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Footage of the Moment the Japanese Surrendered
"President Truman Speech After the Bombing of Hiroshima"
1,139,799 views •Jun 4, 2015
Smithsonian Channel
The 1945 Japanese surrender ceremony of WWII signaled a monumental end to a brutal conflict.
And war correspondent William Courtenay was there to film it all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7incPwTOxI
-
Japanese Emperor Hirohito apparently overruled his cabinet and his military leaders with his surrender order.
Yesterday i saw a good documentary which reminded us that Japanese military leaders, and others, did not want to surrender, even
after all the previous bombs, then Hiroshima with Little Boy on August 6 and 'Fat Man on Nagasaki August 9, had been dropped.
Opinion: WORLD WAR II: THE DAY HIROHITO OVERRULED JAPAN'S CABINET
June 16, 1983
The New York Times Archives
See the article in its original context from
June 16, 1983, Section A, Page 26Buy Reprints
View on timesmachine
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1983/06/16/235122.html
TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers.
About the Archive
This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them.
Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions.
To the Editor:
In a recent letter (May 15) former President Nixon said in justification of the use of the atomic bomb against Japan that ''bringing about its surrender by conventional forces would undoubtedly have cost far more lives.''
Soter and Commager err in assuming that ''total military collapse'' implied surrender. Japan was a defeated nation long before the bomb was dropped. It had endured the strangling blockade by the U.S. fleet, the ferocious aerial bombardment of cities (the March 9 raid on Tokyo killed more civilians than did either atomic bomb), the defeat on Okinawa and Soviet entry into the Pacific war.
But a defeated Japan would not surrender until compelled to do so by the Emperor. The Emperor was told on Aug. 7 that ''the whole city of Hiroshima was destroyed instantly by a sin-gle bomb.'' Dr. Nishina, Japan's leading atomic scientist, confirmed that it was an atomic explosion.
Hirohito then told his official spokesman, Koichi Kido: ''Under these circumstances we must bow to the inevitable. We must put an end to this war as speedily as possible so this tragedy will not be repeated.''
The following day, Hirohito told Foreign Minister Togo, ''We can no longer continue the struggle now that a weapon of this devastating power was used against us'' and instructed him to ''tell (Premier) Suzuki it is my wish that the war be ended as soon as possible on the basis of the Potsdam Proclamation.''
Had the atomic bombs not been dropped, a massive allied attack on the home islands - which Washington had approved in June - might have been necessary. And an invasion of Japan would have been catastrophic.
Japan was prepared for a kamikaze resistance. The Cabinet had already adopted the Homeland Battle Strategy Plan to fight ''a decisive battle ... even at the cost of self-destruction of the entire Japanese race.'' On June 8, just two months before Hiroshima, the Cabinet approved a plan of defense calling for ''100 million people to arise from the vantage ground of their sacred land to strike the invaders dead.''
Even after the atomic bombs had been dropped, Japanese military leaders opposed surrender. At the Imperial Conference on Aug. 9, when the Emperor finally overruled the Cabinet, War Minister Anami argued, ''If the people of Japan went into the decisive battle in the homeland determined to display the full measure of patriotism and to fight to the very last, Japan would be able to avert the crisis facing her.''
American leaders knew of Japan's fanatic resolve to fight to the end and counted the horrible consequences of an invasion. Secretary of War Stimson dreaded ''the ghastly specter of a clash of great land armies,'' and Army Chief of Staff Marshall advised President Truman on July 23 that an invasion of Japan could ''cost as much as a million casualties on the American side, with an equal number of the enemy.'' Gen. Leslie Groves, head of the atomic bomb project, believed that the casualties in an invasion could have exceeded 10 million.
Mr. Nixon is correct in agreeing with President Truman, who ordered the atomic bombs to be used because ''I wanted to save a half a million boys on our side and as many on the other side.'' BRUCE LOEBS Pocatello, Idaho, June 3, 1983
https://www.nytimes.com/1983/06/16/opinion/l-world-war-ii-the-day-hirohito-overruled-japan-s-cabinet-235122.html
"President Truman Speech After the Bombing of Hiroshima"
1,139,799 views •Jun 4, 2015
Smithsonian Channel
The 1945 Japanese surrender ceremony of WWII signaled a monumental end to a brutal conflict.
And war correspondent William Courtenay was there to film it all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7incPwTOxI
-
Japanese Emperor Hirohito apparently overruled his cabinet and his military leaders with his surrender order.
Yesterday i saw a good documentary which reminded us that Japanese military leaders, and others, did not want to surrender, even
after all the previous bombs, then Hiroshima with Little Boy on August 6 and 'Fat Man on Nagasaki August 9, had been dropped.
Opinion: WORLD WAR II: THE DAY HIROHITO OVERRULED JAPAN'S CABINET
June 16, 1983
The New York Times Archives
See the article in its original context from
June 16, 1983, Section A, Page 26Buy Reprints
View on timesmachine
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1983/06/16/235122.html
TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers.
About the Archive
This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them.
Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions.
To the Editor:
In a recent letter (May 15) former President Nixon said in justification of the use of the atomic bomb against Japan that ''bringing about its surrender by conventional forces would undoubtedly have cost far more lives.''
Soter and Commager err in assuming that ''total military collapse'' implied surrender. Japan was a defeated nation long before the bomb was dropped. It had endured the strangling blockade by the U.S. fleet, the ferocious aerial bombardment of cities (the March 9 raid on Tokyo killed more civilians than did either atomic bomb), the defeat on Okinawa and Soviet entry into the Pacific war.
But a defeated Japan would not surrender until compelled to do so by the Emperor. The Emperor was told on Aug. 7 that ''the whole city of Hiroshima was destroyed instantly by a sin-gle bomb.'' Dr. Nishina, Japan's leading atomic scientist, confirmed that it was an atomic explosion.
Hirohito then told his official spokesman, Koichi Kido: ''Under these circumstances we must bow to the inevitable. We must put an end to this war as speedily as possible so this tragedy will not be repeated.''
The following day, Hirohito told Foreign Minister Togo, ''We can no longer continue the struggle now that a weapon of this devastating power was used against us'' and instructed him to ''tell (Premier) Suzuki it is my wish that the war be ended as soon as possible on the basis of the Potsdam Proclamation.''
Had the atomic bombs not been dropped, a massive allied attack on the home islands - which Washington had approved in June - might have been necessary. And an invasion of Japan would have been catastrophic.
Japan was prepared for a kamikaze resistance. The Cabinet had already adopted the Homeland Battle Strategy Plan to fight ''a decisive battle ... even at the cost of self-destruction of the entire Japanese race.'' On June 8, just two months before Hiroshima, the Cabinet approved a plan of defense calling for ''100 million people to arise from the vantage ground of their sacred land to strike the invaders dead.''
Even after the atomic bombs had been dropped, Japanese military leaders opposed surrender. At the Imperial Conference on Aug. 9, when the Emperor finally overruled the Cabinet, War Minister Anami argued, ''If the people of Japan went into the decisive battle in the homeland determined to display the full measure of patriotism and to fight to the very last, Japan would be able to avert the crisis facing her.''
American leaders knew of Japan's fanatic resolve to fight to the end and counted the horrible consequences of an invasion. Secretary of War Stimson dreaded ''the ghastly specter of a clash of great land armies,'' and Army Chief of Staff Marshall advised President Truman on July 23 that an invasion of Japan could ''cost as much as a million casualties on the American side, with an equal number of the enemy.'' Gen. Leslie Groves, head of the atomic bomb project, believed that the casualties in an invasion could have exceeded 10 million.
Mr. Nixon is correct in agreeing with President Truman, who ordered the atomic bombs to be used because ''I wanted to save a half a million boys on our side and as many on the other side.'' BRUCE LOEBS Pocatello, Idaho, June 3, 1983
https://www.nytimes.com/1983/06/16/opinion/l-world-war-ii-the-day-hirohito-overruled-japan-s-cabinet-235122.html
It was Plato who said, “He, O men, is the wisest, who like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing”
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