Japan was being governed at this point by a Supreme War Council, which was dominated by militarists who had no interest in peace. The distance between these “peace feelers” and an “offer” or even “readiness” to surrender is quite large. Hasegawa’s argument isn’t about Japan being ready to surrender, though he uses this account to show how dependent Japan’s ideas about the war’s possible ends were on a neutral Soviet Union. This story is the heart of Tsuyoshi Hasegawa’s justly influential Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan (2005), and he goes over, in great detail, how these approaches worked (one in Japan, with the Soviet ambassador there, another in Moscow, with the Japanese ambassador there). Specifically, there were several attempts to see whether the (then still-neutral) Soviet Union would be willing to serve as a mediator for a negotiated peace between the US and Japan. That there were “peace feelers” put out by some highly-placed Japanese in mid-1945 is well-known and well-documented. Photograph from Wikimedia Commons, somewhat touched up. Contrast his expression with that of War Minister Korechika Anami (back row, two behind Yonai), who was, until very close to the end, one of the most die-hard supporters of a continued war. Of note, second to Suzuki’s left, looking downward and glum, is Navy Minister Mitsumasa Yonai, one of the only members of the “peace party” actually on the cabinet. Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki is front and center. Wheeler's souvenir pen used in the surrender.Ī copy of the instrument of surrender (below).The Suzuki Cabinet, who held the fate of Japan in their hands in the summer of 1945. Army Corps of Engineers Museum at Fort Belvoir, from which it was transferred to the Office of History Museum collection, where it now resides. After he died in 1974, the pen, made in India and pictured here, remained in his family. General Wheeler, who became Chief of Engineers the month following the surrender, received an important memento of this event, one of the pens used for the surrender document. Mountbatten gives a speech after Japanese army surrender at Singapore's municipal building. The Japanese Supreme Command commander, General Count Hisaichi Terauchi, was not present because he was ill. Seishiro Itagaki, the commander of Singapore and the Deputy Commander of the Japanese Expeditionary Forces, Southern Regions. The surrender took place on September 12, 1945, at Singapore, site of the crushing British defeat by the Japanese just three years earlier, which Prime Minister Winston Churchill described as "the worst disaster and largest capitulation in British history." The ceremony was concluded without incident. Lord Mountbatten is seated at the desk upper left Lt. Japanese army signing surrender documents in Singapore, 12 Sept. In this capacity, he represented the United States at the Japanese surrender. Wheeler also held the title of Commander, India-Burma Theater and was the highest ranking American officer in theater. Unlike in the central and southwest Pacific, British and Commonwealth forces played a major role in fighting the Japanese in Asia, and the overall commander of Allied forces was a British officer. After commanding the Services of Supply, Wheeler was appointed Deputy Supreme Commander, South East Asia Command, under Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten in October 1943. Wheeler had been serving in the China-Burma-India theater since early 1942. It was important that this army formally surrender.Įngineer Lt. By the end of the war, though depleted by defeats in battle and by lack of supplies, it was still a large and formidable fighting force, capable of causing a great deal of difficulty for the Allies. It operated in Southeast Asia, fighting British, American, and Australian forces. One of these forces was the Japanese Asian army, formally called the Japanese Expeditionary Forces, Southern Regions. Though the Japanese government surrendered at this ceremony, there were still numerous Japanese military forces in the field yet to formally surrender to Allied control. Most people are aware of the famous Japanese surrender on the deck of the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, September 2, 1945.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |