THE COLLAPSE OF JAPAN
AND THE END OF THE WAR
IN THE PACIFIC
SECTION VI
The Collapse of Japan and the
End of the War in the Pacific
The capture of Iwo Jima gave the Allies bases for fighter planes which were to escort the Superfortresses, based in the Marianas, when they attacked Japan. With Okinawa in U.S. hands other bombers could join the B-29’s in the raids. The first Superfortresses flying from the Marianas struck Tokyo in November 1944. The number of planes used in the attacks increased with each raid until, in July 1945, over 40,000 tons of bombs were dropped on Japan. During July most of the industrial areas of Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya, Kobe, and Osaka had been destroyed. The Air Forces then turned its attention to secondary targets and to mining operations planned to blockade Japan so that her warships would be unable to leave the harbors and her ships carrying supplies would be unable to enter Japanese waters.
In July the U.S. Third Fleet was sent into Japanese waters to assist in preventing the Japanese fleet from leaving its bases and to shell enemy installations along the coast. Aircraft from naval carriers joined in the attack and the combined efforts of the Allied air power reduced Japan’s air force to scattered remnants.
The Allies issued the Potsdam Proclamation on 26 July 1945 calling upon the Japanese to surrender unconditionally. Japan refused the terms and the Allies began a new series of attacks. On 6 August the first atomic bomb to be used against an enemy was dropped on Hiroshima; on 8 August, the Russians declared war on Japan; and on 9 August a second atomic bomb was released, this time over the city of Nagasaki. These blows were closely followed by a series of Allied aerial attacks and on 15 August Japan accepted the Potsdam terms, ending the war in the Pacific.
On 2 September 1945 the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers accepted the formal Japanese surrender aboard the battleship USS Missouri in a twenty-minute ceremony.
JAPAN
JAPAN