeks of August, the two new bombs and the entry of the eastern ally into the war, until the decision to surrender was made in a shelter beneath the palace.

Chapter 10, Gather Around the Radio: at noon on 15 August 1945 a recorded voice told millions of people that the war was over; the chapter tells of the night in which the recording was made and protected, of listeners gathered in schoolyards and on platforms, and of the days it took for the order to reach every army.

Chapter 11, Stand on the Deck at Nine: on 2 September 1945 the formal surrender was signed on the deck of a battleship in a quiet bay in about twenty minutes, followed in September by many smaller ceremonies across Asia and the ocean war, in town halls, on carrier decks and in auditoriums.

Chapter 12, Count the Long Years Home: for many people the war ended years after the signatures, as millions of soldiers and civilians were brought home, prisoners returned as late as 1956, trials were held and peace treaties were signed between 1947 and 1956; the chapter ends with the soldiers who left the jungle in 1972 and 1974.

Chapter 13, Build Something That Lasts: the endings were turned into foundations, from the Charter coming into force on 24 October 1945 to the declaration of human rights in 1948, the conventions of 1949, the declaration on coal and steel in 1950 and a treaty of friendship between old enemies in 1963.

Epilogue, Keep a Minute of Silence: the author walks back through the dates of the book, remembers the dead of every side and the different days on which nations still keep silence, and closes with a candle at a memorial at dusk.

A Guide for Reading Groups and Families

This book can be read alone, but it also lends itself to being read slowly with others, one chapter at a meeting or one chapter on a quiet evening at home, so that each ending has time to settle before the next one begins.

Before you start, you might ask each person to bring one date from the history of their own family, such as a birth, a wedding or a homecoming, that falls between 1943 and 1956, and to place it on a long strip of paper next to the dates of the book; it is often moving to see how the great endings and the small family events stand side by side.

After the prologue, you can talk about why a war that ended on so many different days is so often remembered by only one or two of them, and which date, if any, is remembered in the places where your group lives.

After the chapters on 1943 and 1944, you can ask what made it so difficult for a partner in a war to leave it, and why the people who negotiated these armistices often had to work in secret, at night, and without knowing whether they would be thanked or blamed.

After the chapters on the planning conferences, you can ask what it means to design a peace while a war is still being fought, and which of the institutions described in the book you have heard of in your own life.

After the chapters on the surrenders of May and September 1945, you might read one short passage aloud together, such as the moment of a signature or the words of a broadcast, and then keep a short silence before anyone speaks.

After the chapter on the long years home, you can talk about the families who waited for prisoners and missing people for ten years or more, and about the ways in which an ending can arrive for one person long after it has arrived for the world.

After the chapter on foundations, you might ask which of the agreements of 1945 to 1963 seems to you the most important for keeping the peace, and why reconciliation between former enemies often began with young people, schools and graves.

Families with older children can try the exercises in the chapters together, such as counting the days between two dates, timing a text read aloud or drawing the order of signatures, because these small tasks make the distant events feel close and concrete.

When a conversation turns to sorrow, it is good to let it rest there for a while; the people in this book lived through great loss on every side, and listening to one another with patience is itself a small part of the peace they hoped for.

At the end of the book, you might close your last meeting as the epilogue does, with a candle and one minute of silence for the dead of every side, and with a few words from each person about one ending they will remember.