The news flash arrived in Honolulu about 1:30 p.m. and within minutes, as word that World War II had ended spread over radio airwaves, the city went wild.

The Honolulu Advertiser printed two extra editions to report that the fighting had stopped. "Peace-Crazed Honolulans In Riotous Celebrations," read one headline.

Residents created an O'ahu-wide din with horns, church bells, sirens, firecrackers, whistles "and their own shrill throats and lusty lungs," one reporter wrote.

Truckloads of soldiers even beat on their mess kits.

Territorial Gov. Ingram Stainback declared that day a holiday.

Military personnel and civilians swarmed into the streets, wildly slapping each other on the back and throwing caps into the air.

They sang, "Hail, Hail, the Gang's All Here" and "When the War Is Over."

There was a lot of kissing, too.

"GIs and sailors took a tip from their buddies in Paris and kissed every girl in sight, with Waves" — women in the military — "as the favorite target of the boys in white," one reporter wrote.

Traffic came to a halt on most streets as impromptu parades ensued. Anyone with a flag suddenly had a parade in tow.

Planes roared low over Honolulu. In Bloch Arena at Pearl Harbor, the Most Rev. Francis Spellman, archbishop of New York, held a mass for hundreds of servicemen and civilian workers.

"Our sad experiences should give us also a keener appreciation of war's sin against man and nature," he told the gathering.

The peace celebration claimed two lives and sent 88 people to hospital emergency rooms.

One sailor died when his truck crashed into a gulch near Red Hill. Another died after he climbed out of a second-floor window and onto a marquee unable to support his weight. He fell 30 feet.

Four of the injured got hurt when they either fell off a moving car or were hit by one, but one person suffered a broken jaw in a fistfight.

And of course, the celebrants drank. In fact, 29 people were so intoxicated, police threw them in jail.