Toward the end of World War II, the U.S. Navy achieved a complete blockade of mainland Japan. For more information click here.
By Phil Kohn. Dedicated to the memory of his father, GM3 Walter Kohn, U.S. Navy Armed Guard, USNR, and all men and women who have answered the country’s call in time of need. Phil can be contacted at ww2remembered@yahoo.com.
The U.S. Navy announces on August 3 that a complete blockade of the Japanese homeland has now been achieved. Japanese resistance effectively ends in Burma. In Czechoslovakia, the government passes laws that deprive all ethnic Germans and Hungarians of their Czechoslovak citizenship.
American bombers attack Japanese positions in Surabaya, on Java, on August 4. In Singapore, Japanese guards execute seven captured American airmen.
The Chinese Thirteenth Army on August 5 captures the town of Tanchuk, in southeastern China, while the Chinese 58th Division liberates Hsinning, some 1,800 miles to the northeast, north of Korea. Planes of the U.S. Twentieth Air Force fly over 12 Japanese cities and drop 720,000 leaflets warning their populations to surrender or face devastation.
On August 6, U.S. Army Air Forces B-29 bomber Enola Gay (named after the pilot’s mother) drops an atomic bomb, named “Little Boy,” on Hiroshima, Japan, at 8:15 a.m., local time. The weapon, with a uranium-235 warhead, kills an estimated 140,000 people in the first use of a nuclear weapon in warfare and obliterates almost four square miles of the city. Advance elements of the U.S. First Army arrive on Luzon, the Philippines, from Europe to begin preparations for a final assault on Japan.
President Truman on August 7 announces the successful attack on Hiroshima, Japan, with the atomic bomb — “with more power than 20,000 tons of TNT.” The announcement, which makes no mention of radiation effects, is made from the middle of the Atlantic Ocean while Truman is returning from the Potsdam Conference aboard the U.S. Navy heavy cruiser USS Augusta. Japanese radio condemns the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and denounces the United States as “the destroyer of mankind and as public enemy number one of social justice.”
The Soviet Union declares war on Japan on August 8. Soviet troops are poised to enter China, Korea and Manchuria (which they do the next day). President Truman makes a public radio broadcast in which he threatens Japan with destruction by atomic bombs. In Tokyo, the Japanese Supreme War Council agrees, late at night, that it should accept the Potsdam Declaration if the monarchy is preserved. Some of the objections from the military are overruled by Emperor Hirohito himself. President Truman signs the United Nations Charter. The “Big Four” powers (the U.S., the U.S.S.R., the U.K. and France) sign the Treaty of London, which is the legal basis for the Nazi War Crimes Trials. The “Big Four” also agree on the future of Austria: it will be confined to its 1937 boundaries, split into four occupation zones and governed by a committee of four military commissioners.
On August 9, U.S. Army Air Forces B-29 bomber Bockscar drops “Fat Man” — a second atomic bomb, this time with a plutonium warhead — on Nagasaki, Japan, at 11:02 a.m., local time. Two-thirds of the city of 250,000 inhabitants is destroyed and 113,000 people die. In Tokyo, Japanese Prime Minister Suzuki says that the entry of the U.S.S.R. into the conflict “makes the continuance of the war impossible.” Towards midnight, Emperor Hirohito calls the Supreme Council together and tries to make the military leaders accept a proposed surrender. At about 3 a.m. the next morning, the meeting breaks up with nothing decided.
The government of Japan on August 10 announces that a message has been sent to the Allies accepting the terms of the Potsdam Declaration provided the Declaration “does not comprise any demand that prejudices the prerogatives of the Emperor as sovereign ruler.” Soviet forces have advanced 120 miles into Manchukuo (Manchuria) since war was declared against Japan on August 8.
U.S. Secretary of State James F. Byrnes on August 11 replies to the Japanese offer to surrender with a refusal to make any compromise on the demand for unconditional surrender. His note states that the Allies view an unconditional surrender as one where the emperor will be “subject to” the supreme commander of the Allied powers, and the form of government will be decided “by the will of the Japanese people.” In Manila, Gen. of the Army Douglas MacArthur opines that use of the atomic bomb was “unnecessary,” as the Japanese would have surrendered anyway.
In China, Chinese-American military headquarters on August 12 cancels operations planned against Hong Kong and Canton in light of the possibly imminent capitulation of Japan. Off Okinawa, the battleship USS Pennsylvania is seriously damaged by an attack from a Japanese torpedo bomber that kills 20 crewmen and injures 10 others. Soviet Red Army troops advance onto the Korean peninsula.
On August 13, the Mongolian People’s Republic — closely linked with the Soviet Union — declares a “holy war” against the Japanese. Japan surrender documents, approved by President Truman, are sent from Washington, D.C., to Gen. MacArthur in the Philippines. The Zionist World Congress demands that one million Jews be admitted to British-mandated Palestine, and approaches the British government to discuss the founding of the nation of Israel in a portion of the territory. In the U.S., the Office of Price Administration halts a print order for 187 million new ration books.
Japanese right-wingers and some of the military on August 14 attempt a coup to overthrow the government and prevent the widely expected — and inevitable — surrender by Japan. The coup fails and the Japanese Cabinet decides at a morning meeting in the Imperial Palace to surrender to the Allies. At 8:10 pm, a reply to the Allied ultimatum is handed to the Swiss Foreign Minister by the Japanese Minister in Berne, Switzerland. President Truman calls a press conference to announce the “unconditional surrender” of Japan. In the meantime, USAAF B29s launch the last air raid of the war against the Japanese city of Kumagaya, about 56 miles northwest of Tokyo. In China, Chiang Kai-shek’s representatives sign a treaty of alliance with the Soviets. In Washington, Gen. of the Army Douglas MacArthur is named Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP) and is authorized to accept the Japanese surrender. In the U.S., manpower controls are ended by the War Manpower Commission. In Vietnam, the Viet Minh launch an uprising against French colonial rule. Ho Chi Minh sends several telegrams asking President Truman to make Vietnam an overseas protectorate of the U.S., similar to the status of the Philippines or Puerto Rico, but he receives no reply. (There is no evidence that Truman ever received the messages.)
On August 15, Japanese Emperor Hirohito makes a radio broadcast announcing the surrender of Japan to the Allies. V-J Day is celebrated around the world. In New York City, photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt takes the iconic picture of a sailor spontaneously kissing a white-clad nurse while celebrating V-J Day in Times Square. (The picture was taken on August 14 in New York; because of time difference, August 15 in Japan is August 14 in New York.) The Japanese government resigns, and the war minister commits suicide. As a result of the surrender by Tokyo, Korea gains its independence from Japan. In Paris, Marshal Henri Pétain, former chief of state of Vichy France, is found guilty of treason and sentenced to death. In the U.S., rationing of petroleum products and canned goods is ended, and all restrictions are removed on the production of civilian automobiles. President Truman orders the closure of the U.S. Office of Censorship. In the U.K., the British government reveals the details of one of its biggest secrets of the war: radar.
Japanese Emperor Hirohito on August 16 issues an order for all Japanese forces to cease firing. In London, in the House of Commons, Winston Churchill, now the leader of the opposition, speaks of an “iron curtain” descending across Europe. He expresses particular concern over the forcible expulsion, and fate, of ethnic Germans from territory allotted to Poland in the west to compensate for territory in the east taken by the U.S.S.R. He also notes ominous developments in the newly communist-dominated countries in eastern Europe.
