Posted on 09/02/2010 8:46:42 AM PDT by abb
Aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, Japan formally surrenders to the Allies, bringing an end to World War II.
By the summer of 1945, the defeat of Japan was a foregone conclusion. The Japanese navy and air force were destroyed. The Allied naval blockade of Japan and intensive bombing of Japanese cities had left the country and its economy devastated. At the end of June, the Americans captured Okinawa, a Japanese island from which the Allies could launch an invasion of the main Japanese home islands. U.S. General Douglas MacArthur was put in charge of the invasion, which was code-named "Operation Olympic" and set for November 1945.
The invasion of Japan promised to be the bloodiest seaborne attack of all time, conceivably 10 times as costly as the Normandy invasion in terms of Allied casualties. On July 16, a new option became available when the United States secretly detonated the world's first atomic bomb in the New Mexico desert. Ten days later, the Allies issued the Potsdam Declaration, demanding the "unconditional surrender of all the Japanese armed forces." Failure to comply would mean "the inevitable and complete destruction of the Japanese armed forces and just as inevitable the utter devastation of the Japanese homeland." On July 28, Japanese Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki responded by telling the press that his government was "paying no attention" to the Allied ultimatum. U.S. President Harry Truman ordered the devastation to proceed, and on August 6, the U.S. B-29 bomber Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, killing an estimated 80,000 people and fatally wounding thousands more.
After the Hiroshima attack, a faction of Japan's supreme war council favored acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration, but the majority resisted unconditional surrender. On August 8, Japan's desperate situation took another turn for the worse when the USSR declared war against Japan. The next day, Soviet forces attacked in Manchuria, rapidly overwhelming Japanese positions there, and a second U.S. atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese coastal city of Nagasaki.
Just before midnight on August 9, Japanese Emperor Hirohito convened the supreme war council. After a long, emotional debate, he backed a proposal by Prime Minister Suzuki in which Japan would accept the Potsdam Declaration "with the understanding that said Declaration does not compromise any demand that prejudices the prerogatives of His Majesty as the sovereign ruler." The council obeyed Hirohito's acceptance of peace, and on August 10 the message was relayed to the United States.
Early on August 12, the United States answered that "the authority of the emperor and the Japanese government to rule the state shall be subject to the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers." After two days of debate about what this statement implied, Emperor Hirohito brushed the nuances in the text aside and declared that peace was preferable to destruction. He ordered the Japanese government to prepare a text accepting surrender.
In the early hours of August 15, a military coup was attempted by a faction led by Major Kenji Hatanaka. The rebels seized control of the imperial palace and burned Prime Minister Suzuki's residence, but shortly after dawn the coup was crushed. At noon that day, Emperor Hirohito went on national radio for the first time to announce the Japanese surrender. In his unfamiliar court language, he told his subjects, "we have resolved to pave the way for a grand peace for all the generations to come by enduring the unendurable and suffering what is insufferable." The United States immediately accepted Japan's surrender.
President Truman appointed MacArthur to head the Allied occupation of Japan as Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers. For the site of Japan's formal surrender, Truman chose the USS Missouri, a battleship that had seen considerable action in the Pacific and was named after Truman's native state. MacArthur, instructed to preside over the surrender, held off the ceremony until September 2 in order to allow time for representatives of all the major Allied powers to arrive.
On Sunday, September 2, more than 250 Allied warships lay at anchor in Tokyo Bay. The flags of the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union, and China fluttered above the deck of the Missouri. Just after 9 a.m. Tokyo time, Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu signed on behalf of the Japanese government. General Yoshijiro Umezu then signed for the Japanese armed forces, and his aides wept as he made his signature.
Supreme Commander MacArthur next signed on behalf of the United Nations, declaring, "It is my earnest hope and indeed the hope of all mankind that from this solemn occasion a better world shall emerge out of the blood and carnage of the past." Ten more signatures were made, by the United States, China, Britain, the USSR, Australia, Canada, France, the Netherlands, and New Zealand, respectively. Admiral Chester W. Nimitz signed for the United States. As the 20-minute ceremony ended, the sun burst through low-hanging clouds. The most devastating war in human history was over.
Modern Democrats Deeply Saddened.
For those who say we “won wwii in less time than it took to win in Iraq”, we entered several years late into the war and ended it abruptly with several nuclear bombs.
The Mighty Mo... had the pleasure of visiting her twice.
Just think.... We were TESTING our newly created ‘Atomic Bomb’ just months before then. Hard to imagine a government program moving that fast, certainly considering how things are today...... When we went to test it, they didn’t even know whether or not it would work.
LOL Thanks for this post abb. My brother was born this day, and I almost forgot to send him a HBD email. I’m cheap.
I’ll get on it right now.
Enjoy these victorious memories of America’s Greatest Generation of whom my father, David, veteran of CBI, was a part.
The current Regime and this Congress, IMO, disgraces our heritage; disgraces America’s Greatest Generation who sacrificed for us; and continues to disgrace this nation and future generations of Americans who we owe a free and secure nation.
Mac always had a way with words.
Well, she sure as hell won't be backing the 'We SUPPORT Atomic Bombs War Memorial/Church' a few blocks from Hiroshima's 'ground zero'....
Well, she sure as hell won't be backing the 'We SUPPORT Atomic Bombs War Memorial/Church' a few blocks from Hiroshima's 'ground zero' Peace Park... Somehow liberals would see that as us 'giving the finger' to the Japanese... - double standard and all.
Thank You Harry Truman for dropping the a-bombs that ended the war early thereby saving hundreds of thousands US troops including, my grandfather, not to mention the MILLIONS of Japanese civilians that would have died in an invasion.
How about just a simple monument to General Leslie Groves at Hiroshima. Or one to General Paul Tibbets.
The Tibbets monument could say simply, “Good Shot!” or some such...
Well, they sure don’t look very happy about the whole thing.
But they have only themselves to blame.
A great day to commemorate! To all those fallen American Heroes our eternal gratitude! To all those who fought, who fought and died and their families who gave so much our eternal gratitude! God Bless you all!
I totally agree! Given all of the info I’ve watched and read on it, the entire thing was nearly a miracle, given the speed at which they developed everything, especially considering our technology of the time. We sure as hell were a ‘different country’ back then....
Google books has a complete archive of all the Life magazines. A few weeks ago I looked up the issue that covered the dropping of the bombs and this ceremony. Two things stood out to me when I read through the articles and the pictures. It stated clearly that there was no exchange of any salutes between any of the Japanese and the allies before or after the signing of the documents. And then as the Japanese delegation was leaving, a photo showed that the military companies that were assembled were at ease and talking among themselves and completely ignored the enemy as they left the ship. This enemy was completely dishonored and humiliated-and that was a good thing. If anyone is interested in looking at the magazine in the archives I think the issue was in September but a week or two after September 2.
I watched “Letters From Iwo Jima” last night—an EXCELLENT Clint Eastwood-directed film.
What struck me was the waste of lives for honor. The Japanese knew they would lose the war, but lurched headlong into the everafter on the orders of the highest ranking officers. No one left alive was patriotic to them. Darwin incarnate.
It's nice to know we'd have the support of elite liberals for a monument like this - they DO support Muslims giving us the finger after all... and with our Tibbets tribute we could show we saved hundreds of thousands of lives by ending the war early. More than can be said for the radical Muslim idea for Ground Zero...
And my dad then learned he would NOT have to complete his training for the invasion of Japan. He had just come back from Europe where he fought in Patton’s Third Army.
Lots of stuff I didn't know about, and just how wide open Asia was after the collapse of the Japanese.
B U M P
.jpg/300px-USS_Neches_(AO-47).jpg)
The Neches fueling the North Carolina.
Suggest you take notes and pictures and do a vanity post recounting the event.
Real live journalism from a FReeper!
Japanese foreign minister “Shiggy” Shigemitsu Mamoru, in the dark suit with a cane, would have his old job back in 1954—preceded by Okazaki Katsuo, standing behind him, who became foreign minister in 1952.
Macarthur had Hirohito travel to home the US Occupation HQ. Notice that Hirohito is dressed like an Edwardian dandy, while Macarthur is wearing his Khakis, unbuttoned collar, and the casual pose. It says to the Japanese - "I'm not playing diplomatic games here. Don't doubt that I'm in charge."
Given your appreciation for the Clint Eastwood film “Letters from Iwo Jima” (which I agree is excellent), you might find “Flyboys; a True Story of Courage” by James Bradley interesting. (Bradley is also author of “Flags of Our Fathers,” the basis of that other Clint Eastwood Iwo Jima movie.) Here is an Amazon link:
As the comments on the book reveal, Bradley's take on the causes of the Pacific war between the U.S and Japan has a decidedly liberal/left tilt that fails to take into account Japan's own innate imperialistic impulses (ones that predate Admiral Perry) and their own responsibility for the morality of the decisions they made.
However, the reason I recommend the book is for its excellent description of the corruption of Bushido into the “Spirit Warrior” ethos of the Imperial Japanese armed forces and the brutality of the Japanese towards their own soldiers. Bradley does a pretty good job of recreating the mentality gripping the isolated Japanese garrison on Chichi Jima as they awaited their onrushing destruction while listening to the radio relay reports coming in from Japanese forces being annihilated a hundred miles away on Iwo Jima.
Also anniversary of TV show...
Beverly Hills 09-02-10
Hmm—then Life was mistaken or lying or maybe the salute was just meant to be among the allies since they are all looking at each other not the others and the Japanese guy saluted out of habit.
Ni kidding. My Father In Law was on a troop carrier going from Italy to the Pacific theater. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. Then they changed course and docked in Boston. Zippity-do-dah—he was a Fort Dix for a week and then told to go home.
I know a lot of guys had to hang out in Europe for a while, but he was home for Columbus Day.
Ni kidding. My Father In Law was on a troop carrier going from Italy to the Pacific theater. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. Then they changed course and docked in Boston. Zippity-do-dah—he was a Fort Devens for a week and then told to go home.
I know a lot of guys had to hang out in Europe for a while, but he was home for good by Columbus Day.
It is also the anniversary of the surrender of Emperor Napoleon III to the Prussians during the Franco-Prussian War.
OK. I’m not going to argue about it.
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Thanks abb. |
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The ship was named for the Neches River in East Texas which forms the eastern City Limits of my hometown, Beaumont, Texas. I grew up water skiing on it and fishing in it’s Bayous.
Being an oiler, it was probably named for the Neches because much of the fuel was refined on the Neches from S. Beaumont Southward to Sabine Pass. ( Needless to say, our skiing and fishing was done from N. Beaumont northward).
We had the Magnolia Petroleum Co. Refinery (Now Exxon-Mobil) and further South there were the Pure Oil, Gulf Oil and Texaco Refineries Plus others whose names I cannot remember. My Dad worked for a Number of years at the Magnolia Petroleum Refinery before the War until he entered the Army for WWII.
Back in the day the Navy followed a naming protocol for ships. For example, battleships were named after states, cruisers after cities, destroyers after people, submarines after fish, and so on. As it turns out, oilers were named after rivers, and with a few exceptions, those with Indian names. So for example, the second Neches AO-47 (the first, AO-5 was sunk by a Japanese submarine a day out of Pearl on January 23, 1942), was a Mattaponi Class and her sister ships were the Mattaponi AO-41, the Monongahela AO-42, the Patuxent AO-44, and the Tappahannock AO-43.
Hails to Fleet Oilers! May I respectfully submit, though, that USS/USNS Hassayampa (AO-145) (T-AO 145) is probably the most decorated and memorable fleet oiler the U.S. Navy and the Military Sealift Command has ever had.
http://angelwind.com/hassayampa/ribbons_awards.html
Terry Kuehn
USS Hassayampa (AO-145)
1960-1963
Very impressive. I wish I could find something similar for the Neches. As far as her being the most decorated, it’s something written in the ship’s history, and we all know old tanker men would never lie. At any rate, she served in every major invasion in the Pacific including Guadalcanal, Iwo, and Okinawa, where she distinguished herself as the only oiler to shoot down an enemy aircraft. She was struck by a dud torpedo and hit a no-so-dud mine, blowing a 30 foot hole in her side; prior to the Battle of Leyte Gulf she, with a submarine escort, was used as bait to pull the Japanese fleet into a better position; at one point she had two Japanese aviator POWs she had picked up on board; she performed over 1000 fuelings without parting a line or losing a crewman, and was selected by Bull Halsey to represent the oiler fleet at the surrender - steaming up from Nagasaki - and tied up two over from the Missouri. She finished the war with 9 battle stars. After the war she participated at the first a-bomb tests at Bikini and eventually got back to Long Beach just in time to watch the flight of the Spruce Goose. During Vietnam she was on Yankee Station during Operation Market Time where while replenishing the destroyer Orleck in heavy seas, the destroyer hit her and actually left one of the tin can’s anchor on the Neches’ deck - I bet that was loud. At any rate, my dad’s the last plank holder - he’s 88 - and still has the ship’s commissioning pennant and a picture of the Neches hanging over his desk.
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