Wednesday, August 15, 1945

The Charlotte News

Wednesday, August 15, 1945

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page and inside page report that, with the President's calm and brief two-minute announcement the previous evening at 7:00 of acceptance by Japan of the unconditional surrender, too late for the previous day's Final edition, the world had entered a new era of peace, but one, as the President had stated, also fraught with new difficulties.

Reconstruction of the battered cities of Europe and Japan, reconstitution of governments, feeding and clothing and housing of displaced populations, caring for the wounded and sick, reconversion at home to a peacetime economy, were all matters which lay ahead in a complicated puzzle, trying to put back together Humpty-Dumpty without causing another war.

The mammoth effort by the Allies would only be partially successful, but at least another world war would be avoided.

The acceptance by Japan marked a truce in the fighting until General MacArthur, designated the Pacific Supreme Allied Commander, could formally accept surrender. The formal signing of the surrender documents would not take place until September 2. Allied forces were ordered to cease offensive action and the Japanese were ordered to cease hostilities.

This date and the following day were proclaimed by the President as national holidays.

That's a good idea.

It was later explained, however, by press secretary Charles G. Ross that the President had intended only to excuse Federal workers and not to declare two general legal holidays for purposes of overtime pay to workers.

The President, it was reported, had been dressed in blue when he made the announcement that the war had ended.

At one point, in response to the crowds outside the White House yelling, "We want Harry," the President had ventured across the lawn to them with Mrs. Truman and simply stated:

"This is a great day. This is the day we have been looking for since December 7, 1941. This is the day when Fascism and police government cease in the world. This is the day for the democracies. This is the day when we can start on our real task of implementation of free government in the world. We are faced with the greatest task we ever have been faced with. The emergency is as great as it was on December 7, 1941. It is going to take the help of all of us to do it. I know we are going to do it."

The President then retired to the back porch of the White House, relaxed for a few minutes in a wicker chair, saying simply that he was glad it was all over. Then, he entered the dining room and had his dinner with Bess. After finishing, he again walked out to the lawn at 8:00 and waved to the crowds, and then a third time, at 8:30, greeted them in response to continued hollering, "We want Harry." And the chant still persisted even after the third visit.

Four hours after the Truman announcement, however, not all of the Japanese had received the word that surrender had taken place. The Third Fleet reported being attacked by enemy planes and having to shoot them down, at least five having been destroyed since 11:00 p.m. EWT, noon Japanese time. Admiral Halsey had instructed his air forces to cease fire unless they spotted enemy planes, in which case they should shoot them down "in friendly fashion".

Japanese radio had delayed the announcement of the surrender until 1:00 p.m. The announcement, while admitting defeat, stated that the loss would be temporary. It asserted that the defeat had resulted from the fact that the world was against Japan and because of the atomic bomb.

As late as 7:00 a.m. EWT, midnight Japanese time, two Japanese planes had crashed into an island 30 miles north of Okinawa, injuring two American troops.

A lone American of the 32nd Division was killed on northern Luzon in the Caraballo Mountains, west of Kiangan, in continued resistance by a contingent of Japanese under the command of General Yamashita, the "Tiger of Malaya", whose troops had not received the word of surrender. As indicated, one Japanese soldier in the Philippines held out until March, 1974.

Fighting was reported still ongoing also in Eastern Burma.

The Japanese War Minister, Koeschika Anami, had reportedly committed hara-kiri and it was expected that other high officials, possibly including the Emperor, would follow.

The special plane carrying the Japanese envoy of the Emperor, to meet with General MacArthur to formalize the surrender, would be an unarmed Zero painted all white and displaying green crosses on the fuselage and wings. The envoy would use the code word "Bataan" to communicate with the Allies. He was scheduled to depart Kyushu for Ie Jima on Friday morning, and from there would be flown in an American plane to Manila.

Emperor Hirohito had asked for the resignations of Premier Kantaro Suzuki and his Cabinet, but had stated that Suzuki would remain at his post until the appointment of a new Premier.

The Emperor gave as the reason for acceptance of the surrender the advent of the atomic bomb, "a new and most cruel weapon".

At this juncture, it was estimated that there had been 23 million killed and wounded on all sides of the war, not counting civilians or death from air raids and starvation. The United States had suffered over a million casualties, about 250,000 killed. The cost of the war to the U.S. had been tagged at 300 billion dollars.

At 6:54 p.m. the previous night, the Navy had released the news that the Indianapolis, the ship which had carried to Tinian the critical parts, including the U-235, for the world's first deployed atomic bomb, Little Boy, had been sunk on July 30 with the loss of 833 crew members. Later statements of loss, unless the statement neglected to include officers, would be somewhat higher. Of 1,197 men onboard, only 317 survived, meaning 880 perished.

The President also announced that between five and five and a half million men would be discharged from the Army during the ensuing 12 to 18 months and 1.5 to 2.5 million from the Navy. War Mobilizer John W. Snyder predicted that the total number would be as high as seven million discharged during the coming year. Only men under 26 would continue to be drafted, for purposes of occupation forces, with the rate being 50,000 per month, down from 80,000.

The Navy cancelled six billion dollars worth of war contracts which had been for the war in the Pacific, adding to the 1.2 billion canceled in the wake of the end of the war in Europe.

Economists estimated that there would be seven million unemployed in the country by Christmas and nine million by the following June.

Mr. Snyder stated that the figure would rise from the present 1.5 million unemployed to five million or more within just three months, and perhaps to eight million by the ensuing spring. He stated that all controls on manpower were immediately to be released, along with many controls on production and distribution. Price and wage stabilization and rent controls would remain in place to stem inflation. Collective bargaining would be restored immediately, except where it endangered price controls.

Mr. Snyder urged Congress to pass the President's proposed unemployment compensation, revise the Fair Labor Standards Act to increase the minimum wage, pass a tax program with stimulus to production and maintenance of markets, and provide appropriations for public works, plus appropriations to enable the U.S. Employment Service to function during reconversion.

The President ordered the Congress back into session September 5, a month before their planned October 8 date for reconvening after summer vacation.

Price Administrator Chester Bowles announced that rationing of gasoline, fuel oil, and oil stoves, plus blue-point foods, including canned fruits and vegetables, catsup, chili sauce, grape juice, and the like, had ended, effective 11:00 a.m. this date.

The chairman of the board of Texaco stated that it would take about a week to ship gasoline to the East Coast, but that, in short order, all the gasoline demanded by motorists would be available.

Canned fruits and vegetables had been rationed since March, 1943, and fuel oil in the East, since October, 1942, and the rest of the nation since March, 1944. Gasoline had been rationed in the East since May 15, 1942, three years and three months, and nationwide since December 1, 1942.

Gentlemen, start your engines. The Fifties lie ahead of us in glorious array along the Golden Highway.

Tires, meats, fats, oils, butter, sugar, and shoes, however, would remain under rationing until military cutbacks would begin to take effect. The tire industry stated that rationing likely would not end until the end of the year, and even then it would take time to bring production up to demand.

What about them Nashes? You got any of them? Sure would like one of them.

A thief in Wilmington had made off with sixty pairs of shoes from a parked automobile. Unfortunately, they belonged to a shoe salesman and all were for one foot.

Now, all he had to do was to find the other salesman who covered the other half of town.

All monkeys and humans have eyes with round pupils.

In Paris, as told on another inside page, Marshal Petain was found guilty of treason and sentenced to death following his trial. It would be up to General De Gaulle whether to commute the sentence.

The sentence would be commuted and the hero of Verdun, in deference to his age, would be spared both death and a lengthy prison term.

In London, Prime Minister Attlee laid forth a 14-point program for reconversion of Britain to peacetime, calling for state ownership of the Bank of England and nationalization of the coal mining industry.

A third inside page tells more of the celebrations in New York.

In St. Louis, 14-year old Ronald Ruesch was afforded the privilege of ringing the church bells at the Assumption Church because of his assumption of the mantle of local clairvoyant, having forecast with fair accuracy both V-E Day, a month before it was declared, and V-J Day, stating in May that he would be back by August 15 to ring the bells again for the victory over Japan.

Of course, it is only fair to point out, lest you summon up Mr. Ruesch and ask him to predict something for you, that he was, in each instance, actually, one day off, as V-E Day, as we have pointed out a couple of times already, was May 7, delayed a day only for the benefit of the Soviets, and V-J Day was, of course, August 14. So, better luck next time time, kid. Good try, though. Go ahead. Ring the bells. It's alright.

Alice Cooper, of the Mecklenburg County chapter of the Red Cross, announced that relatives of the 34 Japanese prisoners-of-war in the county could write their kin one message and enclose a 5x8 photograph through August 25, and that these messages would be delivered to each prisoner upon his release.

We suppose that were it the case that the next of kin did not subscribe to a Charlotte newspaper or read English, it might have proved problematic to obtain this message within ten days, but we will have to rely on the methods of the Red Cross in relaying the message quickly in Japanese to Domei, and perhaps they had a little red schoolhouse with a little red rooster where school was not out for the summer in which these sorts of messages could be quickly disseminated through proper channels.

A fourth inside page reports that Governor Gregg Cherry had issued a two-day holiday proclamation for North Carolina, during which sale of beer, wine, and liquor would be suspended.

Bootleggers would no doubt do a land office business in the ordinarily wet counties.

In Charlotte, the previous day, there had been a raucous celebration into the night, with crowded streets and parks.

In Asheville, 200 persons formed a long snake dance, weaving in and out among traffic.

In Lumberton, the fire whistle blew fourteen times. Crowds then turned out to celebrate. But tobacco sales would not be halted.

Maybe if they had blown it fifteen times...

And, all of the comics had to be retooled from war versions, prepared weeks in advance, to new peacetime versions.

No rest for the weary.

There is also a crossword puzzle, should you have a mind for it.

Unfortunately, if you wish the solution, you will have to obtain it from either the Charlotte Public Library or Wilson Library on the campus of the University of North Carolina, as we do not have it.

Finally, a fifth inside page provides a dozen photographs from the war in the Pacific, beginning with Pearl Harbor.

Twelve people were killed nationwide during the previous day of celebrations.

Just as the President made his announcement at 7:00 the previous evening, babies being born across the country suddenly were named Victor, Victoria, or, in the case of a baby in Bethel, N.C., just plain Victory. At least three were named Victor Joseph, Victoria Jean, and Victor James, V. J. for short.

Someday, this war's gonna end.

On the editorial page, "Beyond Victory", no insult or implied sequel meant to the Bethel newborn, comments on the endless four days since Friday's offer of peace by Japan before the counter-offer, demanding that the Emperor, while permitted to be retained, be overseen and take instructions from the Allied Military Government and be subject ultimately to the determination of the Japanese people as to the form of government they wished to have, had been accepted.

It cautions that, while joy was spreading through the country over the victory, the victory over Germany had been more thorough, that this victory had come without invasion of Japan and so left intact for the time a four-million man Army of the Japanese, even if their Air Forces and Navy had been completely destroyed. And the people still worshipped the Emperor, as evidenced by the fact of their having prostrated themselves before the palace and wept the previous day when surrender had been announced.

The display of face-saving had enabled for Japan what Germany had in the wake of the last war and on the foundations of which Hitler had built his Nazi Party, a legend of invincibility of the country, of Imperial Japan, with the people accepting responsibility for defeat. The piece posits that it set the stage for a second attempt at world domination.

There could be no blinking the fact that Japan had been permitted to exit the war in more favorable condition than had Germany. Yet, there was little to suggest that Germany either felt the self-loathing of defeat. It was even less the case with Japan.

It posits the belief that Japan would never become a good risk as a stable nation worthy of trust, that should it ever rise again to power, there would almost surely be another war.

It favors long oversight.

Of course, as we suggest below following a similar sentiment offered by Marcus Childs, it would not be so, even if the struggle with Eastern Europe and the division of Berlin and Germany would be a thorn in the side of the West for the ensuing 44 years.

"We Want Winnie!" comments on the fact that missing from the celebration of V-J Day, were the two chief architects who brought about the victory, President Roosevelt and former Prime Minister Churchill. It suggests that Americans would, in the wake of this great end to the war, be warmed by hearing the eloquent words again of Mr. Churchill. He had, with Roosevelt, been the co-author of the Atlantic Charter and co-equal prime mover behind the U.N. Charter, as formulated initially at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington between August 21 and October 7, 1944.

The people, it says, would "like to hear what Winnie has to say, and the way he says it."

It was, no doubt, true. The piece would get its wish the following March, when, at Fulton, Missouri, with President Truman on the rostrum, and at his invitation, Mr. Churchill would address the students and faculty of Westminster College, warning of the "iron curtain" descending across Eastern Europe at the direction of the Soviets.

"The Goat" finds General Lewis Hershey, Director of Selective Service, to be the scapegoat for the country's frustrations with the draft, when he only implemented the policy which was handed him by the War Department and Navy Department.

He had a knack for being the fall guy. When he had, in the fall election cycle, stated at one point that it would be as cheap to maintain men in service as to create an agency for them when they were discharged, Governor Thomas Dewey used the statement to suggest that the Administration was planning to maintain a standing Army and Navy after the war to delay demobilization, to avoid economic instability and high unemployment.

The real culprit were the Army and Navy, not General Hershey. They had established all the appearances in the wake of V-E Day of intending to hoard personnel and equipment as long as possible, to maintain the draft for as long as possible. If now they were going to end the process of continuing to have unnecessary personnel on hand, they could forthwith prove it by telling General Hershey to end the draft until the situation in the field became clear.

The excerpt from the Congressional Record has Bernard Baruch testifying before the War Mobilization Committee of the Senate, stating, under questioning by Senator Elbert Thomas of Utah, that he agreed with the statement appearing in the Washington Post attributed to Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery that Germany would need to be overseen and occupied for six to ten years, that there were many young Germans who wanted a chance to prepare for another war.

Mr. Baruch paraphrases Lord Byron in saying that those who sought vengeance would be patient. War was the central business of the German military caste and it would have to be rooted out completely to avoid preparations for a third world war.

He also stated categorically that the wealthy industrialists such as Krupp were responsible for both the planning of the war and its being fought and the consequent atrocities. They were, he said, guilty of murder and should, minimally, not be allowed to control the industries of Germany again.

It should be borne in mind that this testimony was received prior to the dropping of the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima August 6, changing completely the field of play on warfare and the ability to wage it. It was no longer an issue of simply having factories which could be converted to manufacture of airplanes, ships, and tanks. Without the atom bomb, that conventional war capability now suddenly meant little.

Drew Pearson suggests that in the coming years, during which Allied military government would oversee Japan, it would be prudent to know as much about Japanese government as about the American system. He opposed the appeasement policy toward the Emperor adopted by the State Department at the behest of Undersecretary Joseph Grew, who had been Ambassador to Japan from 1932 to 1941, originally appointed by President Hoover and continued under President Roosevelt through Pearl Harbor and severance of diplomatic relations with Japan.

Mr. Pearson indicates that about twenty years earlier, when Hirohito during his minority was only prince regent, he had visited Japan several times and become acquainted with one of Hirohito's close aides. The aide had provided great praise for Hirohito at the time.

Commodore Perry's opening of the doors to Japan in 1852 had helped, in backwards fashion, to give the institution of the Emperor its new start; now, 93 years hence, American troops would perhaps again help to revitalize the Emperor.

In 1852, the Japanese were split between following Emperor Osahito or the Shogun, then the real ruler of Japan. Commodore Perry signed a treaty with the Shogun and not the Emperor, enabling the Americans to come ashore and enjoy commercial privileges. The backlash against the Shogun for allowing this safe conduct worked to the advantage of the Emperor in the eyes of the feudal lords who turned their support to him. Subsequently, the war lords assassinated the Shogun.

At the time, Tokyo abounded with alien-haters, called Jo-I. The sentiment so proliferated that insurance companies refused to underwrite policies for Americans in Japan.

After the power of the Emperor was established, Emperor Meiji, grandfather of Hirohito, came to the royal seat, putting an end to the practice of alien-hating, consolidating thereby his support domestically and in foreign trade. He enhanced his position by apologizing for an incident which had involved the troops of the Daimio of Bizen firing on foreigners who had refused to bow as the Daimio passed in the streets. This act of contrition centralized power in the Emperor, theretofore weak, so weak that Emperors sometimes fled for their lives or died in such poverty as to be without burial expenses.

Elder statesmen of Japan sat on a special council, headed by Admiral Togo, hero of the 1906 Russo-Japanese War, to oversee young Hirohito's education. He received a broader education than had been previously afforded his grandfather, including history, biology, physics, chemistry, economics, political science and French, and was allowed to mingle with other children of nobility. Meiji had been maintained in isolation, had always had assistance in every movement, including the sipping of tea and the mounting of a horse. Hirohito was given more latitude, allowed, for instance, to mount and ride a horse on his own. He was thus afforded the most revolutionary Western-type education of any Japanese Emperor.

A letter writer, who states he had been wounded in the Ardennes offensive of December-January, is irate regarding what he perceived as hypocrisy on the part of The News, publishing syndicated columns which appeared to him to be favoring a soft peace while advocating in the editorial column a hard peace for Germany. He views a syndicated editorial provided by the Science Service, presumably a piece appearing April 28, to be favoring Fascist programs, tender of German sensibilities, and advocating preservation of German self-respect rather than convincing them that what they had done during the war was morally wrong.

Candidly, we cannot see his point, and find no fault with this particular Science Service piece, certainly cannot find in it any advocacy of Fascist views. Perhaps, the writer's war experience, being too fresh, had colored his sensitivities to the point of muddling his own objectivity on how to treat Nazis.

While human instinct motivates a feeling that the Nazis should have been systematically eliminated after the war, higher principle dictates otherwise, or the Allies would have become only marginally better than the Nazis themselves in manifesting bestial behavior patterns. It was Hitler's quest for revenge for perceived wrongs, sold to Germans on economic tenterhooks during the twenties, feeling the while emasculated by the Allies of World War I, and heaped onto the handy scapegoat of the Jews and intellectuals of Germany and Europe generally, which enabled his career to develop along with that of his fledgling Nazi Party.

Marquis Childs comments on the President having, while serving as a Captain in the Army in France, sweated out the Armistice of November 11, 1918, as commanding officer of Battery D of the 129th Field Artillery. He had served at the front during the latter months of that war.

In 1942, he had told Mr. Childs during an interview that on November 10, 1918, his men had received their orders to move the following afternoon into the valley of Verdun. On the morning of the 11th, before the 11:00 a.m. Armistice, some of the units had pulled out and some of them had been killed, some of whom he knew. Had his Battery been forced to move out that afternoon as ordered, some of his men would have been killed. But the orders were canceled. He had stated then, as chairman of the Senate War Investigating Committee, that every hour of combat saved during the war was crucial. He had little patience for complacency and stupidity in the administration of the war effort.

Since Friday, when the Japanese had first tendered terms, the President had been personally at work trying to finalize the surrender, mindful that every minute which ticked away risked and cost human lives. But he also knew the lessons of World War I, that a hasty peace could cause the peace to be lost in the long run. The hurry in 1918 to get the troops back home had led to the problems precipitating World War II, enabling the Germans to re-arm during the thirties.

The question Mr. Childs finds to be uppermost with regard to the peace in Japan was whether the occupying Allied Military Government under General MacArthur would allow a democratic revolution to take place even if the people were determined to be rid of the institution of the Emperor. He suggests that any such intention would have to derive directly from the people and could not be imposed by the AMG.

At the same time, it had to be realized by the AMG that it should not stand in the way of the will of the people in this regard. There were American interests who would like to see the old order remain, as one which would be more stable than a new form of government.

The experts believed that the Japanese were so indoctrinated to worship of the Emperor that they would want to retain the institution. But, Mr. Childs reminds, the experts had been wrong previously during the war about matters related to Japan—such as that they would not be likely ever to attack the United States.

The problems of occupation of Japan would be more difficult than Germany because of the lack of general understanding of Japan in the West and the considerable language barrier, few Americans understanding idiomatic Japanese.

He cautions that, after time, it might seem that America had accomplished the easy part in winning the war and that it was done too hastily.

But, it would not be so. Rebuilding Japan and orienting it toward compatibly occidental peaceful endeavor, compared to Eastern Europe and the problems with the division between the Soviet sphere and the West, would be as nothing. There would be no competing influences in Japan, no East and West Berlin and East and West Germany with which to contend through the following 44 years.

Once the transistor radios and the little beep-beep cars started coming to the West, all was happy again and sociable with Japan.

Another letter writer writes of her daydream for T-bone steaks, calves' liver, center cuts of chops, and ample servings of chicken, plus breakfast bacon and sweet meats of loin.

"Can't you just see those mountains of ice with layers of good red meat all garnished with parsley and radishes? All those things to tempt the appetite?"

She next proceeds to the produce department and through "rows and rows of bright colored canned goods".

Then: "Bang & Pop!! We're back to stark reality, smile ever so graciously and ask our butcher for two pounds of ." But then she goes on again...

Soon, she says, the dream would once again become reality.

In the meantime, we suppose, readers could send their hate mail to this woman for tantalizing their taste buds when, for several months hence, they could no more achieve that menu than fly.

Framed Edition
[Return to Links
Page by Subject] [Return to Links-Page by Date] [Return to News<i><i><i>--</i></i></i>Framed Edition]
Links-Date -- Links-Subj.