In August 1945, the Japanese situation
was desperate. The major cities were devastated by atomic or conventional
attack, and the casualties numbered in the millions. Millions more were
refugees, and the average consumption was below 1200 calories a day. The fleet
was lost, and the merchant shipping could not leave home waters or sail from
the few possessions still held without braving submarine or mine attack. Oil
stocks were gone, rubber and steel were in short supply, and the Soviets were
moving against the only sizable forces the Japanese had left, the Kwantung Army
in Manchuria. They were a starving and undersupplied force. Many divisions had
transferred to the Pacific, where they died in the island battles. On September
2nd, 1945, a huge force of Allied ships gathered in Tokyo Bay. Aboard the
battleship USS Missouri, the Japanese signed the formal surrender document,
watched by thousands of Allied representatives and the crew. MacArthur presided
over the signing, accompanied by his former subordinate General Wainwright, who
had been a POW(prisoner of war)since 1942. General Percival, commander at
Singapore in 1942, was also present. The Japanese Imperial Forces began
surrendering in massed formations over the next six weeks. By October 7, 1945,
when 1,000,000 Japanese Army soldiers were surrendered in Peking, many Japanese
soldiers were being sent home. The Soviet POWs would wait years to return to
Japan. The last one was announced as wanting to go home in 2006.
- http://www.worldwar2database.com/html/japansurrender.htm
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