Lee Trawick
ECB Publishing, Inc.
As World War II (WWII) continued to mount in Europe, the United States remained a neutral position on the main stage. However, behind the scenes, it was no secret that President Franklin D. Roosevelt wanted in on the war, despite the push back by the U.S. Government. However, the U.S. continued to play a small role behind the scenes to aid the Allied Forces, offering assistance to England, France, Russia and China, while putting more regulations on Imperial Japan. Unknown to anyone, and against the wishes of German leader Adolf Hitler, Japan came up with a plan for a surprise attack against the U.S. on Dec. 7, 1941, at the Naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii.
The effects of the attack on Pearl Harbor would change the world forever. With the United States on the sidelines, the strength of the German Army went unmatched, and the ferocity of Japan went uncontested. The German Army had gone unchecked for almost two years as they blitzed Europe. However, things changed as the full force of the U.S. laid siege against the Axis Powers (Germany, Italy and Japan).
Admiral Chester W. Nimitz was based in Hawaii, charged with leading the United States in the Pacific Theater against the Imperial Japan Navy. Because the Japanese Navy had faced very little resistance in the Pacific, they had conquered the Philippines, as well as British and Dutch possessions, and were threatening Australia. However, the Japanese Navy was rocked once the U.S. set its sights on them. They faced a devastating loss at the hands of countless heroes of the U.S. Navy Aviator Fighters over four days at the battle of Midway in June of 1942.
With a crippling loss to the Japanese Naval fleet, the U.S. gained the initiative moving forward. They forced the Japanese Navy to retreat over and over again, until they were finally forced back to their home country. After suffering loss after loss in the air, and facing the depletion of fuel and oil, Imperial Japan realized attacking the U.S. so brutally had awakened the full power of the U.S. military. Simultaneously, with Army General Douglas MacArthur based in Australia, steadily advancing on them across New Guinea and the Philippines, Japan found themselves retreating on all fronts.
With the continued attacks of bombing raids, along with the U.S. conquering Japan's major cities, and capped off with the launch of two atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it seemed Japan's surrender was imminent. On July 26, 1945, President Harry S. Truman, along with United Kingdom Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Chairman of China Chiang Kai-shek called for the unconditional surrender of Japan.
“If they do not accept our terms they may expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this earth.”
– President Truman (Aug. 6, 1945)
However, the nightmare was not over for Imperial Japan. On Aug. 9, 1945, the Soviet Union declared war on the battered and beaten Japan for a violation of the Japanese Neutrality Pact. The Soviet Union then invaded the defenseless Imperial Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo soon after midnight.
Hours later, and still with no surrender from Japan, the U.S. continued to stay true to their word by dropping a second atomic bomb on the city of Nagasaki. Following these events, Emperor Hirohito pleaded with Japan's Supreme War Council to accept the terms the Allies had set in the Potsdam Declaration. If Japan did not surrender, it would face “prompt and utter destruction.”
On Sept. 2, 1945, 11 Japanese delegates witnessed 300 Allied Forces ships, led by the USS Missouri, led by the USS Missouri, lay siege on Tokyo Bay. The symbolism behind the surrender of Tokyo Bay was to show the full power of the U.S. and Allied Forces on the shores of a defeated island of Japan, which had traditionally boasted no-one would ever breach their shores. Japanese Diplomat Toshikazu Kase remembers the weight of the war and the finality of war, revenge, carnage and destruction, as thousands of American sailors abord the USS Missouri stared down the 11 delegates:
“A million eyes seemed to beat on us with the million shafts of a rattling storm of arrows barbed with fire. Never have I realized that a glance of glaring eyes could hurt so much. We waited...standing in the public gaze like penitent boys awaiting the dreaded schoolmaster.”
- Japanese Diplomat Toshikazu Kase
The ceremony of surrender lasted 23 minutes and followed a speech given by General Douglas MacArthur. Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu and General Yoshijiro Umezu then stepped forward to sign the surrender documents. Following their signatures were those of General MacArthur, British General Arthur E. Percival and American General Johnathan M. Wainwright. General MacArthur used five pens in his signing, giving General Percival and General Wainwright one each, and reserving two for the U.S. Naval Academy and one for the U.S. Military Academy. Following General MacArthur's signature were those of representatives of the Soviet Union, China, France, Great Britain, Australia and other Allied nations.
“It is my earnest hope, and indeed the hope for all mankind, that from this solemn occasion a better world shall emerge out the blood and carnage of the past, a world founded upon faith and understanding, a world dedicated to the dignity of a man and the fulfillment of his most cherished wish for freedom, tolerance and Justice.”
- U.S. Army General Douglas MacArthur (Sept. 2, 1945)
Concluding the ceremony were words by General MacArthur and a flyover by a formation of B-29 Superfortresses that had brought so much destruction to Japan. Later that day, MacArthur would say: “Today the guns are silent. A great tragedy has ended. A great victory has won. The skies no longer rain death, the season bear only commerce, men everywhere walk upright in the sunlight. The entire world lies quietly at peace. The holy mission has been completed. We have had our last chance. If we do not devise some greater and more equitable system, Armageddon will be at our door.”
Following a stellar career, the USS Missouri came to its final station at Pearl Harbor, pointed directly at the sunken USS Arizona, symbolizing how it stands guard over the sunken vessel and the souls that went down with it.
You must be logged in to post a comment.