Wednesday, August 15, 1945. VP Day.

US Federal employees received a two day holiday.

Today In Wyoming's History: August 15: 

August 15

Today is Victory over Japan Day

 VJ Day Crowd in  Times Squire, New York City, August 14, 1945.

1945    The Allies proclaimed V-J Day, one day after Japan agreed to surrender unconditionally.  Hirohito's surrender message is broadcast to the Japanese people.  Japanese aircraft raid TF 38, 12 hours after Hirohito's surrender order.  Soviet aircraft sink 860 ton frigate Kenju off Hokkaido; last Japanese warship lost during World War II.A two-day holiday is proclaimed for all federal employees. In New York, Mayor La Guardia pays tribute to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the deceased president, in a radio broadcast.  US Task Force 38 launches massive air strikes on the Tokyo area, encountering numerous Japanese fighters but the aircraft are recalled upon receipt of the surrender announcement. Vice-Admiral Ugaki, commanding Kamikaze operations, leads a final mission but the 7 dive-bombers are shot down off Tokyo before they can reach Okinawa. South Korea was liberated after nearly 40 years of Japanese colonial rule.  US gasoline rationing ends.

Wait a minute.  I thought you said yesterday was VJ Day?

I did.  Actually there's some dispute on whether the 14th, when Truman read the news and when Hirohito actually stated Japan would surrender, or today, the following day, is VJ, or VP Day.  I actually would have supported today being the more widely supported one, but not everyone does.  FWIW, 

15 August is the official V-J Day for the United Kingdom,. 2 September.for the US.

VP stood for Victory in the Pacific.

It was still a pretty tense day in the war zone.

Hirohito's surrender was broadcast by Japanese radio.

This was the first time most Japanese had heard their Emperor speak, and as it was delivered in classical Japanese, which most Japanese did not speak, it was difficult to understand.

US Task Force 38 launched massive air strikes on the Tokyo area which was heavily resisted, but the attack was recalled when the surrender announcement was learned of.

Vice-Admiral Ugaki, commanding Kamikaze operations, leads a final mission but all seven dive-bombers are shot down off Tokyo before they can reach Okinawa

The Battle of Baoying began in central Jiangsu, China as part of the Chinese Civil War.  Chiang Kai-shek, meanwhile,  made a radio broadcast noting China's fight with Japan since 1937.  

Chu Teh, the Commander in Chief of the Chinese Communist army, warns the Allies that the Communists expect a share in the Japanese surrender and postwar settlement, a bold statement considering the general sit on their butt attitude of the Chinese Communist forces during the war.

The Nationalist Chinese and the Soviet Union signed a Treaty of Friendship returning Manchuria to China.  Chinese Communists were excluded.

The Soviets received Port Arthur.

Philippe Pétain was sentenced to death for treason, but Charles de Gaulle gave him a reprieve on account of his age.

Gen. Korechika Anami, Japanese War Minister, committed suicide at age 58.

Celebrations broke out in Australia.

Last edition:

Tuesday,. August 14, 1945. VJ Day. World War Two ends. New wars start.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, August Revolution, Battle of Sakhalin, Douglas MacArthur, French Empire, French Indochina, French Indochinese War, Harry S. Truman, Hirohito, Japan, Kyūjō Incident, Manchuria, Red Army, World War Two

Sunday, August 5, 1945. Enola Gay and Necessary Evil.

The 20th Air Force dropped 720,000 leaflets over twelve Japanese cities.  Conventional bombing raids continued.

Gen. LeMay officially confirmed the atomic mission for the next day.

Paul Tibbets named the lead plane in the Hiroshima bombing mission the Enola Gay, after his mother.  This was done over the objection of the planes normal designated pilot, Robert Lewis, who wanted to name the plane  "The Pearl Harbor," "The Avenger," or "The USS Indianapolis".  Lewis also wasn't happy about being moved to the co-pilot's seat for the mission.

Lewis would return to civilian life after the war, and died in 1983 at age 65.

The B-29 that would take photos on the mission would be named Necessary Evil.  It featured, as many plans did, a buxom woman, albeit one clothed in a bikini, as nose art.

The Chinese 13th Army captured the town of Tanchuk. The Chinese 58th Division took Hsinning (Changchun).

Paul Ferdonet, the "Radio Traitor" of Stuttgart, was executed in France.

His pro Nazi broadcast had actually dwindled after 1942.

Oddly enough, today would have been Loni Anderson' birthday.  She passed away yesterday.

Last edition:

Saturday, August 4, 1945. Tibbets briefs his crew.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, British Army, Burma, Espionage, Imperial Japanese Army, Music, Operation Silverplate, Railroads, Swing Music, U.S. Air Force, USSR, War Crimes, Weapons, World War Two

Wednesday, August 1, 1945. Laval brought to trial for what many in France had thought or done.

Pierre Laval was brought to Paris to face trial, a crime that a huge percentage of the French population was itself guilty of, accomodating a far right government and turning a blind eye. . . just like many are doing now.

Laval started off for a career in zoology before diverting to law.  Politically, he took a trip through Marxism.  He evolved into a Socialist, and ultimately into a right wing nationalist.

Laval during his trial.

De Gaulle, who was of course on the opposite side of the World War Two contest, said of him:

Naturally inclined, accustomed by the regime, to approach matters from below, Laval held that, whatever happens, it is important to be in power, that a certain degree of astuteness always controls the situation, that there is no event that cannot be turned around, no men that cannot be handled. He had, in the cataclysm, felt the misfortune of the country but also the opportunity to take the reins and apply on a vast scale the capacity he had to deal with anything. But the victorious Reich was a partner who did not intend to compromise. For, despite everything [...] he had to embrace the disaster of France. He accepted the condition. He judged that it was possible to take advantage of the worst, to use even the point of servitude, to even associate oneself with the invader, to make oneself an asset of the most terrible repression. To carry out his policy, he renounced the honor of the country, the independence of the State, and national pride. Now, these elements reappeared alive and demanding as the enemy weakened. Laval had played. He had lost. He had the courage to admit that he was responsible for the consequences. No doubt, in his government, deploying all the resources of ruse, all the resources of obstinacy to support the unsustainable, he sought to serve his country. Let that be left to him!

If everyone who thought the way that Laval did during the war had suffered his fate, the Seine would have run red for years.

The new British parliament assembled.    When Winston Churchill, somebody who never entertained the faults that Laval had, entered the House he was greeted by cheers and singing of "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow".  Laborites responded by singing "The Red Flag".

Probably not that one.

Singing The Red Flag was BS.

When Douglas Clifton Brown was re-elected Speaker he said he was not quite sure whether he was becoming chairman of the House of Commons or director of a musical show.

Mines brought Japanese shipping on the Yangtze to a halt.

Allied troops sealed off the Japanese on Bougainville, where fighting was ongoing, off at Buin.

US aircraft struck Japanese positions on Wake Island.

Toyama, Japan, on fire after nighttime raid.

New York Giant Mel Ott became the third member of the 500 home run club with a shot off Johnny Hutchings of the Boston Braves.

The current issue of Vogue was out with an issue on furs, showing how the war time economy was changing to a focus on luxury.

Vogue, posted as fair use.

Well sort of.  Fur coast were a much more Middle Class thing than now imagined. And frankly, as one of the only renewable clothing sources, they still should be.

Would that this would return.

War Winding Down – Waiting For The Other Shoe To Drop – August 1, 1945

Last edition:

Tuesday, July 31, 1945. Little Boy assembled.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Austria, Collaborators, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Japan, Nazi Party, Operation Silverplate, Philippine Insurrection, Philippines, Spain, Vichy France, Weapons, World War Two

Tuesday, July 28, 1925. Léon Augustin Lhermitte

French naturalist painter Léon Augustin Lhermitte passed away at age 80.

The Gleaners, 1887.

Last edition:

Saturday, July 25, 1925.

Labels: 1920s, 1925, Art, Golf, J. F. Kernan, Swimming

Monday, July 23, 1945. Pétain on trial.

The trial of Philippe Pétain began.

Last edition:

Sunday, July 22, 1945. Open to negotiations, but not threats.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Burma, Cheesecake, Germany (Berlin), Imperial Japanese Army, Japan (Tokyo), Kuril Islands, Post WWII Occupation of Germany, U.S. Navy, World War Two

Monday, July 9, 1945. Dutch land at Balikpapan.

Dutch troops landed north of Balikpapan, completing the encirclement of the bay.

Chinese troops captured the Tanchuk airbase.

The Brazilian cruiser Bahia accidentally sank itself by hitting itself during antiaircraft firing exercises.  294 men were killed.

Charles de Gaulle proposed a national referendum to decide the system of government in France.

A crowd of 30,000 gathered in Perth for the funeral procession of John Curtin to Karrakatta Cemetery.

A total solar eclipse was visible across parts of the northern hemisphere, including parts of North America.

Life magazine featured a model in a bikini, something that various magazines had been doing a lot of in 1945.

Last edition:

Sunday, July 8, 1945. The Camp Salina Massacre.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, 1970, 1970s, Army, Australian Army, boats and ships, Borneo, Crime, Dutch Navy, Prisoners of War, South China Sea, U.S. Navy, Utah

Thursday, July 9, 1925. Money to fight the Rifs.

The French Chamber of Deputies approved an additional 183 million francs to fight the Rif War in Morocco, where France shouldn't have been in the first place.

Oops, not the Riffs, the Riffians.*

Footnotes:

The obscure references is to 1979's The Warriors.

Last edition:

Wednesday, July 8, 1925. Riffian assault.

Labels: 1920s, 1925, Crime, French Empire, Illinois (Chicago), Morocco, Photography, pornography, Rif War, Sports, Water Skiing

Saturday, June 6, 1925. The Great Syrian Revolt.

Walter P. Chrysler incorporated the company that bears his name.

The Great Syrian Revolt against the French started when representatives of the Jabal Druze State were treated poorly by the French administrator.  Syrian rejection of French rule, however, had been smouldering since the end of World War One.

Indeed, this ties right into the events we've been otherwise cataloging regarding France at the end of World War One.  Syria and Lebanon had been granted near independence during the war, which France tried to renege on as soon as the Germans were defeated. Only British intervention, which nearly resulted in fighting between the French and British, stopped that from occurring and assured rapid Syrian and Lebanese independence.  French insistence on occupying the same territory at the end of the Great War nearly resulted in fighting between the same two European powers then and France had never been welcome by most of the regions inhabitants.

French attachment to the region is hard to really explain, but it is in part cultural and goes all the way back to the Kingdom of Jerusalem,1099–1187, 1192-1291, the long running "Crusader Kingdom" in the same region. Lasting almost two hundred years, the kingdom, which was mostly governed by French Crusaders, formed a strong cultural attachment to the region with the French.

The Saturday magazines hit the stands.

Last edition:

Wednesday,. June 3, 1925. Blimps and Stormy Weather.

Labels: 1920s, 1925, Blog Mirror, Iowa, Lighter than air aircraft, Nebraska, Petroleum, Weather

Monday, June 4, 1945. Marines land on the Oroku Peninsula on Okinawa.

Today in World War II History—June 4, 1940 & 1945: 80 Years Ago—June 4, 1945: US Marines land behind Japanese lines on Oroku Peninsula on Okinawa.

US Office of Civilian Defense is inactivated.

From Sarah Sundin's excellent blog.

The Progressive Conservative Party took control in Ontario's election and would retain power for the next 40 years.

Churchill made a gaff in an election broadcast by claiming that the  Labour Party, if elected, would cause the creation of "some form of Gestapo".

Paul Ferdonet, the "Radio Traitor" of Stuttgart, was arrested by French troops in Bavaria.

Last edition:

Sunday, June 3, 1945. French escorted out of Damascus.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Blog Mirror, British Army, French Army, French League of Nation Mandates, Okinawa, Syria, Syria (Damascus), United States Marine Corps, World War Two

Tuesday, May 19, 1925. Birthdays and a last game.

This is the birthday of Malcolm Little, known to history as Malcolm X.

I've discussed him to some extent here on this blog before, but I had neglected to enter him as a topic category until today.  An extremely intelligent man and the son of a Baptist lay minister, he had undergone a continuing religious evolution and was a Muslim at the time of his murder.  I suspect that, had he lived, he would have returned to Christianity.

It is also the birthday of Pol Pot

Pol Pot has featured on this blog a lot recently.  Born Saloth Sâr the Cambodian Communist leader would go down in history as one of the greatest mass murderers of all time.  Quite well educated, he became a Communist while studying in France after World War Two.  He died in exile in 1998.

Casey Stengel played his last major league game.

Last edition:

Sunday, May 17, 1925. The canonization of Thérèse of Lisieux

Labels: 1920s, 1925, baseball, Catholic, Christianity, Personalities, religion

Thursday, May 10, 1945. Guderian surrenders.

Convoy returning German troops to Germany from Austria after the surrender.

The Red Army entered Prague to the cheers of its residents.

The German garrisons at Lorient and Sark surrendered.

Heinz Guderian surrendered to U.S. troops. While he was a supporter of Nazism and remained a German nationalist for the rest of his life, he managed to avoid incarceration.

The U.S. Government announced its plans to withdraw 3,100,000 US troops in Europe.

Richard Glücks, age 56, Nazi official died by suicide; Konrad Henlein, 47, Sudeten German politician and Nazi, died by suicide. Norwegian Reichs Commissioners Terboven and the German Chief of Police in Norway both committed suicide.

US troops landed on the coast of Macajalar Bay on Luzon.

Japanese POWs on Okinawa.  May 10, 1945.

Last edition:

Wednesday, May 9, 1945. The last Wehrmachtbericht, Stalin's congrats.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Airborne, British Army, Channel Islands, Collaborators, German Flensburg Government, German Wehrmacht, Joseph Stalin, Norway, Operation Doomsday, Slovenia, The Holocaust, World War Two

Easter Sunday, April 12, 1925. Metropolitan Peter of Krutitsy (Pyotr Fyodorovich Polyansky) installed as the Patriarch of Moscow.

Portable radio?

Radio in the Canadian Rockies, 1925

Metropolitan Peter of Krutitsy (Pyotr Fyodorovich Polyansky) was installed as the Patriarch of Moscow on the same day as the funeral for his predecessor, Patriarch Tikhon of Moscow. 

Peter had been identified in Tikhon's will as one of his three potential successors.  He was selected by the council of 59 bishops because "the first two were already in prison."  Peter would later suffer imprisonment himself and was executed by the barbarous Soviet state in 1937.  The Russian Orthodox Church has declared him to be a Hieromartyr.

Tikhon's funeral in Moscow was the last major public Russian Orthodox Church event and the last major religious event in the Soviet Union for over 60 years.

It should be noted that in the Orthodox East, it was not Easter Sunday, like it was in the west.  Easter for the Orthodox would fall on April 19.

France, following the UK's example, agreed that its indemnities for the Boxer Rebellion should go to railway construction in China.

Last edition:

Holy Saturday, April 11, 1925. East of the Sun, West of the Moon.Labels: 1920s, 1925, Central Asia, Easter, Exploration, Holy Week, hunting, James Simpson-Roosevelt Asiatic Expedition, Roosevelt

Tuesday, April 10, 1945. The Great Jet Massacre.

The "great jet massacre" occurred in which Allied aircraft shot down fifty Me 262s causing the Luftwaffe to abandon the aerial defense of Berlin.

The last reconnaissance flight over the UK was flown by the Luftwaffe, using a Ar234.

US Army Corporal Rick Carrier discovered Buchenwald leading to its liberation the following day.

" Eating K rations somewhere in Germany are, left to right: Pfc. Marvin Beard, Reeves, Tenn., and Pfc. Philip Isaacs, New Haven, Conn. Großfahner, Germany. 10 April, 1945.  Company E, 385th Infantry Regiment, 76th Infantry Division.  Photographer: T/5 Sam Gilbert, 166th Signal Photo Co."

The US 84th Infantry Division took Hanover.  The 9th Army took Essen.

The Battle of Authion began in the French Alps

The RAF sank the U-878 in the Bay of Biscay.

Despite severe wreckage, no casualties were suffered when poor visibility caused this C-54 to crash on Yonton airfield, Okinawa. Many usable parts were salvaged from the plane. 10 April, 1945.

The 96th Infantry Division seized part of Kakazu Ridge.

The 14th Corps reached Lamon Bay and captured Mauban on the Philippines.

The British 4th Corps captured Thazi in Burma.

Last edition:

Monday, April 9, 1945. The End of B-17 Production.

Labels: Battle of Bologna, China, German Resistance Movements, Imperial Japanese Army, Indonesia, Italy, July 20 Plot, Operation Opossum, Red Army, The Battle of West Hunan (湘西會戰), World War Two