Prince Harry extends powerful olive branch to royal family with letter on VJ Day

Prince Harry quietly honoured the “Forgotten Army” on VJ Day, and the move is being read as a powerful olive branch to his family. 

While King Charles and Queen Camilla led the national remembrance at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, it later emerged that Harry arranged for a letter and wreath to be placed at the Burma Star Memorial after the royals had departed, to avoid overshadowing the official ceremony.

On crested stationery and signed Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, his note paid tribute to veterans of the Far East campaign and to his late grandfather, Prince Philip, who served in the Pacific. 

“He spoke with quiet humility about those years,” Harry wrote, adding he was “humbled” by the veterans’ example and “profoundly grateful for what [they] endured.”

VJ veterans shared first-hand testimonies, with Captain Yavar Abbas stepping off script to salute the King for attending despite ongoing cancer treatment, a moment that drew applause and left Queen Camilla visibly emotional.

Harry’s behind-the-scenes gesture, respectful, personal, and timed to keep the focus on veterans, is being seen as a meaningful step toward easing tensions. 

Whether it paves the way for a broader thaw remains to be seen, but on a day defined by service and sacrifice, the Duke’s words landed exactly where they were meant to: with those who served.

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