Los Angeles Times, August 10, 1945
http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/7/10.htm
August 10th, 1945 (FRIDAY)
MANCHUKUO: Soviet forces have advanced 120 miles since declaring war on Japan.
KOREA: A Soviet Yak-9 of 50 ORAP claims a Kawanishi H6K ‘Mavis’ flying boat over Najin, northeast Korea.
A defensive gunner of a 37 ShAP Il-2 claims an A6M Zero. (Mike Yared)
JAPAN: The Japanese Imperial Conference begins just prior to midnight.
After much discussion by various cabinet members, they are still unable to make a decision. At 2:00 am, PM Suzuki addresses Hirohito and asks, “Your Imperial decision is requested as to which proposal should be adopted, the foreign minister’s or the one with the four conditions.”
This was the first time in recorded Japanese history that the Emperor had been asked to make a decision. The military had expected the conference was for discussion and would then disperse. Now, the living god whose every command they had sworn to uphold was about to speak.
“I agree with the foreign minister.” is the beginning of his answer. He then reviews events of the past several months. Then he goes on: “Some advocate a decisive battle in the homeland as the way to survival. In past experience, however, there has always been a discrepancy between the fighting services’ plans and the results.”
The military had demanded death before dishonour for Japan. Hirohito, the God-sent Ruler of the Great Japanese Empire (his official title) favoured dishonour, if need be, as the price of life for his countrymen and survival of Japan.
At 3:00 am the cabinet meeting is resumed. The Emperor’s decision is ratified. At 7:00 am General Yoshizumi, Chief of the Military Affairs Division of the War Ministry goes to the foreign ministry to derail sending the notice of the decision, he is too late.
During the day, the military are working at cross purposes. The Senior Officers are trying to comply with the Emperor’s decision. The junior officers are confused, disillusioned and ready to revolt.
The conditional Japanese acceptance of the terms of the Potsdam Declaration is announced on Japanese Radio.
The Japanese radio announces the Japanese desire for peace and US Army Strategic Air Forces in the Pacific (USASTAF) limits operations to precision missions. 104 Twentieth Air Force B-29s fly 2 missions against Japan without loss.
- Mission 323: During the day, 70 B-29s, escorted by 2 groups of P-51s, bomb the arsenal complex at Tokyo; 3 others hit alternate targets.
- Mission 324: During the night of 10/11 August, 31 B-29s mine Shimonoseki Strait, Nakaumi Lagoon, and waters at Sakai and Yonago, Japan and Wonsan, Korea.
In Japan:
US and British battleships bombard steel works at Kamaishi.
- 80 B-24s, 118 B-25s, and 220+ P-47s and P-38s of the US Far East Air Force (FEAF) pound the Kumamoto area; 20+ B-24s bomb the Oita area; 39 P-51s provide cover over both targets; nearly 40 B-25s attack destroyers, cargo ships, and small vessels during a shipping sweep between Kyushu Island and Korea; P-47s bomb Sasebo Harbor; and P-51s hit various targets of opportunity on Honshu and Kyushu.
- Carrier-based aircraft from the RN’s Task Force 37 and USN’s Task Force 38 attack shipping, airfields and railways in the Hokkaido and northern Honshu area; they claim the destruction of 720 aircraft on the ground.
Participating in this attack, are Corsair Mk IVs of the RCN’s No. 1841 Squadron in HMS Formidable.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Japanese prisoner of war, Second Lieutenant Minoru Wada guides a USMC formation of PBJs (B-25 Mitchells) and F4Us (Corsairs) onto the headquarters of the 100th IJA Infantry Division commanded by General Harada, at Upian, Mindanao Island. (Gordon Angus MacKinlay) from Time magazine. More...
CANADA: Cruiser HMCS Uganda arrived Esquimalt for refit.
HMC ML 051 paid off.
U.S.A.: Dr. Robert H. Goddard, the father of modern rocketry, dies in Baltimore, Maryland, at age 62. On 16 March 1926, Goddard launched the first liquid-fuelled rocket at Auburn, Massachusetts and on 8 March 1935, he was the first to launch a liquid-propellant rocket that attained a speed greater than that of sound. Between 1942 and 1945, he was Director of Research, US Navy Department, Bureau of Aeronautics developing jet-assisted takeoff and variable-thrust liquid-propellant rockets, at Roswell, New Mexico and Annapolis, Maryland. He also served as a consulting engineer with the Curtiss-Wright Corporation at Caldwell, New Jersey, between 1943 and 1945.
The Red Army’s 120 mile advance into Manchuria makes Operation Bagration look like a warm up.
August 10, 1945
Japan accepts Potsdam terms, agrees to unconditional surrender
On this day in 1945, just a day after the bombing of Nagasaki, Japan submits its acquiescence to the Potsdam Conference terms of unconditional surrender, as President Harry S. Truman orders a halt to atomic bombing.
Emperor Hirohito, having remained aloof from the daily decisions of prosecuting the war, rubber-stamping the decisions of his War Council, including the decision to bomb Pearl Harbor, finally felt compelled to do more. At the behest of two Cabinet members, the emperor summoned and presided over a special meeting of the Council and implored them to consider accepting the terms of the Potsdam Conference, which meant unconditional surrender. “It seems obvious that the nation is no longer able to wage war, and its ability to defend its own shores is doubtful.” The Council had been split over the surrender terms; half the members wanted assurances that the emperor would maintain his hereditary and traditional role in a postwar Japan before surrender could be considered. But in light of the bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, Nagasaki on August 9, and the Soviet invasion of Manchuria, as well as the emperor’s own request that the Council “bear the unbearable,” it was agreed: Japan would surrender.
Tokyo released a message to its ambassadors in Switzerland and Sweden, which was then passed on to the Allies. The message formally accepted the Potsdam Declaration but included the proviso that “said Declaration does not comprise any demand which prejudices the prerogatives of His Majesty as sovereign ruler.” When the message reached Washington, President Truman, unwilling to inflict any more suffering on the Japanese people, especially on “all those kids,” ordered a halt to atomic bombing, He also wanted to know whether the stipulation regarding “His Majesty” was a deal breaker. Negotiations between Washington and Tokyo ensued. Meanwhile, savage fighting continued between Japan and the Soviet Union in Manchuria.
THE JAPANESE SURRENDER DOCUMENTS
http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/policy/1945/450729a.html
(2) OFFER OF SURRENDER FROM JAPANESE GOVERNMENT
(Department of State Bulletin, Vol. XIII, No. 320, Aug. 12, 1945)
August 10, 1945
Sir; I have the honor to inform you that the Japanese Minister in Switzerland, upon instructions received from his Government, has requested the Swiss Political Department to advise the Government of the United States of America of the following:
“In obedience to the gracious command of His Majesty the Emperor who, ever anxious to enhance the cause of world peace, desires earnestly to bring about a speedy termination of hostilities with a view to saving mankind from the calamities to be imposed upon them by further continuation of the war, the Japanese Government several weeks ago asked the Soviet Government, with which neutral relations then prevailed, to render good offices in restoring peace vis a vis the enemy powers. Unfortunately, these efforts in the interest of peace having failed, the Japanese Government in conformity with the august wish of His Majesty to restore the general peace and desiring to put an end to the untold sufferings entailed by war as quickly as possible, have decided upon the following.
“The Japanese Government are ready to accept the terms enumerated in the joint declaration which was issued at Potsdam on July 26th, 1945, by the heads of the Governments of the United States, Great Britain, and China, and later subscribed to by the Soviet Government, with the understanding that the said declaration does not comprise any demand which prejudices the prerogatives of His Majesty as a Sovereign Ruler.
“The Japanese Government sincerely hope that this understanding is warranted and desire keenly that an explicit indication to that effect will be speedily forthcoming.”
In transmitting the above message the Japanese Minister added that his Government begs the Government of the United States to forward its answer through the intermediary of Switzerland. Similar requests are being transmitted to the Governments of Great Britain and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics through the intermediary of Sweden, as well as to the Government of China through the intermediary of Switzerland. The Chinese Minister at Berne has already been informed of the foregoing through the channel of the Swiss Political Department.
Please be assured that I am at your disposal at any time to accept for and forward to my Government the reply of Government of the United States.
Accept (etc.)
Grassli,
Charge d’Affaires ad interim of Switzerland
Los Angeles Times, August 10, 1945
Los Angeles Times, August 9, 1945
Boy, those pesky Communist Russians are an opportunistic lot. They grabbed that territory and never let go until their empire folded like a cheap lawn chair.