Posted on 08/15/2015 4:24:13 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
John Toland, The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945
Major General H.W. Blakeley, USA, Ret., 32d Infantry Division World War II
British crowd celebrates VJ Day (1:14)
Same crowd sings “God Save the King” (0:45)
Clement Attlee announces the surrender of Japan (0:55).
King George VI to Empire (1:00)
Emperor Hirohito announces surrender (0:11).
President Truman on Victory (1:03).
Editorials – 24-26
Let Us Have Peace
Japan Accepts
The People of Japan
To Absorb the Shock
Bill Knox
Topics of the Times
Chinatown’s Victory Joy Knows No Bounds as 4 Dragons Lead Spontaneous Parades – 26
http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/7/15.htm
August 15th, 1945 (WEDNESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: London: The news was broadcast at midnight by Clement Attlee, but thousands of people who did not listen to the radio went to work today, only to leave again for a two-day holiday. The weather was wet, and the rain soaked the king and queen, driving in an open carriage to the first state opening of parliament since the war began. The queen sat smiling in a frail blue dress with her hat drooping. Every street was filled with milling crowds, and the Mall was a sea of people who fell silent for the king’s broadcast at 9pm.
“The world has come to look for certain qualities from the peoples of the Commonwealth and Empire,” he said. “We have our part to play in restoring the shattered fabric of civilization. It is to this great task that I call you now.” The royal family made repeated appearances on the palace balcony. After dark the two princesses joined the rejoicing crowds in the streets outside. Earlier in the day Field Marshal Montgomery was wildly cheered in the streets of Lambeth, where he was born, as he was driven to receive the freedom of the borough to cries of “Good old Monty!”
FRANCE: Paris: Marshal Petain is found guilty of treason and sentenced to death.
U.S.S.R.: Moscow: Manchuria, which Japan had called Manchukuo, is to be returned to Nationalist China within three months of the end of hostilities, following a treaty of friendship agreed between the Chungking government and the Soviet Union today. The treaty, which excludes China’s Communists, is a tactical victory for Chiang Kai-shek’s government over its Communist rivals. In exchange for returning Manchuria, the Soviet Union’s interests are safeguarded with its former possession, Port Arthur, returned to be a joint naval base and Dairen a free port.
CHINA: Marshal Chiang Kai-shek broadcast to his people after the Japanese surrender had ended a conflict that began on 7 July, 1937. “Our faith in justice through the black and hopeless days of eight long years of struggle has been rewarded,” he said.
Chu-Teh, the C-in-C of the Communist army, warns the Allies that the Communists expect a share in the Japanese surrender and post-war settlement.
A three US Marine team parachutes into Northern China to link up with American PoWs. (168)
MANCHUKUO: P-63s of the Soviet 17 IAP claim one “I-97”. (Mike Yared)
KOREA: 19 IAP Yak-9s claim 1 of 2 J2M Raiden ‘Jack’ Fighters near Nanam in the north of the country. (Mike Yared)
JAPAN: Major Hatanaka, Lt. Col. Shiizaki and Col. Ida arrive at the HQ of the Imperial Guards Division to enlist General Mori in the coup. There they gather Major Koga and Ishihara who have the written order to be signed by General Mori which will put the coup in motion. They wait on the General.
After midnight they barge in. When asked to lead the coup, Mori refuses without orders from his superior. They continue to cajole him to join them. They are joined by Captain Uehara. Mori refuses again and Uehara draws his sword. Col. Shiraishi, the General’s aide is killed. Major Hatanaka draws his pistol and shoots General Mori.
It is now 2:00 am and the coup leaders proceed to the palace. There they obtain the cooperation of the guards on duty. The palace is sealed from the outside, telephone lines are cut. The rebels also take the Broadcasting House across the street from the Palace. The imperial chamberlains are alerted. They remove the recordings from storage and take them to a out of the way air raid shelter.
Troops ransack the palace looking for the recordings and Privy Seal Kido and others. Other rebels fan out over the city to kill the PM and FM and others of the “peace faction”.
War Minister Anami commits ceremonial suicide. He does this because he has failed the Emperor by failing to win the war; failing to follow the Emperor’s wish for peace; failing to control his officers; failing to live up to the expectations of the Junior officers and because the rebels have assassinated General Mori.
The coup comes to the attention of General Tanaka, General Mori’s commander. At 4:00 am he proceeds to the palace. One unit at a time he seizes control of the situation. He confronts the leaders of the coup and advises them to commit ceremonial suicide for disobeying the wishes of the Emperor.
The Emperor is told of the coup at 7:00 am and then General Tanaka pays his respects. Radio Tokyo goes back on the air at 7:21 and announces that the Emperor will broadcast a rescript at Noon. General Tanaka finishes at the palace and takes the recordings to Radio Tokyo.
The Emperor broadcast his rescript at noon.
“Despite the best that has been done by everyone, the gallant fighting of the military and naval forces .... and the devoted service of our 100,000,000 people, the war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan’s advantage ... Moreover the enemy has begun to employ a new and most cruel bomb, the power of which to do damage is indeed incalculable, taking toll of many innocent lives.
“Should we continue to fight, it would not only result in the ultimate collapse and obliteration of the Japanese nation but also it would lead to the total extinction of human civilization.”
103 carrier-based aircraft of the USN’s Task Force 38 are launched at 0415 hours local and attack airfields in the Tokyo area. They encounter heavy aerial opposition and shoot down 32 Japanese aircraft. A second strike is cancelled while it is en route to objectives; pilots jettison their ordnance and return to their carriers. The last aircraft shot down by the USN in World War II occurs at 1400 hours when an F6F-5 Hellcat pilot of Fighting Squadron Thirty One (VF-31) in the light aircraft carrier USS Belleau Wood (CVL-24) shoots down a “Judy” carrier bomber (Kugisho D4Y Navy Carrier Bomber Suisei) at sea.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: All offensive action against Japan by Allied forces ends. General of the Army Douglas MacArthur is notified that he is Supreme Commander for Allied powers. MacArthur tries to communicate with Tokyo using the War Department signal facilities, but when he receives no reply, he turns to the USAAF’s Army Airways Communications System (AACS). The AACS Manila station (call sign WXXU), tapped out MacArthur’s instructions to the Japanese using a frequency over which AACS had been broadcasting uncoded weather information; the message reads:
From Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers
To The Japanese Emperor, the Japanese Imperial Government, the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters
Message Number Z-500
I have been designated as the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (the United States, the Republic of China, the United Kingdom and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) and empowered to arrange directly with the Japanese authorities for the cessation of hostilities at the earliest practicable date. It is desired that a radio station in the Tokyo area be officially designated for continuous use in handling radio communications between this headquarters and your headquarters. Your reply to this message should give the call signs, frequencies and station designation. It is desired that the radio communication with my headquarters in Manila be handled in English text. Pending designation by you of a station in the Tokyo area for use as above indicated, station JUM on frequency 13705 kilocycles will be used for this purpose and Manila will reply on 15965 kilocycles. Upon receipt of this message, acknowledge.
Signed MacArthur.
Within less than 2 hours, the Tokyo reply came back. This was the first direct communication between the Allies and Japan.
(Having spent 3 years in the USAF’s Airways and Air Communications Service (AACS), the successor of the Army Airways Communications System, I’m kind of proud of the above. - JEM)
AUSTRALIA: People had just got to work when the news was announced. They flooded out onto the streets of the cities, and the dancing and fireworks continued all night.
19 Squadron RAAF is formed from ex-KLM operated Dakotas that have been unofficially called NEI-Transport Section, Brisbane (NEI-TSB) and NEI-Transport Section, Melbourne (NEI-TSM) until then. (Daniel Ross)
CANADA: RCN 803 Sqn re-equipped with 12 Griffon-powered Seafire XV a/c at RNAS Asvroat.
U.S.A.: In New York Mayor La Guardia broadcast in a voice choked with emotion: “The day is not complete for he who brought it about is not with us. I know that 130 million Americans are giving thanks tonight for Franklin Delano Roosevelt.” Outside tons of ticker tape were scattered and crowds danced to the sound of taxi horns and ships’ sirens. Outside St. Patrick’s Cathedral, hundreds knelt on the pavements.
In Washington, where the news broke at 7pm yesterday, the crowds outside the White House chanted “We want Truman”. The president appeared on the portico saying: “This is the day we’ve been waiting for since Pearl Harbor.” A two-day holiday was proclaimed for all federal employees.
The rationing of petrol (gasoline) and canned goods is abolished.
The top pop songs on this date are
(1) “Dream” by The Pied Pipers;
(2) “I Wish I Knew” by Dick Haymes;
(3) “If I Loved You” by Perry Como’; and
(4) “Oklahoma Hills” by Jack Guthrie.
I’ve been looking forward to this day ever since the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor.
One of my all-time favorite audio clips:
http://www.otr.com/ra/news/vjdaymix.mp3
Think of all the mothers, fathers, wives, brothers, sisters, sweethearts who might have been listening to Mutual at that moment.
This is one of the most exciting bits of radio you will ever hear. You can cut the tension in the broadcast booth with a chainsaw.
What follows is pretty good, too!
The NY Slimes—selling BS and misinformation way back when.
The Arthur Krock article (some people are aptly named) is a crock. The first sentence “Japan today unconditionally surrendered...” is a crock/Krock.
The surrender was conditional. I doubt if people back then cared—as long as it was over. But it was not an unconditional surrender.
The story on the U S S Indianapolis makes no mention of sharks. But it mentions deaths through Hallucination. I heard sharks were rarely spoke of until the release of film Jaws.
Survivors of 1945 sinking of the USS Indianapolis describe terrifying explosions and shark attacks during worst sea disaster in U.S. Naval history
The Indianapolis was torpedoed in the South Pacific in July 1945 after delivering parts for the atomic bomb to bomber bases on the island of Tinian
Survivors of the blasts spent nearly a week in shark-infested waters fighting off attacks
Of the ships 1,197 crewmen, only 317 survived
August 4, 2013
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2384393/Survivors-1945-sinking-USS-Indianapolis-explosions-shark-attacks-worst-sea-disaster-U-S-naval-history.html#ixzz3it0WuKsZ
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WOOHOO VICTORY!!!!
With these daily posts These past five years made me feel like almost living the war.
Thank you Homer for all of your fine work.
I’m betting that 80% of the people driving by my house have zero clue....
Well done, Homer.
Reading the posts made me feel like I was there.
Maybe I was...
Thank You so much for Posting these over the years Homer.
I have Loved Every Single one and your Dedication is inspiring!
Thank you so much!
- We had wiped out 50% of Tokyo
- The US had not developed air-focused RADAR
- The US and England expected to put RADAR on the moon
- Japan had conquered its lands over a 90 year period since normalized relations had started
These posts make for great reading! I thank you and your family for the work you you've done copying, editing, and posting everything. Wonderful!
bookmark
I absolutely love reading these threads on daily WW2 history. Thank you so much.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3324954/posts
Thanks, Homer.
You can tell that the New York Times was feeling unusually patriotic by its writing. The next-to-last paragraph, of the left-hand column, on page 25, ("TO ABSORB THE SHOCK"), reads:
"This immediate problem divides itself into two parts. The first is when to cancel war contracts; the second is how we can talk care of the men and women thrown out of work by that cancellation."
You see? Not "World to end, womyn and minorities hardest hit" but "men AND women [with an 'e']." How misogynist!
Thanks again, Homer!
Yay V-J Day!
And recall, the smartest, Hahvahd educated prez EVAH said Hirohito surrendered on the Missouri...
If it had been a Pub prez.....
In the description of Times Square in the recording, the reporter makes mention of how the older people in the crowd were silent. Oddly enough, that is how I feel today. Maybe because I know what’s coming; maybe because, in my early 60s, I have lived long enough to know that every jubilation is followed with difficulty.
On August 15, 1945, we have dodged a great conflagration, and the relief would have been immeasurable. But as I was reading this paper, and then reading today’s paper, I couldn’t get Robert Frost’s words out of my head:
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
But I don’t want to be a spoilsport, so, joining with the old people at Times Square, I’ll watch silently, feeling the immeasurable relief, while the younger half of America jubilates.
War underlined the uncertainty of worldly affairs.
As things have turned out, the Japan situation itself has weathered beautifully. The worst hazard Japan has posed to us is to work enough harder than us that it made a competitive dent in our economy for a while. Then China production came along and mooted it all and now Japan is in a malaise, but still very friendly to the West.
But nobody could know that in advance. And the US ally in the war effort, Soviet Russia, turned menacing and vicious towards the West.
You and I are about the same age.
The old people in Times Square, most likely, have vivid memories of the First World War. Given what happened only 20 years after that, I’d be silent, too. And, as Ben Grauer said, maybe some of them lost sons in combat.
Of course, if I were in my teens or twenties, I’d be partying like a maniac.
Especially if I were a Soldier, Sailor, or Marine!
Well done Sir!
It has been great reading.
Thank you.
I'm hoping that perhaps in the next few days there will be an article on how the soldiers celebrated in the Marianas, with no more Superfort bombing runs. My father the airplane radio mechanic, part of the ground crew on Guam, would have been part of the festivities.
Thanks for the kind words, one and all. We still have some more history to cover, through the surrender signing on USS Missouri on Sept 2 plus 1 day.
This has just been a magnificent effort on your part. I’ve been following this series since you started it and I just wanted to thank you for the unceasing effort you’ve put in. Thank you so much!
The NYT was around during the Civil War, you could go day by day on that.
Ironic thing about Japan, at the last stages of the war they had almost caught technologically on sonar, radar and their planes were top notch(except for quality control). They really didn’t expect a long war at all. Tojo was an idiot.
Thank you Homer for your efforts I have missed very few of your daily installments even though I rarely post here anymore.
Very well done.
A lot of the shark action was on the bodies of sailors who were already dead. Dehydration and hypothermia got most of them.
I know we get a few more days, but thank you Homer. Again.
Last post will be Sept. 3, 1945.
The NYT was around during the Civil War, you could go day by day on that.
I've long thought that would be a wonderful way to spend 4 years. Unfortunately, my local library's collection of NY Times microfilm is incomplete for the earliest years, including 1860-65. A larger issue is my wife. If I don't finish this project with WWII she will make Sherman's march through Georgia look like a tea party.
“Ocean of Fear”, a 2007 episode of the Discovery Channel TV documentary series Shark Week, states that the Indianapolis sinking resulted in the most shark attacks on humans in history, and attributes the attacks to the oceanic whitetip shark species. Tiger sharks might have also killed some sailors. The same show attributed most of the deaths on Indianapolis to exposure, salt poisoning and thirst, with the dead being dragged off by sharks.[14]”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Indianapolis_%28CA-35%29#Loss
Here’s a link to the full video (1 hr, 26 mins)
“Ocean of Fear”, a 2007 Discovery Channel TV documentary:
http://vdownload.eu/watch/1452987-ocean-of-fear-worst-shark-attack-ever.html
This is a long detailed article, with photos...
Survivors of 1945 sinking of the USS Indianapolis describe terrifying explosions and shark attacks during worst sea disaster in U.S. Naval history:
Wife and I toured the Missouri at Pearl Harbor a few years back.
We stood where MacArthur spoke and where the representatives of Japan signed the surrender.
The big BB had just come out of dry dock with fresh paint and looked near perfect.
The bridge was a curious mix of 1930s/1940s technology and missile control/launch equipment. The missile gear was from when the Gipper brought out the battleships in the 80s.
Too bad victory has become an unknown foreign concept. Victory implies unbending confidence, determination, independence and fortitude.
The closest we get to that concept in modern America is to loot the American treasure and bleed Americans with the new “compassionate war” concept, all while funding our enemies.
I don’t think the Japanese knew they would be losing Korea at this point. They considered it a part of Japan, even though they treated Koreans horribly.
No, no, no, no, no. Like this:
Wow. The NY Times with a positive article about America and it’s military(”Victory Made In The USA’’). How ‘bout that?
Thank you, Homer. Well done, Sir.
Thank God it was over.
The great tragedy of cataclysms such as World War II is that having suffered them, they make people yearn to create a better world.
The above link is to home movies a freeper’s dad of VJ day celebrations in Hawaii. The freeper dubbed in all the sound effects! Color even. A great look of the time.
Homer - Standing ovation. Your dedication to consistency and attention to detail in these posts is remarkable.
You warm my heart. I have striven for consistency all along, in the hopes that other virtues would follow and certain flaws be made less noticeable.
How's starting this war workin' for ya, huh?
Homer - Thanks so very much for all your efforts on this...I’ve followed this daily. I’ve always been a WWII history buff, but you day-to-day threads have made it a “real time” experience. Thank you for your dedication to this project over the last several years.
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