Posted on 09/02/2015 4:31:54 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
When I began this project the only nearby place that had N.Y. Times microfilm from the 1940’s was McHenry Library at UC Santa Cruz. I later learned that a local community college, Cabrillo College, also had NYT microfilm. But their film was of inferior quality and their equipment was poorly maintained. Eventually they decided to rely entirely on their online subscription to N.Y. Times archives and discontinued the microfilm altogether. So imagine my chagrin when I arrived at McHenry library for a day of news gathering only to find that the microfilm was gone. They had packed up all the film older than 1967 or thereabouts and sent it off to a warehouse in Berkeley. I feared that decision meant an untimely end to my project and was thoroughly disappointed. But a few phone calls to area colleges and public libraries paid off when I learned that the Monterey Public Library had a collection of N.Y. Times microfilm covering the period I needed. So in April or May of 2010 I drove to Monterey and began a relationship with the staff at the Monterey Public Library that I look forward to enjoying even though I have finished collecting the news of World War II. All these posts from July 7, 1940 until now came from MPL microfilm. This project would not have been possible without their microfilm and equipment, and also the skill, courtesy and professionalism of the librarians, technicians and volunteers. Thank you, folks. I owe you a lot more than the late fees on those books I checked out.
I want to especially thank my friend Victor, the librarian who came to be responsible for keeping their equipment running and maintained. That is no easy task where the microfilm readers are concerned. They are old machines and require TLC to keep functioning properly. Especially when this one guy comes in a couple time a month and during each visit makes as many copies as they would normally produce in several years. But Victor was always there to replenish the printer with the special paper the finicky copier insists on or to clean the glass plates when they got too grimy, or to call the contracted service company when something wore out. Twice he and a technician unrolled reels of tape that had been put on the reel backwards and put them back on correctly. All this in addition to his regular librarian duties. Victor took an interest in what I was doing and we often talked about the war and it effected our lives and the country. He had an uncle that died as a POW on a Japanese ship torpedoed by an American submarine. I learned a bit about Victor’s background over the last 5 years. For example, before he became a librarian he was a teacher. And before that he had position with the 2nd Battalion, 47th Infantry (Mechanized), 9th Infantry Division. He spent the period Jan. 1967-Feb. 1968 in Vietnam as a crewmember of an M113 Armored Personnel Carrier (see photo). The timing of that assignment meant that he got to experience not just the well-known Tet offensive of 1968 but also the one in 1967.
One other thing I learned about Victor is how he got his name. He was born 70 years ago today, on September 2, 1945. So his name came right out of the news.
Happy birthday, Victor, and thank you for your lifetime of service to our country.
The News of the Week in Review
The Final Week: Steps Leading Up to the Formal Surrender of Japan (map) – 20
Surrender – 21-22
The Stage for Surrender (photo) – 22
Fifteen News Questions – 23
A New Map of Asia Begins to Take Shape (map) – 24
Chinese See a Chance to Avoid Civil Strife (by Tillman Durdin) – 25
Americans Entering Japan See Entirely Alien Land (by Henry C. Wolfe) – 26
“We Made Reservations Dec. 7, 1941” (cartoon) – 27
London Moves Cautiously to Frame Indian Policy (Matthews) – 27-28
Britain Balances Palestine Claims (by Sydney Gruson) – 28
Answers to Fifteen News Questions – 28
Editorials – 29-31
The War Against Japan
Topics of the Times
Letters to the Times – 32-34
The Best Selling Books, Here and Elsewhere (from N.Y. Times Book Review) – 34
http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/8/02.htm
September 2nd, 1945 (SUNDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Press censorship ends.
JAPAN: The battleship USS Missouri (BB-63) is the scene of the signing of formal surrender documents by representatives of the Japanese government. The “Mighty Mo” and much of the US 3rd Fleet is anchored in Tokyo Bay. (Picture)
General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, commander of U.S. Army Forces in the Pacific, signs for the Allies; Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, commander of the Pacific Ocean Areas and Pacific Fleet, for the U.S.; Admiral Sir Bruce A. Fraser, Commander-in-Chief, British Pacific Fleet, for Britain. Other Allied commanders were present along with former POW Lieutenant Generals Arthur Percival, former commander of the British Malaya Command and Jonathan Wainright, former commander the U.S. Far East Command. The Japanese Foreign Minister SHIGEMITSU Mamotu and General UMEZU Yoshijiro, Chief of Imperial General Staff, sign for the Japanese government. The treaty calls for a U.S. Army of Occupation which will rule the Japanese Home Islands, but Emperor Hirohito remains the head of state and Japanese political and police officials maintain their positions. The Americans progressively disband the high command and military organizations. U.S. forces occupy island possessions in the Pacific. Korea was placed under American and Soviet occupation, pending the establishment of a democratic Korean government. The Japanese cede the Kurile Islands and the southern half of Sakhalin to the U.S.S.R. Outer Mongolia becomes part of the Soviet sphere of influence and the Soviets share the facilities and supervision of Lushun (Port Arthur) and the Manchurian railways with China. The Chinese regain sovereignty over Inner Mongolia and Manchuria, as well as the islands of Taiwan (Formosa) and Hainan. The British regain control of Hong Kong.
PACIFIC OCEAN: Japanese submarine I-41 is sunk by USS Batfish (SS-31) north of Luzon. (Mike Yared)(144 and 145)
Japanese troops in the Palau Islands; Truk Atoll; and Pagan and Rota Islands in the Mariana Islands, surrender to US forces.
FRENCH INDOCHINA: Vietnamese communist Ho Chi Minh declares the independence of Vietnam from France and proclaims himself president. The proclamation paraphrased the U.S. Declaration of Independence in declaring, “All men are born equal: the Creator has given us inviolable rights, life, liberty, and happiness!” He is cheered by an enormous crowd gathered in Hanoi’s Ba Dinh Square.
CANADA: HMC ML 116 paid off.
U.S.A.: Top pop songs include “If I Loved You” and “Till the End of Time” by Perry Como; “On The Atchison, Topeka And Santa Fe” by Johnny Mercer; and “You Two Timed Me One Time Too Often” by Tex Ritter.
Homer, thank you so much for these posts. I’ve followed them since the beginning and have really enjoyed seeing events unfold as they happened.Thanks for taking on such a huge project!
Thanks again Homer, for your diligent posting of these articles. It has been amazing to follow these events in, “real time.” Your efforts are greatly appreciated.
Thanks to Homer Simpson for a most enjoyable and informative series of posts. Well done!
The man on the far right of the page 1 picture is Toshikazu Kase, Shigemitsu's assistant. Kase later would admit that he was moved by MacArthur's opening remarks, particularly the second found in the penultimate paragraph of the second column on #4, concerning "freedom, tolerance, and justice," and said that at that moment he thought to himself about what the Japanese would have said if the roles were reversed, and was grateful.
A good collection of surrender pictures are here, a newsreel of the surrender is here, and silent color film here.
Homer, thank-you for your dedication and commitment to see this years long project completed. The learning experience has been exceptional.
The teacher gets five star ratings in all categories!
And Victor, thank-you for your assistance and service to your country. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
lastly, a round of thanks to all of the FReepers who contributed to the discussions whether it be from their own research, experiences or family anecdotes.
I am going to miss visiting this daily thread!
“Vietnamese communist Ho Chi Minh declares the independence of Vietnam from France and proclaims himself president.”
If we include the Japanese era, The Viet Cong were fighting almost continuously for over 35 years before the fall of Saigon in ‘75?
Thank you for these for doing this for us here on FR. I have been educated and entertained by your hard work. I really appreciate what you have done.
Once again, Homer, a most magnificent effort on a long project, now complete.
I regret not catching you project until just last year, I missed a marvelous story.
Stuff about Korea, India and “Palestine” in the news, but everyone is too busy celebrating the end of WW2 to notice.
As everyone else has said, I cannot thank you enough for the tremendous task you have undertaken these past six years. This has been such an informative lesson for so many of us.
Homer, thank you for an enjoyable time. It renewed my interest in that time period when my father served and traveled the Burma Road to South China. I am in your debt and have lost part of my daily routine.
Thanks, Homer - you probably have no idea how much inspiration you brought to a host of readers in this amazing project. Once I got into it, your contributions were often the first thing I looked for when I opened my laptop. Reliving the experiences of my parents, uncles and aunts in the pages of the NYT is something that I’ll miss; you have my gratitude for bringing that into my life, and I appreciate all the hard work you put into it, as I do all the commentary contributed by numerous other FRiends.
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