Posted on 09/02/2025 4:45:15 AM PDT by DFG
20 year old Navy sailor Tony Curtis watched the surrender ceremony from the deck of the submarine tender Proteus about a mile away.
I recall being a kid in the early 70s, it seemed every other man was a WW2 vet, and many of them not that old. Now they are (very) scarce.
I saw a group of Vietnam vets in an auto parts store last summer, they looked older than the WW2 vets back then.
Time is a thief.
My dad was on the USS Gasconade entering Tokyo Bay as the surrender was being signed.
Korea is now on the clock!
A few decades later, for Tokyo, Japan, and America, MacArthur's wish came true:
See some remarkable comparison photos -- the city of Tokyo leveled after a firebombing and completely rebuilt. Drill down on the photos to see full-screen images including several before and shots of scenes in the same location. |
September 2, 1945: The day that Japan formalized that they learned the FO of their December 7, 1941 FAFO.
Imagine...
If this had happened while President Trump was in office,
Some commie judge would rule it illegal and ordered the war to continue.
My dad was on a destroyer watching the signing.
This is the way wars are supposed to end, for us, and why Korea, Iraq and Afghanistan were unfinished wars. Vietnam was a war we lost to the Leftists mass protest movement in the United States, not on the battlefield in Vietnam.
Very true, time waits for no one. WWII vets there are not many left, few Korean War vets also. Vietnam era guys still have some time. We all go down this road, we do not know when it will end. I encourage all freepers to get into a routine of prayer, may God bless you and all those you love.
The A-bombs did their job, but the war did not stop. Back in 1968, Okinawa, I learned the US continued to drop conventional HE and Incendiary explosives on Japan clear to the day of surrender.
My father-in-law had a printed copy of the complete surrender documents. Now I have them.
Today’s enemy is domestic. And far, far away from being defeated.
He said his main thought, while standing on the deck of the Missouri, was that it was insanity for Japan to have gone to war against _this many_ nations.
I despise most things about FDR, but he did know how to fight a total war.
“... that it was insanity for Japan to have gone to war against _this many_ nations.”
Like the story of “The Emperor has no clothes”, I’m guessing not too many people said no to the Emperor.
And for all of the planning, iirc they had to quickly improvise a steel kitchen table for the signing.
Yamamoto and the Navy were strongly against going to war against the US, but the admirals knew there was a good chance they would be assassinated if they didn't go along. Japanese politics weren't very civilized in that era.
Thank you for that correction. Now that I think of it, after the one or two bombs were dropped - did the Emperor want to surrender, but the military tried to do a coup? I seem to recall a movie about that, and the government was able to get the surrender message out on the radio just moments before the military arrived??
From the web (AI):
A group of Japanese junior military officers, led by Major Kenji Hatanaka, attempted a coup on the night of August 14–15, 1945, to prevent Emperor Hirohito’s pre-recorded surrender speech from being broadcast. Known as the Kyūjō Incident (or Imperial Palace Incident), the plotters seized the palace, killed the commander of the Imperial Guard Regiment, and tried to destroy the recording. However, they failed to find the recording and secure the Emperor’s person, and the speech was broadcast as planned, leading to Japan’s formal surrender and the end of World War II.
The man’s name was Toshikazu Kase. He was Yoko Ono’s uncle, believe it or not ... small world.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
