Good morning, Whitewater
There are no municipal, public meetings scheduled for week’s end.
Today is an especially good day in world history, as on this day in 1945, the the Empire of Japan surrendered unconditionally to the Allied powers.
The New York Times website recounts the surrender, bringing an end to the the violence that Japan visited on Asia and the Pacific:
Washington, Aug. 14 — Japan today unconditionally surrendered the hemispheric empire taken by force and held almost intact for more than two years against the rising power of the United States and its Allies in the Pacific war.
The bloody dream of the Japanese military caste vanished in the text of a note to the Four Powers accepting the terms of the Potsdam Declaration of July 26, 1945, which amplified the Cairo Declaration of 1943….
Orders Given to the Japanese
The Department responded with a note to Tokyo through the same channel, ordering the immediate end of hostilities by the Japanese, requiring that the Supreme Allied Commander- who, the President announced, will be Gen. Douglas MacArthur- be notified of the date and hour of the order, and instructing that emissaries of Japan be sent to him at once- at the time and place selected by him- “with full information of the disposition of the Japanese forces and commanders.”
President Truman summoned a special press conference in the Executive offices at 7 P.M. He handed to the reporters three texts.
The first- the only one he read aloud- was that he had received the Japanese note and deemed it full acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration, containing no qualification whatsoever; that arrangements for the formal signing of the peace would be made for the “earliest possible moment;” that the Japanese surrender would be made to General MacArthur in his capacity as Supreme Allied Commander in Chief; that Allied military commanders had been instructed to cease hostilities, but that the formal proclamation of V. J. Day must await the formal signing.
The text ended with the Japanese note in which the Four Powers (the United States, Great Britain, China, and Russia) were officially informed that the Emperor of Japan had issued an imperial rescript of surrender, was prepared to guarantee the necessary signatures to the terms as prescribed by the Allies, and had instructed all his commanders to cease active operations to surrender all arms and to disband all forces under their control and within their reach.
The President’s second announcement was that he had instructed the Selective Service to reduce the monthly military draft from 80,000 to 50,000 men, permitting a constant flow of replacements for the occupation forces and other necessary military units, with the draft held to low-age groups and first discharges given on the basis of long, arduous and faithful war service. He said he hoped to release 5,000,000 to 5,500,000 men in the subsequent year or eighteen months, the ratio governed in some degree by transportation facilities and the world situation.
The President’s final announcement was to decree holidays tomorrow and Thursday for all Federal workers, who, he said, were the “hardest working and perhaps the least appreciated” by the public of all who had helped to wage the war.
Mr. Truman spoke calmly to the reporters, but when he had finished reading his face broke into a smile. Also present were Secretary of State James F. Byrnes and Admiral William D. Leahy, the President’s personal Chief of Staff, and two other members of the Cabinet- Henry A. Wallace, Secretary of Commerce, and James V. Forrestal, Secretary of the Navy- managed to respond to a hurry call in time to be there. The agreement to issue the statements simultaneously in all the Allied capitals, and the brief period between the call to the Cabinet and the announcement, were responsible. Later the chief war administrators and Cordell Hull, former Secretary of State, arrived to congratulate the President.
Here’s today’s almanac:
| Almanac | ||
|---|---|---|
| Friday, August 14, 2009 | Sunrise | Sunset |
| Official Time | 05:59 AM | 07:58 PM |
| Civil Twilight | 05:29 AM | 08:29 PM |
| Tomorrow | 06:57 AM | 07:57 PM |
| Tomorrow will be: | 2 minutes shorter | |
| Amount of sunlight: | 13h 59 m | |
| Amount of daylight: | 15h 0 m | |
| Moon phase: | Waning crescentr | |