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Michael's Modern Blog
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A breezy review of current events, updated twice weekly
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Tuesday, August 28, 1945
THE YANKS ARE IN JAPAN. Only 132 of them right at the moment, but plenty more are coming. The radio flashes came about eight o’clock last night that the first vanguard of American troops had occupied Atsugi airfield, about 18 miles from the center of Tokyo, and began preparing the airfield for numerous U.S. landings to come. (The first U.S. flag to be raised in occupied Japan went up about midnight, Eastern War Time.) Meanwhile, more than 10,000 Marines are getting reading to land of Yokosuka, in infinitely more peaceful circumstances than we could have hoped a few weeks ago. Norman Paige of A.B.C. radio says the Marine landings will begin Wednesday night about 9 p.m., E.W.T. The latest bulletins say that Admiral Halsey is now poised to sail into Tokyo Bay, and General MacArthur will not be far behind.
They will find a grim environment. An A.P. reporter who flew over Tokyo in a Helldiver the other day wrote that the city was "a wilderness of ruined factories and homes . . . no section has escaped the ravages of the bombs." The Japanese say they have over nine million homeless as a result of the air war -- almost one-sixth of the population. And what’s left of the Japanese government can’t even manage to start cleaning up the debris -- another A.P. story says MacArthur will need to bring his own wrecking crew. It’ll be our mess from now on, and the General will face a tougher challenge in getting Japan back into liveable shape than anything he’s had to deal with on the battlefield.
. . .
"GOD BLESSED AMERICA." That’s the lead sentence by Washington Post reporter James E. Chinn in his story yesterday on what the Germans were up to when we brought the Hitler regime crashing down. And Mr. Chinn isn’t saying that lightly. He writes --
"The Germans, according to OWI, had reached the experimental stage with the devastating atomic bomb, devices to destroy the sight of the all seeing eyes of radar, and new war gases they hoped would prove more deadly than any chemical agent yet developed. And that’s not all. The now conquered 'master race' had: (1) Specifications and construction details for naval vessels of advanced design, including submarines with high underwater speeds and apparatus for sustained underwater operations. (2) Found new uses for many staples such as coal from which the Nazis were making synthetic butter, soap, gasoline, aviation lubricants and alcohol of both beverage and industrial types. (3) Designed a highly advanced jet engine, rocket-assisted take-offs and vastly-improved aerodynamics. (4) Perfected designs for various secret types of guns and gun sights, novel gear and transmission construction and air cooled diesel engines. (5) Plans for V-type weapons much more advanced than those which were hurled last year against the British Isles."
What could the Nazis have thrown at us if they’d had another year? Let’s be glad we’ll never know the answer to that question. What could a revived Nazi regime throw at us if the Big Three don’t work together to insure a successful occupation? We must not find out.
. . .
COALITION GOVERNMENT IN CHINA? It looks like a partnership between Chiang Kai-shek’s Chungking government and the Chinese Reds led by Mao Tse-tung could conceivably be shaping up, with U.S. help. America’s ambassador to China, Major Hurley, has brought Mao and other Communist leaders to Chungking for talks with Chiang to avert a Chinese civil war, which the Communists were threatening to launch just the other week. All one can say is thank heaven for the Russians in this instance, whose 30-year treaty of friendship with Chiang seems to have completely taking the air out of Chinese Communist blustering. The details of the treaty were announced this week, and it’s a good agreement -- China and Russia share responsibilities in northern China, and the Chinese get Soviet-controlled Manchuria returned to them within 90 days, ending so many years of Japanese occupation. Moscow has already made it clear it will not support demands by the Chinese Reds to rule the areas their armies occupy, and, according to the A.P., the Russians have endorsed the principle of a "liberal, democratic China."
This is not to say getting to such a happy place is going to be easy. As Sidney Shalett writes in the New York Times, the smart money says China is going to be problematic for a long time --
"Despite some signs of the easing of tension between the Chinese Communists and the Central Government this week, observers in Washington were far from being glowingly optimistic over the prospects for any easy settlement of the difference. Some of these observers, who have followed Chinese affairs for many years, also suggested that a similar state of uneasiness existed on the part of their opposite numbers in London and Moscow. It was feared by some that, despite any possible firm suggestions from the Big Three, the Chinese question eventually might require a typically Chinese solution -- i.e., the passing of a long period of time during which there will be slow progress and possibly considerable strife."
Mr. Shalett also notes that some observers maintain the Chinese Communists are "not Communists in the strict Soviet sense but actually are agrarian reformists," which could account for why Stalin doesn’t seem to feel much ideological affinity for them, and has instead buddied up to their arch-rival, Chiang.
. . .
JUST ANOTHER CHANGE IN CAREERS. From Time magazine’s Miscellany section -- "In Baltimore, 49 charges of burglary, attempted burglary and in addition, carrying a deadly weapon were filed against Paul H. Maenhoudt, only four months off the police force."
. . .
Sunday, August 26, 1945
PEACETIME ODDS AND ENDS. Surrender envoys in Rangoon have signed a formal surrender agreement for all Japanese troops in Southeast Asia. Meanwhile, an Allied fleet of 170 U.S. warships has moved into the outer range of Tokyo Bay, including the U.S.S. Missouri, on which Japan’s full surrender is to be signed one week from today. Meanwhile, President Truman and French President de Gaulle have reached a "fundamental agreement" on postwar cooperation between America and France. And no one knows yet whether the British or the Chinese will occupy Hongkong.
Best of all for those of us on the home front, the War Production Board has granted auto manufacturers the green light to produce civilian automobiles as fast as they can, meaning that a half a million shiny new cars will roll off assembly lines by Christmas. The WPB has also removed all restrictions on use of paper by civilian industry, meaning more magazines, books, greeting cards, toilet paper, drinking straws, you name it. And the OPA has authorized tire dealers to build up their stocks of new tires, which will help get any number of crippled autos back on the road.
It might be nearly September, but it sure feels like spring.
. . .
WESTERN LOBBYING ON EASTERN EUROPE GETS RESULTS. London and Washington have been speaking with one voice this past month, lobbying the Russians to open up the countries they occupy -- Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Rumania, and Yugoslavia -- to Western influence and democratic values. In other words, we want Stalin to do what he agreed at Yalta to do. According to C.L. Sulzberger in today’s New York Times, this tougher Anglo-American approach is starting to pay dividends --
"For a long time now the western Allies have feared that exuberant movements dominated by Communists in Eastern Europe have been trying to insure their power by autocratic methods which directly violate the agreed formula for a free and unfettered popular choice. . . . Apparently Potsdam was the first scene of discussions of this Allied discontent in what may be guessed was a coordinated form. Since then both Britain and America have clearly voiced their policies and desires for Eastern Europe, and it is evident that they are working in truly close harmony. The first gun was President Truman’s speech on Aug. 9. The second was Foreign Secretary Bevin’s speech on Aug. 20. The third was the press conference of Secretary Byrnes a few days ago. They are beginning to get results. The Bulgarian election, to which they objected, has been postponed. King Michael of Rumania -- one might suspect with prior knowledge of Anglo-American representatives -- has openly appealed for aid from the big powers in ousting the Groza Government, installed by Russian Vice Commissar Vyshinsky, and so getting a broader democratic base. . . . Finally, the Western Allies made plans to get on with Greece’s long awaited plebiscite despite Left wing opposition, almost certainly inspired by fear of defeat and Soviet refusal to participate."
As Mr. Sulzberger points out, the Anglo-American demands regarding Eastern Europe are anything but extravagant --
"Basically, the Western Powers want free expression in Eastern Europe and free access by their correspondents and diplomats to see what is going on and report it to the world. First steps to remove barriers against the press are reported this week from Poland and Bulgaria. One might further add that the Western Powers want come recompense for their huge investments in the area -- French and British mines in Yugoslavia, British, French, American and Dutch oil in Rumania -- from which they have been largely ousted. Finally, they want the old principle of freedom of the seas re-established which also includes the Dardanelles and the Danube. The Russians are not enthusiastic about any of this, but it is well to get your cards openly on the table."
All too true. It was the incoherence of U.S. and British policy in this regard a year ago that created a power vacuum -- that Stalin cheerfully stepped into and exploited all the way. If what Mr. Sulzberger writes is borne out, a tougher and consistent Anglo-American policy will pay off with grudging cooperation from Moscow in carrying out the promises the Reds made at Yalta. Grudging cooperation with the Russians looks to be about the best we can get in Eastern Europe, and it’s certainly better than no cooperation at all.
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NO HARM DONE. From Time magazine’s Miscellany section -- "In Providence, State Labor Director William L. Connally reached for an aspirin, swallowed a pill for his wife’s petunia plant instead, grew panicky, was calmed by an agricultural expert who informed him that he had merely taken the equivalent of 18 bushels of horse manure and had nothing to worry about."
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Tuesday, August 21, 1945
MACARTHUR WILL BE IN JAPAN WITHIN 10 DAYS. The Manila conference is over, and the "Japanese emissaries of capitulation" have flown back to Tokyo. The upshot of the talks -- General MacArthur will "quickly" go to Japan, at the head of a powerful contingent of U.S. Army, Navy, and Air Forces, to dictate the formal articles of surrender to the Japanese government. The Japanese are telling us that they’re keeping troops under arms on the home islands "for the maintenance of order," but apparently the emissaries were cooperative enough. And according to the United Press, MacArthur has given Tokyo just a smidgeon of additional incentive to help with a smooth transition to military occupation -- "some" American planes accompanying MacArthur will be carrying atomic bombs, according to the U.P.
The Tokyo radio is still trying to cause trouble, warning yesterday that "hot-headed" military men might fight the U.S. occupation, and producing its own, unsolicited interpretation of the Potsdam declaration -- American troops are entitled to occupy only "militarily or politically important points." On the other hand, the Japanese in Manchuria are finally getting the message that the war is over, but only after the Reds got good and tired of Japanese stalling and delivered a surrender ultimatum, effective noon yesterday. The Russians now have effective control throughout Manchuria and on Sakhalin Island, and are proceeding to liberate Korea.
It’s not going as fast as some of us would like, but it’s going. The war is ending piece by piece. It’s the opposite of what happened in Germany. There, battlefield surrenders took place well ahead of the government’s surrender, meaning that V-E Day pretty much ended the war. In the Pacific, the battlefield surrenders are coming one by one in the wake of the government’s surrender, making it a messier, drawn-out process.
. . .
THE WAR IS OVER -- EXCEPT WHERE IT ISN’T (II). From an A.P. dispatch dated yesterday --
"The Japanese are continuing to fight like cornered animals along the 300-mile Burma front on the apparent pretext that they do not know the war is over."
But as the A.P. notes, "In some sectors they could not have missed seeing some of the millions of leaflets sent them by various means."
Find another excuse, guys. Or better yet, just shut up and give up.
. . .
RUSSO-CHINESE PACT WILL PREVENT A CHINESE CIVIL WAR. From the moment Japan’s surrender was announced, the Chinese Communist armies, from their headquarters in Yenan, have been making threatening noises about a civil war with the national government of Chiang-Kai-shek in Chungking, unless Chiang grants them something close to co-sovereignty. But it appears that Chiang, and his premier, T.V. Soong, have effectively checkmated the Communists by negotiating a treaty of alliance and friendship with Moscow. And, as Barnet Nover writes in today’s column, the Communist Chinese have well overplayed their hand --
"[The Communists] had hoped that because of Chungking’s weakness, the imperative need of internal unity during the long war with Japan and pressures from China’s allies, Chungking would cave in to their demands. But every time Chiang Kai-shek offered them an inch they insisted on a yard. When he agreed to give them a yard they insisted on a mile. . . . [but] Dr. Soong’s mission to Moscow has destroyed the hopes entertained in Yenan that the Soviet government would come to the aid of these Chinese Communists in their struggle with Chungking. The Soong-Molotoff treaty of alliance . . . suggests clearly that Moscow will do nothing of the sort. Being realists, the Russians understand that clearly that intervention by them on behalf of the Yenan regime would not only mean civil war in China but would tend to shatter that fabric of five-power unity upon which the hope of continued peace rests. It is to Russia’s interest at this time, at least, to strengthen rather than weaken the Chungking government. . . . The Russo-Chinese treaty was a body blow to Yenan. It is also a harbinger of peace in the Far East."
. . .
CRIME PAYS, BUT NOT WELL. From Time magazine’s Miscellany section -- "In Boston, Michale Kostecki lost his piano to ambitious burglars who lowered it three flights, moved it to a secondhand store, sold it for $10."
. . .
Sunday, August 19, 1945
"THERE IS NOT A DAY TO BE LOST." Winston Churchill, now the leader of the Conservative opposition in Britain, spoke to the House of Commons on V-J Day and laid it on the line about the atomic bomb -- "The bomb brought peace." Its sole possession by the United States, he rightly notes, gives America unprecedented power over world affairs for some time to come, and offers our nation a unique and solemn opportunity --
"The United States at this minute stand at the summit of the world. I rejoice that this is so. Let them set up to the jewel of their power and responsibility, not for themselves but for all men in all lands, and then a brighter day may dawn on human history. So far as we know, there are perhaps three to four years before the great progress of the United States can be overtaken. In these three years, we must remold the relationships of all men of all nations in such a way that these men do not wish, or dare, to fall upon each other for the sake of vulgar, outdated ambition or for passionate differences in ideologies and that international bodies by supreme authority may give peace on earth and justice among men. Our pilgrimage has brought us to a sublime moment in this history of the world. From the least to the greatest, all must strive to be worthy of these supreme opportunities. There is not an hour to be wasted; there is not a day to be lost."
Yes, the bomb is a terrible weapon, but it is not "evil," as scores of clergymen claimed from their pulpits a week ago . . . unless it is used by evil men for evil purposes.
. . .
THE WAR IS OVER -- EXCEPT WHERE IT ISN’T. More than a day after Japan’s surrender, Japanese kamikaze planes attacked U.S. troops in the Ryukyus, wounding two of our men. Admiral Halsey’s Third Fleet has been fired on by a number of Japanese planes since the Admiral gave his "cease fire" order, and so far 16 have been brought down. To top it off, Soviet troops are still battling with Japanese troops in Manchuria, "meeting as before with Japanese resistance," according to a Red communique. Not that this has slowed the Russians down any -- their latest drive has brought them within 125 miles of the ancient Chinese capital of Peiping. Moscow estimates that 45,000 Japanese troops have surrendered this week-end in Manchuria, but thousands more fight on. Remember that the Japanese had an estimated million men facing the Soviets two weeks ago.
It’s almost infuriating how lackadaisical the Japanese have been in sending out cease-fire orders to their troops -- when they haven’t been actively encouraging them to fight on. General MacArthur has agreed to postpone the Manila surrender conference, in what the A.P. calls a "surprisingly lenient" move, and it doesn’t look like the formal signing ceremonies are going to take place this week, as originally thought. The Japanese, says the A.P., estimate it could take 12 days or so to put the cease-fire in effect throughout the far-flung Pacific battlefronts.
That might be understandable on its own. But it doesn’t explain Tokyo radio putting out a statement like this one for Japanese troops in the Orient, quoting the resigning cabinet --
"We, the cabinet, here repress our tears of grief and dare to request our comrades to seek this revenge."
Another broadcaster on Tokyo radio told the Japanese people last week --
"In spiritual power we have not lost yet. We do not think the way we have thought has been wrong."
Yes, it is wrong, you dope. Get it through your heads, guys. You’ve lost the war. You’ve L*O*S*T. It’ll be easier on all of us as soon as you start to get that through your heads.
. . .
THE UNIQUE CHALLENGE OF REFORMING JAPAN. Sidney Shallet points out in today’s New York Times that we will be continuing a war of sorts when we occupy Japan -- a psychological war. And we must score a victory in that respect as well if we are to keep the Japanese from making trouble in the future --
"There are great differences between the jobs in Germany and Japan. In the shattered ruins of the Reich, we took over from a thoroughly beaten Army; in the land of the Rising Sun, we will take over from an Army that we never met in force. Although the Japanese Army laid down its arms because its leaders knew their cause was thoroughly hopeless, there is a great psychological difference. Experts here are firmly convinced we shall have to impress upon the Japanese that they were beaten, else there will be the makings for a renaissance of military spirit such as activated Germany in the years between her two defeats. [But] authorities on Japan are not too discouraged on the prospects of ultimate cooperation with the Japanese people. Though they feel there is ground for treachery in the beginning unless we stamp out militaristic and subversive influences, they also feel that the proper sort of educational and administrative program, carried out over a reasonably lengthy period, will produce results. Japan will never become an American-style democracy, but her trouble-making proclivities at least can be curbed."
. . .
PUPS (OR SOMETHING) FOR SALE. From Time magazine’s Miscellany section -- "In the Seattle Times appeared a candid ad: 'Our pet terrier slipped her chain and so we’re peddling pups again. Cockers? Bulldogs? German shepherds? For all we know they may be leopards.'"
. . .
Wednesday, August 15, 1945
SOME ODDS AND ENDS. (1) General MacArthur has been announced by President Truman as Supreme Allied Commander. The General will be in charge of the occupation of Japan, and "Emperor" Hirohito will henceforth take orders from him. (2) Peacetime Japan will lose about 80 per cent of her territory. (3) About 1,000 Superforts took place in the last firebombing of Japan, the day before Tokyo’s surrender was received. (4) Today and tomorrow have been designated as federal public holidays, and in most states and cities as well. Most of the big-city stores and banks will be closed, so I’m hearing. (5) Post office service today and tomorrow will be about like holiday service. (6) I’m taking a day off.
. . .
A WHALE OF A PARTY. Alexander Feinberg recounts last night’s scene in Manhattan in this morning’s New York Times --
"Five days of waiting, or rumor, intimation, fact, distortion -- five agonizing days following the first indication of a Japanese surrender, days of alternately raising hopes and fears -- came to an end for New York, as for the nation and the world, a moment or two after seven o’clock last night. And the metropolis exploded its emotions, harnessed for the most part during the day, with atomic force. . . . Restraint was thrown to the winds. Those in the crowds in the streets tossed hats, boxes and flags into the air. From those leaning perilously out of the windows of office buildings and hotels came a shower of paper, confetti, streamers. Men and women embraced -- there were no strangers in New York yesterday. Some were hilarious, others cried softly."
According to the Herald Tribune, the Times Square crowd swelled from half a million to over two million in the two hours following the announcement -- an all time record.
. . .
THAT FRIENDLY SPIRIT. According to today’s New York Herald Tribune, the war’s end prompted this message from Admiral Halsey, commander of Third Fleet, to his men -- "Cease firing, but if you see enemy planes in the air, shoot them down in friendly fashion."
. . .
Tuesday, August 14, 1945
YES, VICTORY!! IT’S ALL OVER! AND IT’S OFFICIAL! President Truman made the announcement at 7 p.m., as follows --
"I have received this afternoon a message from the Japanese government in reply to the message forwarded to that government on Aug. 11. I deem this reply a full acceptance of the Potsdam declaration, which specifies the unconditional surrender of Japan. In the reply there is no qualification."
The war has ended. We've won. Thank God.
. . .
BEFORE THE CELEBRATIONS...ONE SOMBER THOUGHT. The war is over. But at such a terrific cost, one that would have been scarcely fathomable in 1939 -- a cost that has touched with grief so many, many homes in America and among our allies, and which surely tempers in those homes the celebrations just now getting started. Let us celebrate -- heck, let us go hog-wild with joy that the killing and dying is over. But also, let’s take a moment to remember and clasp hands with those whose loved ones will never return to march in the victory parades. Let’s vow to never forget the millions -- God help us, tens of millions -- of innocents whose lives were taken, and let’s resolve to restore the blessings of a stable and prosperous life to their survivors. And let’s reflect on the desperate need in the years ahead to make sure that history’s worst war is also history’s last war.
O CAPTAIN! my Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:
. . . .
Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!
But I, with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
-- Walt Whitman
. . .
VICTORY! (BUT NOT OFFICIALLY...YET). After a long and fruitless day of waiting Monday, the news everybody hoped to hear finally broke after most folks had given up and gone to bed -- at 1:49 a.m. this morning, Eastern War Time. According to the New York Herald Tribune’s morning extra, the Japanese themselves have announced acceptance of the Potsdam terms through a brief English language statement language wireless from their news agency, Domei. The statement from Domei, as broadcast on Tokyo radio, was as follows --
"Flash -- Tokyo -- 14/8 learned Imperial message accepting Potsdam proclamation forthcoming soon."
And that’s it. The message was repeated a few minutes later.
So it’s not exactly an announcement that Japan has surrendered, it’s an announcement that Japan is about to surrender. But it sounds like the real deal. As the New York Times morning extra says,
"Although the dispatch did not flatly say that Japan had surrendered and that the action was final, the fact that Domei put out such a statement indicated that that was in fact the case. Domei is controlled by the Japanese government."
So, we’re still waiting for the official announcement from President Truman. But the waiting is joyous now.
The Washington Post says that the President could make a surrender announcement to the press anytime after 9 a.m. Stay close to that radio.
. . .
Monday, August 13, 1945
A LITTLE TOO QUIET. As of 7:30 p.m. Eastern War Time, it’s been close to 60 hours since the Allies laid down the terms of surrender to Japan. It’s been 40 hours since the Japanese confirmed to Swiss authorities their receipt of the Allied note. And still no word of the enemy's reply.
If Tokyo’s stalling continues into tomorrow, it seems reasonable that we would see an ultimatum from the Allies, with a firm time limit. And failing a satisfactory Japanese response to that, a return to all-out war.
And more atomic bombings.
The International News Service reported today that, incredibly, a Japanese propaganda broadcast to North America has belittled the effects of the atom bombs, saying the damage to Hiroshima and Nagasaki was "much lighter" than the devastation caused by the B-29 raids on Tokyo last March. Meanwhile, the Japanese commander in Singapore has vowed his troops will "fight a sacred war to the bitter end." Let’s hope these are just stray comments by fanatics, and not an indication that the Tokyo government has decided to try and continue the war, Russian invasion and atomic bombings be damned.
[UPDATE at 11:52 p.m.] Maybe there won’t even be an ultimatum. The late radio news broadcast says that over 400 Superforts have resumed their firebomb assault, hitting southern Honshu in three major attacks. The B-29s had been sitting still since Friday -- waiting, like everybody else. But they are waiting no longer.
. . .
STILL NO RESPONSE FROM TOKYO. It’s been about thirty-seven hours since the Allies told Japan that she could surrender and still keep her Emperor -- as long as he followed Allied orders.
Still no word. The Japanese press and radio haven’t given any hint of surrender. In Washington, thousands of Americans are holding a vigil across the street from the White House, waiting for news. No doubt other cities are full of civilians and military men who keep waiting, hoping to hear the great good news.
All we know for sure right now is this --
1) The White House says a cease fire has not been issued. We’re still at war.
2) If the Japanese accept the surrender terms, President Truman will give the news to reporters in his office. He will not announce the surrender personally over the radio.
3) According to the A.P., "the President [will] not proclaim V-J Day until the Japanese actually sign the surrender document, which might be 3 or 4 days after the first announcement. It is expected that this ceremony will take place aboard a United States battleship in Tokyo harbor."
If that last point really is true, I think we can count on lots of "premature" V-J Day celebrations among the thousands gathered in front of the White House, and in every great city and small town, people who have worked and prayed for the great day to come and are right now doing nothing much, except...waiting.
. . .
Sunday, August 12, 1945
THE U.P. BULLETIN IS A FAKE. The United Press "Japan surrenders" news flash which was broadcast on the radio about a half-hour ago is a fake. If you’re hearing church bells and cheering crowds where you live, they’re reacting to the U.P. bulletin. And it’s wrong. All the networks now say there is no word yet of Japan’s reply to the Big Four surrender terms.
Weirdly, the U.P. says their Washington bureau did not send the flash, and they have no idea who did.
. . .
"THIS MAY BE VICTORY DAY." So says one newspaper headline. It isn’t yet, though the prospects look much, much brighter than they did Saturday morning. To wit -- Russia and China have agreed to accept Japan’s surrender with Hirohito remaining as Emperor, as long as he agrees to take orders from the Allied supreme commander (which will probably be General MacArthur). Thus the Big Four have given a united answer to Tokyo’s offer, and now the ball is back in the Emperor’s court. As Edward T. Folliard writes in this morning’s Washington Post --
"The word from Japan that will silence the guns and start fighting men on their way home was expected today or tomorrow. . . . Nobody in authority here expected anything but acceptance from Japan, barring some kind of upheaval in the government at Tokyo. There seemed to be no alternative to acceptance, however much it may gall the Japanese to have their God-Emperor taking orders from an enemy mortal."
We’re told it will "officially" be V-J Day when President Truman announces that the Japanese have accepted the Big Four terms. Since that could come at any time, today would be a good day to stay close to your radio.
. . .
Saturday, August 11, 1945
ALLIES SPLIT OVER SURRENDER? Last night’s news broadcasts and this morning’s papers make it sound like surrender might not come so quickly -- at least not in the way that Tokyo has proposed. We’re told that China has denounced Japan’s offer as "the kind of conditional surrender which we cannot accept." Moscow has rejected the surrender offer too, albeit unofficially. This is a far cry from the "nine in ten chance" the Allies would accept this surrender offer, as estimated by H.V. Kaltenborn on N.B.C. yesterday. The sticking point is whether Hirohito can continue to sit on his throne as a political leader, as well as a religious one. Apparently Tokyo insists that the Emperor be allowed to not only continue to hold his title, but also retain "his perogatives . . . as a sovereign ruler."
I think Moscow and Chungking are right to object to this. Japan must submit to Allied military rule if surrender is going to have any meaning. If the Emperor is willing to submit to an Allied military government, then he can stay. But if the Japanese are serious about Hirohito remaining "sovereign," our response should be "Here -- have some more atomic bombs." Yes, he is an important symbol in the Japanese religion, and there might be advantages if the Allies were to let him continue functioning in the role of the nation’s spiritual leader, while taking Allied orders on matters of governance. But that is a whale of an "if."
Then again, one worries that the Japanese surrender offer, which created so much hope yesterday, is merely a ploy to split Allied opinion. That seems to be what it’s done, anyway.
. . .
SHOULD HE STAY OR SHOULD HE GO? The Washington Post inteviewed some Senators for this morning’s paper about whether the Emperor of Japan could be allowed to remain under an "unconditional" surrender. The reactions seem to show how much division this has stirred up, in both parties --
Senator Elbert D. Thomas (D.-Utah) -- "I don’t see why anybody should want to fight a war over an emperor."
Senator Tom Stewart (D.-Tenn.) -- "I wouldn’t give them an inch. Damn the Emperor -- he’s a war criminal and I’d like to see him strung up by his toes."
Senator Warren Magnuson (D.-Wash.) -- "Unconditional surrender means just that. Unless there is good military justification for . . . keeping the Emperor, I hope, for the sake of liberty and democracy, that the Japs are made to surrender unconditionally."
Senator Joseph C. O’Mahoney (D.-Wyo.) -- "If they desire to keep their Emperor, I think we should concur. It would be a small price to pay for peace."
Senator Brien McMahon (D.-Conn.) -- "If the Japs are allowed to keep their fantastic God-Emperor we may get an armistice and not an end to the war."
Senator William Langer (R.-N.D.) -- "I’m for unconditional surrender -- no terms of any kind. That means the Emperor ought to be treated like Hitler."
Senator Robert A. Taft (R.-Ohio) -- "Retention of the Emperor would speed stabilization and the formation of a moderate government. There are lots of moderates in Japan with whom we could do business."
. . .
Friday, August 10, 1945
SURRENDER RUMORS -- THIS TIME THEY COULD BE REAL. It was announced on N.B.C. a little over three hours ago that the Japanese have offered to surrender, and that the Allies are studying the offer. They say the offer is informal, but has been made publicly -- over Japanese radio, no less. H.V. Kaltenborn said just now that the surrender offer is "definite" and that there is a "nine in ten chance" it will be accepted -- but it could take a little time. Apparently the only condition in the offer is that the Japanese would be allowed to keep their emperor. As Mr. Kaltenborn notes, the status of the emperor was not addressed in the Potsdam Declaration. The sticking point over Japan’s previous offer (made through Russia prior to her entry into the war) was Tokyo’s insistence that Allies not occupy the Japanese home islands. This was, of course, unacceptable, and the Potsdam Declaration plainly said so.
Mr. Kaltenborn points out that Emperor Hirohito could actually be useful to the Allies, by persuading his countrymen to not resist an Allied occupation of the home islands and, even more importantly, by ordering Japanese soldiers scattered throughout Japan’s ill-gotten possessions in the Pacific to lay down their arms. The alternative might be a year or more of grueling guerilla warfare in Japan and throughout East Asia, the kind of bitter dead-end campaigning that it was feared would be the aftermath of V-E Day. The irony, of course, is that Hitler’s death helped bring the war in Europe to an abrupt end, while Hirohito’s continuance in power could help do the same in the Pacific.
N.B.C.’s current news broadcast is emphasizing that this is not V-J Day. But it seems tantalizingly near.
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Thursday, August 9, 1945
ATOM BOMB STRIKE ON NAGASAKI. This year has been full of sudden and breathtaking news events -- the death of President Roosevelt, the abrupt collapse of the Nazis, the defeat of Churchill, the atomic bomb, Russia’s declaration of war on Japan. Thus, it felt eerily anti-climactic when the news was flashed last night that we dropped a second atomic bomb on Japan.
The target this time was Nagasaki, which the A.P. describes as a first class naval base and (until now) a quarter-million people in size. About the only thing that’s been definitely reported thus far is that the entire city is covered in smoke and dust and that a smoke column rose to 20,000 feet high over three hours after the bomb hit.
Radio Tokyo apparently hasn’t reported the destruction of Nagasaki yet, but their reports on Hiroshima are starting to sound like Allied propaganda -- "The dead are too numerous to be counted. . . . The destructive power of these bombs is indescribable."
Edward Fouillard writes in today’s Washington Post that this week’s devastating blows actually give the Japanese government an out to give up the fight -- "No nation at war ever faced such a dilemma as Japan. The armed might of the whole Allied world was against her, reinforced by history’s most terrible weapon of destruction, and this very fact was expected to give the Japanese war lords the ‘face’ to cry enough."
Let’s hope they take it this way.
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RUSSIAN KNIFE INVADES BUTTER. That’s what it sounds like on the radio. The Russians have driven 33 miles inside Manchukuo in one day and say they’re meeting little resistance. Harrison Salisbury of the United Press says that the Reds are throwing a million veteran troops into the battle, and they’re invading in two separate drives, both of which have smashed the border defense zone.
If the "hundreds of thousands" or "million strong" Japanese defenders really are there facing the Soviets, we’ll know soon enough. Maybe those numbers were just a shuck all along, or maybe the Japanese know that the jig is up.
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THE SUPERBOMB ISN’T THAT SCARY. Not according to the War Department, anyway, which has been busy swatting down a claim by atomic scientist Dr. Harold Jacobson that radiation from the atomic bomb will make Hiroshima uninhabitable for 70 years. From the A.P. --
"The War Department yesterday denied published reports that areas devastated by the atomic bomb continue for years to react with death-dealing radioactivity. In a statement, the department quoted Dr. J.R. Oppenheimer, head of this phase of the atomic research, as saying 'there is every reason to believe that there was no appreciable radioactivity on the ground at Hiroshima and what little there was decayed very quickly.'"
Another scientist, at Northwestern University, who worked on the atom bomb project said in the papers yesterday that the bomb’s rays are dangerous from "a few hours to a few days."
If this is true, Dr. Jacobson should retract his statement and apologize for it. The atomic bomb is devastating enough, and its invention enough of a challenge for the post-war world, without people running off half-cocked and spreading scare stories about it.
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Wednesday, August 8, 1945
RUSSIA DECLARES WAR ON JAPAN. Another day, another stunning development. President Truman made the announcement at a flash press conference at three o’clock today. There’s not much more than that yet, except that the Soviets say Britain and the U.S. asked Russia to enter the war and help bring a "speedy restoration of peace." The Red Army has launched an all-out assault on Japanese positions in Manchukuo/Manchuria, but there have been no communiques yet about the fighting.
Suddenly everybody’s talking about a "quick end to the war." It’s funny how fanciful that seemed just a month ago, or even a week ago.
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Tuesday, August 7, 1945
HOW MANY MORE HIROSHIMAS? The city of Hiroshima has been 60 percent destroyed, and the rest of it is heavily damaged, according to this morning’s papers and the radio bulletins. The atomic bomb completely obliterated over four square miles of the city. One of the crew members of the plane that made the historic mission said, "The only way we could tell a city had been there was because we had seen it a moment before."
You would think this might be enough to make the Japanese quit, at just about any price. But while, as the White House has said, atomic bomb attacks are expected to shorten the war, don’t expect what happened to Hiroshima alone to finish the job. A statement read on the N.B.C. program "Navy Hour" last night noted that Tokyo might be having some trouble believing what had just happened --
"It is too early yet to tell what effect the atomic bomb will have on Japanese morale. We may have to destroy four or five cities before they actually believe we have such a bomb. But we will bring them the proof. With the destruction from this new type of bomb and with the continued damage from Admiral William F. Halsey’s carrier planes and ships, the Japanese fighting strength -- and perhaps even their will to fight -- will rapidly weaken. They must now take their choice: mass suicide or surrender."
The White House isn’t saying, but it’s taken as a given in the press that we’ve got more than one bomb. As for Radio Tokyo, they’ve announced that the Japanese cabinet is now meeting in special session. By God, they better be.
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HIROSHIMA WILL BE UNINHABITABLE FOR 70 YEARS. Just how scary is the superbomb? This scary, according to a Columbia University scientist, Dr. Harold Jacobson, writing for the International News Service --
"Any Japanese who try to ascertain the extent of damage caused by the atomic bomb in Hiroshima are committing suicide. The terrific force of the explosion irradiates every piece of matter in the area. Investigators will become infected with secondary radiation which breaks up the red corpuscles in the blood. This prevents the body from assimilating oxygen which means that those so exposed will die in the same way victims of leukemia die. Actually, tests have shown that the radiation in an area exposed to the force of an atomic bomb will not be dissipated for approximately 70 years. Hence, Hiroshima will be a devastated area not unlike our conception of the moon for nearly three-quarters of a century. Furthermore, rain falling on the area will pick up the lethal rays and will carry them down to the rivers and the sea. And animal life in these waters will die. I cite these facts to illustrate the awesome force contained in the atomic bomb. It defies the imagination. Flash Gordon looks like a piker compared to it."
It will be a terrible thing for us to use more superbombs -- but we are justified in using them to end Japanese militarism and save the lives of our fighting men. It is up to Tokyo to prevent more atomic bombings. Japan must surrender unconditionally, now.
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THE HOPE OF THE ATOMIC AGE. On the other hand, an A.P. article today brings us glad tidings of what the "atomic age" could mean once we finish this war --
"Qualified scientists see the atom-blasting of Japan as the potential start toward telephone booth-sized heating plants for great factories and 1000-hour auto trips on one gram of fuel -- but not certainly and certainly not now. . . . Those who have worked closely with modern power but who know little of the atomic bomb as developed, say peacetime uses are presently incalculable. One expert, who withheld use of his name, ventured the estimate that with a few grams of uranium, the source of energy in the atomic bomb, it might be possible to power the Queen Mary on a round trip from Europe to the United States and back. Another estimated that one gram might drive a 30-horsepower automobile for 1000 hours. Grand Coulee Dam’s output might be equaled by a relative midget, a factory heating plant might be contained in a compartment as big as a telephone booth, the substitute for fuel oil tanks might be thimble-sized, and so on. However, the experts -- and they were backed up by the statements of Secretary of War Stimson -- agreed that it will not be a development that will pop up as soon as the war is over. Uranium is rare and expensive; two billion dollars was spent just to get the bombs going against Japan and thousands of persons worked on separate phases. There is work for more thousands before the new power is turned to peace."
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MAKES SENSE. From Time magazine’s Miscellany section -- "In Des Moines, a patron charged with disturbing the peace at the Covered Wagon nightclub was freed by a judge on the ground there was no peace in the club to disturb."
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Monday, August 6, 1945
"SUPERBOMB" DROPPED ON HIROSHIMA. President Truman has announced this morning that an American warplane -- one single plane -- dropped an atomic bomb yesterday evening on the Japanese army center of Hiroshima. (The War Department also calls it a "cosmic bomb.") So far we’ve heard that this 400-pound bomb -- one single bomb -- carried in it a destructive power equal to that of all the conventional firebombs in 2,000 B-29s. That’s about 20,000 tons of TNT, and about 2,000 times the blast power of what was previously our most powerful weapon, the British "grand slam" bomb.
Just from what we’ve been hearing on the radio since then, the significance of this event can’t be underestimated. The White House statement calls the new bomb "the harnessing of the power of the universe. The force from which the sun draws its power has been loosed against those who brought war to the Far East."
Ominously, we don’t have any word from the Japanese yet as to what happened at Hiroshima, except for one report that all trains to the city have been cancelled. If this bomb is as destructive as it’s touted to be, there may not be much of Hiroshima left.
And obviously, this throws every expectation of what’s next in the Japanese war into a cocked hat. Surely we have more than one of these superbombs, and surely they will be directed against more Japanese cities. If Tokyo doesn’t surrender now, they’re even madder than Hitler was.
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Sunday, August 5, 1945
"GIANT BLOWS" COMING AGAINST JAPAN. As if the record-setting firebomb raids by ever-larger numbers of Superforts weren’t big enough. The A.P. said yesterday that "powerful new blows" were planned against Japan at Potsdam by the Anglo-American high commands, and this morning’s papers bring news of 12 more Japanese cities added to the growing "death list" of General LeMay and General Spaatz. The total of Japanese cities that have been warned of "imminent destruction" by the U.S. Twentieth Air Force is now 31. Some 720,000 leaflets have been dropped by our airmen on the 12 new cities in the last week or so, warning civilians to get out now.
The new honorees are, by name, Hachinobe, Urawa, Tottori, Iwakuni, Takayama, Fukushima, Akita, Saga, Yawata, Miyahonojo, and Otaru. The standout here is Yawata, a great steel center on Kyushu Island and known as the "Pittsburgh of Japan." The cities that don’t get firebombed immediately face a slower, but equally dire, peril -- Superforts have parachuted mines into every Japanese harbor, clamping a blockade on the home islands and shutting down inter-island commerce more or less completely. The Japanese can also expect no further relief, in terms of food or military supplies, from the remains of their Asiatic empire.
The incredible destruction being rained on Japan from the air has taken the spotlight off the plans for invasion, but the Japanese haven’t forgotten by any means. Radio Tokyo now says D-Day could well come within 60 days, and that the U.S. recently concentrated a flotilla of 500 warships off Okinawa. Meanwhile, General MacArthur has taken military command of the Ryukyus Islands this week-end. The Ryukyus island chain goes from near Formosa to the Japanese home islands. The official U.S. announcement is scarcely treating it like a secret, saying that the Ryukyus, with the Philippines, form a great semicircular base from which a mighty invasion force is being forged . . . for the final conquest of Japan."
The Japanese have been clinging to the hope that Soviet Russia, still formally neutral in the Pacific war, would accept Tokyo’s offer to mediate a palatable peace (i.e., without U.S. occupation of the home islands). But the Moscow press, in particular the army newspaper Red Star, has lately been ballyhooing the Soviets’ gigantic military buildup on what the Russians ominously call the "Far Eastern Front" opposite of Manchukuo, where a million Japanese troops have been tied down to deter a Red offensive.
Barring a sudden outbreak of sensibility in the Japanese government, we could conceivably see Japan squeezed this fall between U.S. Marines hitting their home island beaches from the east, while the Russians imperil Tokyo’s empire from the west. And in between, there might not be much left but rubble.
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THE BEST THING FROM POTSDAM. The Potsdam agreement’s main function seems to be to settle the outstanding questions of how the Big Three plan to jointly govern Germany. And as Barnet Nover noted in yesterday’s column, that’s no small feat --
"Before Potsdam there were those who feared that Russia would seek to transform Germany into a Soviet satellite. There were others who, alarmed by certain British trends and tendencies, feared that Great Britain was grooming a de-Nazified Reich as a buffer against the Soviet Union. And there were still others who, noticing that the Allies were moving at cross purposes in Germany, feared that Allied disharmony would once again enable Germany to escape the consequences of defeat and begin plotting a Third World War. The Potsdam agreement is primarily significant in that it proves all these fears groundless, at least for the present. Germany is not to become either a Russian satellite or a British buffer. Nor is she to be allowed by default to regain her war-making capacity. . . . Whether the Allied plan will work in the manner intended remains to be seen. If it doesn’t it can be changed. The important thing about Potsdam is that the Allies have agreed on a plan and that plan does tend to eliminate dangerous frictions that had begun to develop among them."
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HE WHO LAUGHS FIRST... From Time magazine’s Miscellany section -- "In Spokane, Police Captain Lee Markwood and Sergeant Dan Mangam laughed as they watched a driver wriggle out of a parking space in front of the police station, stiffened their upper lips as the car’s owner appeared just too late to stop the thief from driving away."
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