[elcid1970]

IIRC, the few Japanese warships still afloat after V-J Day in 1945 were towed into the middle of Tokyo Bay & blown up by the Allies.

Remember the Betty bombers painted white with green crosses that carried the Japanese surrender delegation? I have seen photos showing every last surviving Jap airplane with the Rising Sun meatball painted over with a white square & a green cross.

Surrender meant surrender even if the Emperor kept his throne.

[bus man]

Sorry, I guess I didn't make my point as clearly as I should have. I'm not saying we should have let Japan keep ANY of her ships post-war; I'm saying that I would have loved to see a few of them preserved as museums. I would have brought them to America and let the people see just what it was that they had defeated. Only later, much later, would I have SOLD them back to Japan -- again, only as museums.

Incidentally, most of Japan's surviving handful of warships were merely scrapped. Nagato was sunk by atomic bombs at Bikini. Katsuragi was used for repatriation duties and then scrapped. I think a few of the destroyers were given to China. IIRC, the U.S. did not keep any of the ships as prizes, as we could have done had we so desired.