75 Years Ago Today

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RustyRatRod

I was born on a Monday. Not last Monday.
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The Japanese signed the Instrument of Surrender onboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. Daddy was "out there somewhere" in that picture on the destroyer escort DE742 he served on. I haven't seen a thing about this anywhere in the media.

75th Anniversary: End of World War II :: Guns.com

JAP SURRENDER.jpg
 
Didn't it used to be called "VJ day"?
 
..........And we've been payin em ever since LOL.........
 
What amazed me is that it took the "leaders" of Japan so long to surrender.......remember.......it took TWO nuke devices, not just one.........and several more days before the leaders finally got out of bed and did the right thing.

This is telling............

Hiroshima and Nagasaki Bombing Timeline


Between the Bombings
August 7:

A message to Vice Chief of the Imperial Army General Staff Torashiro Kawabe reports: “The whole city of Hiroshima was destroyed instantly by a single bomb.” Kawabe writes in his diary that he was “shocked tremendously,” but that the Imperial Army must continue to resist.

Close advisor Koichi Kido meets with Emperor Hirohito to discuss the Hiroshima bombing.

A crash effort begins to print millions of leaflets to be dropped on major Japanese cities warning of future atomic attacks.

The decision to drop the second bomb is made on Guam. The date for dropping Fat Man is moved up to August 10, then to August 9, to avoid a projected 5 days of bad weather. This requires skipping many check out procedures during assembly.

August 8:

A seven-man Imperial Army investigation team (dispatched from Tokyo and delayed by aircraft problems) arrives at Hiroshima and circles the city by plane.

Hirohito receives a report on Hiroshima from Foreign Minister Shigenori Togo, who calls for an end to the war based on the Potsdam Declaration.

At Togo's request, Soviet Ambassador Naotake Sato tries to persuade the Soviets to mediate surrender negotiations. Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov informs Sato that the Soviet Union is at war with Japan effective the next day.

The Japanese government does not formally meet to discuss surrender.

Leaflet dropping and warnings to Japan by Radio Saipan begin. Nagasaki does not receive warning leaflets until August 10. Fat Man unit F33 is dropped in practice bomb run. Assembly of Fat Man unit F31 with the plutonium core is completed in the early morning. In the rush to complete the bomb, the firing unit cable was installed backwards, requiring Barney J. O'Keefe to cut the connectors and reinstall them at the very last minute.
 
I think they were more afraid of the Russians since they had “History” with them and know how bad it could be vs the USA and with how things were being handled with Germany. IMO, Japan would have gambled @ duked it out with the USA to the bitter end, if the Russians didn’t get into it.
 
August 9:

The Soviet Union declares war on Japan and invades Manchuria.



The Bombing of Nagasaki - August 9, 1945

August 10:

The Imperial Army investigation team reports on the bombing of Hiroshima. Japanese civilian and military leaders are still unable to agree on accepting the Potsdam Declaration's surrender terms. Hirohito instead breaks the tradition of imperial non-intervention in government and makes his “sacred decision” to accept the Potsdam Declaration, but under the condition that the Emperor remain sovereign. The cabinet remains divided.


Defying the wishes of military officials, the Domei News Agency sends a message to the Allies using Morse code: “Japan Accepts Potsdam Proclamation.” The United States begins broadcasting information that Japan had surrendered.

General Groves reports that the second plutonium core would be ready for shipment on August 12 or 13, with a bombing possible on August 17 or 18. President Truman orders a halt to further atomic bombing until further orders are issued.
August 11:

U.S. Secretary of State James Byrnes rejects Japan’s conditional surrender. His message states, “From the moment of surrender the authority of the emperor and the Japanese Government to rule the state shall be subject to the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers” while “the ultimate form of government of Japan shall be established by the freely expressed will of the Japanese people.” Hirohito’s postwar position is left ambiguous.

General Groves decides to delay shipping the second plutonium core and contacts Robert Bacher just after he had signed receipt for shipping the core to Tinian Island. The core is retrieved from the car before it leaves Los Alamos, NM.

General Carl Spaatz orders a halt of area firebombing, but other attacks continue.

August 12:

Hirohito decides to accept the Byrnes Note and unconditional surrender. He informs the Imperial family of his decision.

August 13:

The Supreme War Council meets to discuss a response to the Byrnes Note.

Hirohito orders the suspension of all military activity.

A small group of Japanese military officials plot a coup against Hirohito.


Secretary of War Henry Stimson recommends shipping the second plutonium core to Tinian Island, but no decision is made.

President Truman orders area firebombing resumed. Gen. Henry Arnold, US Army Air Force, launches a raid with over 1000 B-29s and other aircraft, carrying 6000 tons of bombs. Thousands of Japanese are killed by August 14.

August 14:

With rumors of a coup and his generals still divided, Hirohito calls together the Supreme War Council and his cabinet to announce his decision of unconditional surrender.

Major Kenji Hatanaka and Lieutenant Colonel Jiro Shiizaki lead a group of junior officers who try to seize the Imperial Palace and impose martial law, but they fail to gain the support of senior officials.

The cabinet approves a message of surrender that Japan intends to accept the Potsdam Declaration unconditionally and sends it to the Allies.

August 15:
The coup fails. Hatanaka, Shiizaki, and others commit ritual suicide on the grounds of the Imperial Palace.

Hirohito announces the decision to surrender over the radio. For many Japanese, it is their first time hearing the Emperor's voice.


September 2:

Japanese officials sign the formal Japanese Instrument of Surrender on board the USS Missouri.
 
Don’t worry Rusty your Father will always be honored and remembered here, also remember REAL AMERICANS don’t need to be told about history by the media.
 
My Dad made it back early but he left his leg in Austria/Germany, he was in on the invasion!! My Dad is on the right. I find it amazing that both these guys just lost their legs, will have to struggle to walk for the rest of their lives but still smile like they just beat the odds in Vegas!!!

Dad's Utah Hospital Pic (2).jpg
 
Thanks for the Reminder of this important Day in our nations history RRR. And thanks to your Dad and others who served. My pop was too young to enlist during WWII but he was able to sneak his way into the Merchant Marines at age 16. He later joined the US Army as an Infantryman and was WIA in Korea.
Interesting read on how the Surrender was set up by MacArthur and others.
https://www.stltoday.com/news/archi...cle_e5aedae4-ecd7-11ea-a679-537b806b5f1b.html
 
A random story

My later to be Dad and my to be Uncle ended up on the same Pacific Island, I don't remember if it was Guadacanal or Okinawa. Uncle Bill was a Marine and went in fairly early in the fighting. He would never talk about that. Dad was Army and arrived later when things died down

So two guys who were friends from what would be my small town in different branches ended up on the same rock, and my Uncle somehow found out Dad was there. I don't know if he knew his outfit was there, or had been written (censorship) but anyhow Uncle Bill got some time off one Sunday and walked over to Dad's unit and they got to have a visit
 
Dad turned 18 in 1943 and was drafted right away and ended up serving on a B-24 as both a nose gunner and a tailgunner. He was fortunate enough to survive the war, but was on several different planes because they got shot to pieces or torn up by flak. Some of his flight crew did not make it back. He passed away in 2003 and didn’t talk a whole lot about war time stuff.
 
Dad turned 18 in 1943 and was drafted right away and ended up serving on a B-24 as both a nose gunner and a tailgunner. He was fortunate enough to survive the war, but was on several different planes because they got shot to pieces or torn up by flak. Some of his flight crew did not make it back. He passed away in 2003 and didn’t talk a whole lot about war time stuff.

Daddy never talked about it, either. Never. I always asked him growing up if they ever shot anybody. lol He always said he didn't know, because he was always in the engine room. But I've talked to several WWII veterans since Daddy passed and they all said there was no way in hell he would have not known a 300 foot ship was shooting its guns or dropping depth charges. Looking through that ship's operations in the link I posted above, it's apparent that the little ship saw lots of action. I guess it's just something he simply didn't want to talk about.

He did tell me the story though about how they were tied off to the USS Missouri once passing mail and supplies. So I CAN at least share that.

He said the boys on the Missouri were on deck playing basketball while their little "tub" was bouncing around in the water so bad, they could barely stand on deck. lol Anyway, the Missouri got a call to go to some action while they were still tied together. Daddy said when the ropes got as big as they were, they called them "lines"...he said they were about 6" in diameter and there were at least four. As soon as they got the last bit of mail and supplies passed, he said the Missouri gave it full ahead and snapped all the lines like sewing thread. He said had they took off slowly, they would have just towed the Destroyer Escort. He said the ship was GONE from view in 15 minutes. Boys, I'm here to tell you, that's an over 800 foot long ship disappearing off the horizon in 15 minutes. That's gittin with it. Later on, they met back up with the Missouri and actually passed through the Panama Canal right behind it. I always thought that was pretty cool. Ain't no doubt the old dude saw the world and probably had a blast.
 
The Japanese signed the Instrument of Surrender onboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. Daddy was "out there somewhere" in that picture on the destroyer escort DE742 he served on. I haven't seen a thing about this anywhere in the media.

75th Anniversary: End of World War II :: Guns.com

View attachment 1715588673


A friend of mine should be in that picture Ed Johnson was on board the USS Missouri at that time. We used to talk about it. He said the tallest thing standing in the city's where the bomb hit was the street marker signs. Everything else was on the ground or gone.

I use to work at Stallion Range center WSMR. We rebuilt the McDonald ranch house where the plutonium core was keap. The story goes the scientist use to put their lunches on top of it to keep them warm. It's now a tourist site that is open once a year.
 
Thanks to everyone here for sharing their thoughts and memories.

My grandmother to this day will tell anyone who will listen that for decades her first waking thought in the morning would be "the war is over". She is a wealth of information regarding what WWII was like on the home front and she can till this day show you the exact spot she was standing by her clothesline when she heard that Imperial Japan surrendered and the whole damn mess was over.

Let us be glad it is over and see if we can actually learn something from it.

Respect to all who worked and sacrificed on all fronts; my fine grandmother included. -LY
 
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