http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/7/05.htm
August 5th, 1945 (SUNDAY)
CHINA: Chinese troops capture Tanchuk and Hsinning from the Japanese.
MANCHURIA: Mukden: Dr. Marcel Junod, on his way to Tokyo, as the new representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross to Japan, visits the PoW camp. Dr. Junod is appalled at the intimidation of the PoWs, and is especially disturbed that none of the PoW doctors are allowed to talk to him when he insists in visiting the hospital. Dr. Junod also mentions seeing stacks of undistributed Red Cross parcels in the corner of the hut, and asking why they had not been given out to the prisoners. He is informed by the commandant that they were being “saved for later ... at Christmas.” And Major Robert Peaty (the senior British officer) notes in his diary, “No one was allowed contact with [Dr. Junod],” and that all prisoners were sent to the factory some distance away, “[p]resumably to keep them away from the Red Cross visitor.” (151)(Linda Goetz Holmes)
KURILE ISLANDS: USN PB4Y-2 Privateers of Patrol Bombing Squadron One Hundred Twenty (VPB-120) based at NAAF Shemya, Aleutian Islands, attack 2 enemy vessels off Shimushu Island; 3 vessels south of Otomari Zaki, Onekotan Island; and a beached ship on Araido Island.
JAPAN: During the night of 5/6 August, the USAAF Twentieth Air Force dispatches 612 B-29 Superfortresses to fly 1 mining, 1 bombing and 4 incendiary raids against Japan; 2 B-29s are lost.
- Mission 311: 27 B-29s mine the waters of the Sakai, Yonago, Nakaumi Lagoon, Miyazu, Maizuru, Tsuruga, Obama, Najin and Geijitsu areas; 1 other B-29 mines an alternate target.
- Mission 312: 63 B-29s attack the Saga urban area destroying 0.02 sq mi (0.05 sq km), 1.5% of the city; 1 B-29 is lost.
- Mission 313: 92 B-29s hit the Maebashi urban area destroying 1 sq mi (2.59 sq km), 42.5% of the city; 4 others hit alternate targets.
- Mission 314: 250 B-29s attack the Nishinomiya-Mikage urban area destroying 2.8 sq mi (7.25 sq km), 29.6% of the city; 3 others hit alternate targets; 1 B-29 is lost.
- Mission 315: 106 B-29s bomb the Ube Coal Liquefaction Co. facility at Ube destroying 100% of the refining units and destroying or damaging 80% of other structures; 2 others hit alternate targets.
- Mission 316: 64 B-29s attack the Imabari urban area destroying 0.73 sq mi (1.89 sq km), 76% of the city area.
In Japan, 100+ USAAF Twentieth Air Force P-51s strike airfields and military installations in large area around Tokyo, scoring especially effective hits at Katori Airfield; the USAAF Far East Air Force dispatches 330+ B-24s, B-25s, A-26 Invaders, P-47s, and P-51s to pound Tarumizu town, the industrial area on Kyushu and many targets of opportunity on Kyushu and in the Ryukyu Islands.
On Okinawa, HQ 333d Bombardment Group (Very Heavy) and 435th, 460th and 507th Bombardment Squadrons (Very Heavy) arrive at Kadena, Okinawa from the US with B-29s. These are the first Eighth Air Force B-29 units to arrive.
USN submarines sink two Japanese merchant cargo ships in the Pacific.
The USS Billfish sinks the 1,091 ton Kori Maru off the Kwantung Peninsula with a four torpedo spread (three hits) (Henry Sirotin 101)
MARIANAS ISLANDS: Seven US aircraft take off tonight for Japan, including the Enola Gay, heading for Hiroshima armed with an atomic bomb.
CANADA: Minesweeper HMCS Granby paid off Halifax, Nova Scotia.
U.S.A.: President Truman approves the use of the atomic bomb against Japan. (William L. Howard)
Have we dropped the bomb yet?
MacArthur is going to be totally bummed out very soon.
Thanks for doing this, Homer. It has been so enlightening to read the real-time stories and news from the war. Today’s paper is obviously especially important because tomorrow “the curtain goes up.”
I’m participularly interested in the discussion of the upcoming invasion because my Dad was somewhere in the Pacific 70 years ago today as part of the invasion force being amassed. The planned invasion of Japan was going to be much larger than the invasion of Normandy. Where was all the materiel being stored? There seems to be little written about the invasion plans and preparations because it was all eclipsed by the event of Aug. 6.