http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/7/29.htm
August 29th, 1945 (WEDNESDAY)
HONG KONG: The British fleet arrives to reclaim the colony for Britain.
CHINA: Mao Tse-tung and Chiang Kai-shek meet at Chungking for talks to try to avert civil war between the Communists and the Nationalists.
SINGAPORE: Japanese troops in southeast Asia, numbering about 740,000, surrender in Singapore to British Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten, Supreme Allied Commander Southeast Asia. General ITAGAKI Seishiro, Commander of the 7th Area Army, signs the document for the Japanese.
JAPAN: In the Kurile Islands, Soviet forces occupy Etorofu Island. The Japanese garrisons on Halmahera and Morotai Islands surrender. The first Allied prisoners in Japan are liberated by USN forces.
The USN’s Task Group 30.6 commanded by Commodore Rodger W. Simpson arrives in Tokyo Bay to undertake emergency evacuation of Allied POWs in waterfront areas. Accompanying Commodore Simpson was Commander Harold E. Stassen, USNR, Flag Secretary to Commander, Third Fleet, Admiral William F. Halsey.
Guided by TBM Avengers from the light aircraft carrier USS Cowpens (CVL-25) and taken to the scene in LCVPs from the high speed transport USS Gosselin (APD-126), Commodore Simpson carries out his orders. The appearance of the LCVPs off the camp at Omori (the first liberated) triggers “an indescribable scene of jubilation and emotion” by the former captives, some of whom swim out to the approaching landing craft. Many of the POWs, suffering from malnutrition and other health problems, required immediate medical care and the hospital ship USS Benevolence (AH-13) is stationed nearby to receive them. Their treatment as POWs was described as an “inquisitional form of barbarism.”
The battleship USS Missouri anchors in Tokyo Bay.
Off Japan, the USN submarine Segundo (SS-398) encounters Japanese submarine HIJMS I-401 off the northeast coast of Honshu, and “after considerable negotiation,” places prize crew on board.
EAST INDIES: The Japanese garrisons on Halmahera and Morotai Islands in the Netherlands East Indies surrender.
U.S.A.: Secret Army and Navy reports of official enquiries into the raid on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 are made public. The blame is placed on a lack of preparedness, confusion and a breakdown of inter-service coordination. Former Secretary of State Cordell Hull, General of the Army George C. Marshall, Chief of Staff, U.S. Army, and former Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Admiral Harold R. Stark are criticized. President Harry S. Truman objects to the findings on Hull and Marshall.
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