Posted on 08/17/2015 4:27:58 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
Parley is Put Off (Jones) – 2-3
Cousin of Hirohito Forms New Japanese Government – 3-4
Red Army Fighting – 4-5
Russians Minimize Atom Bomb’s Part – 5
Japanese Forces in China Agree to Surrender, Chungking Hears – 5
China Communists Ask Part in Peace – 6
India-Burma Force Waits for Release (Durdin) – 6
Enemy May Yield on Nimitz’ Flagship – 6
Churchill Voices Concern over Division of Europe (Matthews) – 7
Churchill and Attlee Addresses in House of Commons on Britain and Her Role in Foreign Affairs – 8-11
Russia and Poland Agree on Border – 11
World News Summarized – 11
Ie Island to Treat Enemy Austerely (Kluckhohn) – 12
War’s End Halted Big Penang Blow – 12
Kenney Fliers’ Bag is 11,900 Planes (Jones) – 12-13
Luzon Foe Ignores Call to Surrender * – 13
A War of Superlatives (Baldwin) – 14
Day’s Communiques – 15
* From the article: “The principle Luzon fighting was precipitated by pre-dawn Japanese banzai attacks against Thirty-second Division units. As in a similar action yesterday, one American was killed and five were wounded.”
The guys in my father’s former division had to turn in early after the VJ Day party so they could get up and go back to work the next day – HJS.
http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/7/17.htm
August 17th, 1945 (FRIDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Westminster: The long and the short and the tall may worry less about their “demob” dates - the day when British servicemen discard uniform and come home - as a result of a scheme to accelerate the release process. The official target increased today from 115,000 to 171,000 a month, to return a million men and 100,000 women by 31 December instead of 825,000. An additional million people will be released from munitions work within eight weeks, many of them to begin a belated retirement. Some service people will be disappointed when they study the small print of the Labour government’s plan. An individual’s release depends on his service trade and number. Men in trades where skills are scarce, such as Fleet Air Arm radar mechanics, will find themselves in uniform for months, perhaps years longer than simple truck drivers. The minister of fuel and power, Emmanuel Shinwell, has announced a drive to increase coal production by 18 million tons annually to avert fuel shortages.
The government announces a programme of social reform, with a national health service at its centre.
FRANCE: Paris: The death sentence on Marshal Petain is commuted to life, on account of his advanced age.
FRENCH INDOCHINA: Ho Chi Minh, the leader of the Indochina Communist Party’s National Liberation Committee, reads a proclamation calling on the Vietnamese people to begin the revolution. Viet Minh troops seize power from Japanese puppet government authorities in the Hanoi suburbs.
MANCHURIA: This morning the Russian’s liberate the Japanese prisoner-of-war camp at Diren. Included amongst the American prisoners is Arnold Bocksel, now weighing 97 pounds from New York. (Newsday.com Rachel Leifer, August 14, 2005)
JAPAN: Hirohito dispatches three princes to carry word of the surrender to various units of the armed forces. Prince Takeda is sent to the Kwantung and Korean armies. Prince Kan-in is sent the the Southern Army and the 10th Area Fleet HQ. Prince Asaka is sent to the China Expeditionary Army and the China Area Fleet. These missions, of members of the Royal Family, are successful at convincing the various commanders that the decision is in fact that of the Emperor and not that of “traitors around the Throne.”
Soldiers of the Army Air Signal Training Division advance on Tokyo by train after receiving the Emperor’s broadcast. They are convinced that he has been advised by traitors and it is not his decision. They occupy the Imperial Museum of Art. It will take two days for them to be removed, in the end by actual armed assault.
KURILE ISLANDS: In the Kurile Islands, the Soviet 101st Infantry Division lands on Shimushu Island. The Japanese 91st Division counterattacks resulting in heated combat.
NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES: The Indonesian Nationalist Achmad Sukarno proclaims the independent Republic of Indonesia, upon hearing confirmation of the Japanese surrender.
CANADA: Corvette HMCS Brantford paid off Sorel, Province of Quebec.
Gate vessel HMCS Festubert paid off Halifax, Nova Scotia. HMC ML 124 is paid off.
U.S.A.: 100,000 workers are laid off from war jobs as contracts end.
The motion picture “The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry” is released today. Based on a play by Thomas Job, this film-noir drama is directed by Robert Siodmak and stars George Sanders, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Ella Raines and Harry von Zell. The plot involves a bachelor (Sanders), head designer in a small-town cloth factory, who lives with his two selfish sisters. He becomes involved with a new colleague (Raines) and the sisters try and break the romance up.
Submarine USS Mero commissioned.
ARGENTINA: U-977 surrendered after a lengthy patrol from Norway including a 66-day submerged run.
Thanks for all your work over the past 6 years pitting this together, amazing time and effort, Bravo!
Interesting to see how the Communist positioned themselves to take over China and N Korea as the Japanese were beaten, boy we really screwed up the peace here.
U-977
http://uboat.net/boats/u977.htm
The boat left Kristiansand, Norway on 2 May 1945 for a combat patrol in the English Channel. When Germany surrendered a few days later the boat was outbound in Norwegian waters. After deciding to make for Argentina, Schäffer gave the married men on board the chance to go ashore. Roughly a third of the crew, 16 men, opted for this, and landed by dinghy near Holsenöy on 10 May. They all ended up in British hands. U-977 then sailed for Argentina. One continuously submerged Schnorchel run of 66 days was made between May 10 and July 14, the second longest of the war (after 68 days by U-978).
The journey was extremely stressful for the crew and many were apparently on the verge of a nervous breakdown. The boat stopped at the Cape Verde Islands for a short swim break and then proceeded south on the surface on one diesel. After crossing the equator on July 23, U-977 arrived in Mar del Plata, Argentina on 17 August after being at sea for 108 days.
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There were a lot of regrettable outcomes of World War 2 that were made inevitable possibly as early as August 1939 when the Russo-German Non Aggression Pact was concluded, or certainly no later than June 22, 1941 when Hitler invaded the USSR and America and Britain chose to cast their lot with Stalin.
First among those was that the Soviet Union would occupy and dominate Eastern Europe. Second was that we were going to have a Cold War with them as soon as the war was over. In fact, I think the Cold War actually began when Stalin installed the Lublin Committee as the Soviet puppet government of Poland in early 1944.*
As for the Far East, we did not “lose” China. A hopelessly corrupt Nationalist regime, that was ineffective at governing, brought about its own collapse. No amount of American aid would have kept Mao’s communists from seizing power. Chaing had deliberately hoarded his supply of American equipment just for the post-war showdown with the communists. There Soviets will allow Mao to take and use freely all of the military hardware they are pouring into Manchuria. In the end, the communists were better organized, better led and better motivated than the Nationalists. That’s why they won.
In fact, our exclusive possession of the atomic bomb is the only thing that curbed Stalin’s appetite in any appreciable way. The Soviets have pushed the “we dropped the bomb just to intimidate Russia” meme so vigorously over the years because they were in fact intimidated by it. It’s no coincidence that as soon as they got the bomb themselves, within a year their stooges in North Korea tested the waters by invading South Korea.
Stalin, like Churchill, was clear, focused and consistent in pursuing the international aims of his country. Unlike Stalin, though, Churchill lacked the power and now the political office to make his plans effective. The United States did not pursue a clearly focused foreign policy until 1947, when we passed the National Security Act and Secretary of State George Marshall adopted the long-term policy of “containment,” which ultimately came to fruition under the Reagan administration. But by 1947, too much damage had been done.
*Do not assume that the statement above is intended to imply or assert that we should have backed Nazi Germany in its quest of Lebensraum against the USSR. I do not adhere to such views in any respect. Hitler had to be defeated, and it was far more convenient to spend copious amounts of Russian blood to do it than it was to shed copious amounts of American blood for the same purpose.
I have a feeling we may hear more from this Ho Chi Minh fellow in the future.
What better time to strike than now, when there is clearly a power vacuum in Indochina? Not only can we expect to hear from Ho Chi Minh again, the French may have difficulty in re-occupying the region.
Many of the Annamites, as they were called, had experience in France during World War 1. Not so many of them saw front-line combat duty, but many of them worked in munitions factories and as logistical support for the French armies. An Annamite road crew was responsible for maintenance of “the Sacred Way,” the road bringing troops and supplies to Verdun. I’m guessing a good number of them were exposed to Marxist doctrine during their visit.
It turns out sometime later a WWII veteran took the tour and struck up a conversation about that plane. Not only did he fly the P-38, but that was his P-38. They are rushing the job so he might have one last chance to fly his old bird.
http://www.denverpost.com/news/local/ci_28647766/wwii-pilot-100-reunited-with-his-plane
What happened to the U-Boat crew? Given the Argentines’ sympathies, I’m guessing they were allowed to stay.
the French may have difficulty in re-occupying the region
Not that they won't try. The British are coming to grips with the fact that the War has changed their "Empire" but it will take a while for the French to get there.
http://www.taiwandocuments.org/surrender07.htm
Emperor Hirohito’s Surrender Rescript to Japanese Troops
17 August 1945
TO THE OFFICERS AND MEN OF THE IMPERIAL FORCES:
Three years and eight months have elapsed since we declared war on the United States and Britain. During this time our beloved men of the army and navy, sacrificing their lives, have fought valiantly on disease-stricken and barren lands and on tempestuous waters in the blazing sun, and of this we are deeply grateful.
Now that the Soviet Union has entered the war against us, to continue the war under the present internal and external conditions would be only to increase needlessly the ravages of war finally to the point of endangering the very foundation of the Empire’s existence
With that in mind and although the fighting spirit of the Imperial Army and Navy is as high as ever, with a view to maintaining and protecting our noble national policy we are about to make peace with the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union and Chungking.
To a large number of loyal and brave officers and men of the Imperial forces who have died in battle and from sicknesses goes our deepest grief. At the same time we believe the loyalty and achievements of you officers and men of the Imperial forces will for all time be the quintessence of our nation.
We trust that you officers and men of the Imperial forces will comply with our intention and will maintain a solid unity and strict discipline in your movements and that you will bear the hardest of all difficulties, bear the unbearable and leave an everlasting foundation of the nation.
| Seal of the Empire |
Signed: H I R O H I T O
Source: U. S. Govt. I Imperial Rescript Granted the Ministers of War and Navy. 17 August 1945. Reproduced in facsimile as Serial *2118, in Psychological Warfare, Part Two, Supplement *2 CINCPAC-CINCPOA Bulletin #164-45. 64-45.
TRAGEDY OVER WEATHERFORD
The August 17, 1945 night-time collision of two B-29 Superfortress Bombers
The rest of the story and it is interesting, the source of many myths:
https://suite.io/christopher-eger/3jf27m
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