http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/7/28.htm
August 28th, 1945 (TUESDAY)
GERMANY: Nuremburg: The Nazis Party’s “jovial brute”, Hermann Göring , heads the first list of 24 German war criminals. Hess, once Hitler’s deputy, who has been a prisoner in Britain sice May 1941, is next in line, followed by Martin Bormann, Hitler’s last deputy, who vanished from the Berlin bunker and has not been seen since. The many civilians indicted include Baron Konstantin on Neurath, Hitler’s first foreign minister; Gustav Krupp von Bohlen, the industrialist; Franz von Papen, Hitler’s vice-chancellor in 1933-34, and Hjalmar Schacht, the financial wizard who fell out with Hitler after serving as a minister.
BURMA: Japanese forces in Rangoon sign a formal surrender.
FRENCH INDOCHINA: In Vietnam, the Viet Minh form a provisional government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam with Ho Chi Minh as president, Vo Nguyen Giap, as interior minister and Pham Van Dong, as finance minister.
In Laos, Prime Minister Prince Phetsarath wires provincial governors notifying them of the Japanese surrender. The Prince further declares that the proclamation of independence is unaffected and that the governors should resist any attempts at foreign intervention in their administration. The French Resident Superieur is released from prison but Phetsarath refuses to recognize his authority.
CHINA: Communist leader Mao Tse-Tung arrives in Chunking to confer with Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-Shek in a futile effort to avert civil war.
JAPAN: The occupation of Japan officially begins as an advance party arrives in the Home Islands. When the news of the Japanese proposal for surrender came on 15 August, the USAAF’s 68th Army Airways Communications System (AACS) Group, 7th AACS Wing, received orders to fly into Atsugi Airfield near Tokyo and set up the communications equipment necessary to guide in the first contingent of occupation troops. AACS’s mission was to provide navigational aids, point-to-point communications with Okinawa, air-to-ground communications for planes in flight, weather data, and air traffic control. Colonel Gordon Blake quickly assembled a special unit of 5 hand-picked men. Colonel Blake and his AACS men, part of a 150 man task force, flew from Okinawa to Atsugi with 24 C-47 aircraft laden with equipment. In order to carry as much equipment as possible, the load was lightened by carrying only enough fuel to reach Atsugi. Although the Japanese had surrendered unconditionally, Blake and his communicators still did not know whether some might still be hostile. The sight of hundreds of Japanese Navy guards lined up along the airfield was not encouraging to the occupants of the first aircraft to land, but they were met by a group of courteous, English-speaking Japanese military personnel. The first C-47 to land was piloted by Col. Edward Imparato. Col. Charles Trench is the first man off the aircraft.
The navy guards were in their honor. The AACS-men lost no time in getting operations into full swing, and by 29 August, the Atsugi control tower was completed. The first planes to arrive on 30 August were 5 additional C-47s carrying components to set up the first airborne radio station in USAAF history. Within a few hours, the first C-54 Skymaster aircraft of the official occupation forces landed at Atsugi and by mid-afternoon Blake’s AACS crews had directed 340+ takeoffs and landings at the rate of 1 every 2 minutes. On 30 August, Atsugi was the busiest airport in the world.
USN underwater demolition teams (UDT) land to check prospective Tokyo Bay landing beaches and ensure that fortification are neutralized.
Minesweepers begin clearing mines from Tokyo Bay.
Destroyers of the Royal Australian Navy joined Royal Navy and United States Navy ships in Tokyo Bay to receive the main Japanese surrender on 2 September.
In the air, the 386th Bombardment Squadron (Very Heavy), based on Okinawa, flies its last combat mission, a photo reconnaissance mission, with the Consolidated B-32 Dominator.
CANADA: Bangor-class minesweepers HMCS Brockville, Noranda (transfered to RCMP as MacLeod, Irvine) and Melville paid off.
Corvettes HMCS Sudbury and Shediac paid off Esquimalt, British Columbia.
Tropicalization refit for HMCS Sea Cliff cancelled Liverpool, Nova Scotia.
U.S.A.: Major league baseball commissioner Branch Rickey and future baseball great Jackie Robinson meet and discuss the difficulties Robinson, a black athlete, will face in major league baseball. Robinson had signed a contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers calling for a salary of US$600 a month (US$5,714 in year 2000 dollars) plus a US$3,500 signing bonus (US$33,333 in year 2000 dollars) to play for Montreal of the Triple A International League.
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ATOM BOMB DID IT, ENEMY PRINCE SAYS
Premier Adds That Emperor’s “Love of the People’ Also prompted surrender.
Martin Bormann, Hitler’s last deputy, who vanished from the Berlin bunker and has not been seen since.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Bormann
Bormann returned with Hitler to the Führerbunker in Berlin on 16 January 1945 as the Red Army approached the city. After Hitler committed suicide, Bormann and others attempted to flee Berlin on 2 May to avoid capture by the Soviets. Bormann probably committed suicide on a bridge near Lehrter station. The body was buried nearby on 8 May 1945, but was not found and confirmed as genuine until 1972. Bormann was tried in absentia by the International Military Tribunal in the Nuremberg trials of 1945 and 1946. He was convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity and sentenced to death by hanging
Over the coming years, several organisations, including the CIA and the West German Government, attempted to locate Bormann without success.[103] The West German government in 1964 offered a reward of 100,000 Deutsche Marks for information leading to Bormann’s capture.[104] Sightings were reported at points all over the world, including Australia, Denmark, Italy, and South America.[53][105] In his autobiography, Nazi intelligence officer Reinhard Gehlen claimed that Bormann had been a Soviet spy, and that he had escaped to Moscow.[106] Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal believed that Bormann was living in South America.[107] The West German government declared that its hunt for Bormann was over in 1971.[108]
USN underwater demolition teams (UDT) land to check prospective Tokyo Bay landing beaches and ensure that fortification are neutralized.
http://www.specwarnet.net/americas/UDT.htm
Most of the UDT Teams were marshalling in California in preparations for the planned invasion of the Japanese homeland when the war ended. Some were sent to Japane to aid in the occupation.
With Japan’s surrender in August of 1945, the majority of the UDT’s were shut down. There were a couple that continued to operate in the Pacific, helping allied forces occupy Japan and its former conquested lands. UDT-21 was the first American Forces to land on the Japanese homelands and received the first surrender, when Lieutenant Commander Edward Clayton accepted the sword , which was struck by USS Fullman and sunk. There was no loss of life, but as all of their equipment was lost with the ship UDT able did not take part and was sent back to Maui to be broken up and used to help form new UDT’s
Notes: formed by consolidating several NCDU’s that had been deployed to the South Pacific theatre
UDT
21 Activated: October, 1944
Deactivated:
History:
Okinawa invasion while attached to APD-79 USS Bunch and sailed for Japan. UDT-21 landed at Futtsu-misaki on the Japanese homeland island of Honshu on August 29, 1945. This was the first landings on the island by american naval forces and also the first surrender ceremony, with Lieutenant Commander Edward Clayton accepting the sword of a Major in the Coastal Artillery in surrender. He was later made to give it up so as not to steal General MacArthur’s thunder. Following this the Team cleared docks at Yokosuka Naval Base to allow the USS San Diego to dock there for surrender ceremonies
Colonel Blake and his AACS men, part of a 150 man task force, flew from Okinawa to Atsugi with 24 C-47 aircraft laden with equipment. In order to carry as much equipment as possible, the load was lightened by carrying only enough fuel to reach Atsugi. Although the Japanese had surrendered unconditionally, Blake and his communicators still did not know whether some might still be hostile.
Major league baseball commissioner Brooklyn Dodgers President and General Manager Branch Rickey and future baseball great Jackie Robinson meet and discuss the difficulties Robinson, a black athlete, will face in major league baseball.
or
Major league baseball commissioner Branch Rickey Happy Chandler and future baseball great Jackie Robinson meet and discuss the difficulties Robinson, a black athlete, will face in major league baseball.