"Mother and I were on vacation, we were in Cleveland...We were all so happy the war was over and everything...Well, we weren't home to celebrate V-J, like everybody else were. I think my dad had started from the minute he had heard it, and he was still celebrating when we got home."—Helen Hauter
JAPS SURRENDER WORLD WAR II ENDS
Japan has surrendered, it has been announced officially in Washington, and World War II is ended.
The long-awaited confirmation came after a war-wracked world had spent hours torn between optimistic reports that the end was near, to pessimistic reports that "nothing was in sight."
Tokyo kept the world on edge since 1:49 a.m. EWT Tuesday morning when Domei, official Japanese news agency, said the Japs had decided to surrender.
After that came reports, followed by denials, that the Swiss government had received the offical word.
Charles G. Ross, White House press secretary, told reporters late Tuesday the reply to Allied unconditional surrender demands was expected here any time.
The Japanese radio in a broadcast strange to western ears reported that "on Aug. 14, the imperial decision was granted." It was assumed here that this meant at the time the imperial decision was to accept the austere terms of the Postdam ultimatum.
The broadcast went on to say that throngs of Japanese gathered before the emporer’s palace and wept in shame, asking Hirohoto to forgive them because "our efforts were not enough."
Subsequently American moniters heard Japanese radio stations calling all Japanese ships at sea, and it was recalled that such calls went out before Germany surrendered finally last May 7.
Later there was another Domei transmission calling on Japan’s "100,000,000 (people) without exception" to listen attentively to a broadcast of "unprecedented importance" scheduled for 11 p.m. EWT.
"When will the cease fire order be given?" he was asked.
"The President will cover that in his statement to the press," Mr. Ross replied.
Radio Paris, without announcing its source, said that capitulation already was completed and that Allied and Japanese officials were meeting on the U.S.S. Missouri somewhere in the Pacific.
London also heard they might take place on bloody Okinowa, the American capture of which doomed Japan- even without the atom bomb.
Gen. Douglas MacArthur still was the first choice in speculative sweepstakes for supreme Allied commander.
But it was believed some officer or officers of lesser rank would meet the Japanese and sign for the Allies. London rumored that the signing would take place tommorrow.
In his second press conference, Mr.Ross disclosed that the Swiss legation at Washington had received at 10:59 a.m. EWT from its government the following hope-dashing message:
"Very urgent-760-Japanese legation reports that coded cables it received this morning do not (repeat not) contain the answer awaited by the whole world."
The Swiss legation shortly after noon handed this message to the State Department, and Mr. Ross made it public.
This development meant that Japanese broadcasts- and the logic of military events- were the only basis for believing that Japan at last is ready to bow to the inevitable and surrender.
One of the enemy broadcasts, in words sounding strange to western ears, reported that "on Aug. 14, the imperial decision was granted." In the light of the earlier broadcast, it was assumed this meant the decision to surrender had been made.
The Japanese radio went on to say that throngs of Japanese gathered before the Emporer’s palace wept with bowed heads in shame because "our efforts were not enough."
The earlier Japanese broadcasts that the Imperial Government had decided to accept the Postdam ultimatum kicked off wild victory celebrations in many parts of the world.
They had not, however, stopped cascades of bombs on the enemy homeland from U.S. airplanes and smashing ground drives by Red Army forces in Manchuria.
The long note whose arrival in Bern was reported in the night fooled even the White House. It announced, and everybody believed, that it was the Japanese reply to Allied surrender terms.© The Toledo Blade, 1945
[These articals are copyrighted by the Toledo Blade, who graciously granted us permission to reprint them in this educational website. These are actual articles that appeared on the front page of the Toledo Blade, 1945. The copying of these articles outside of this site is expressly forbidden by law.]
National Archives: "GI's at the Rainbow Corner Red Cross Club in Paris, France, whoop it up after buying the special
edition of the Paris Post, which carried the banner headline, `JAPS QUIT.'" T3c. G. Lempeotis, August 10, 1945
