PHILIPPINES FREE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21809, 4 September 1945, Page 3

PHILIPPINES FREE

YAMASHITA GIVES UP LAST ENEMY COMMANDERS PALAUS CAPITULATION (10 a.m.) MANILA, Sept. 3. General Yamashita, Japanese Ccm-mander-in-Chief in the Philippines, formally unconditionally surrendered at Baguio to Lieutenant-General Wainwright, who was accompanied by General Percival. General Yamashita signed a document similar to that signed aboard the Missouri.

The ceremony was delayed for approximately four hours to permit General Wainwright, General Percival and Lieutenant-General W. D. Styor United States commander in the South-west Pacific, to arrive by air from Manila. General Wainwright commented: “They have surrendered. They are the last. The war in the Philippines is now over.’

General Yamashita and his party were taken off as prisoners immediately after the ceremony. General Yamashita was well fed by the Americans after his arrival at Baguio, says a Columbia Broadcasting Service correspondent. He had a bowl of soup, a big steak with mashed potatoes and peas, bread and butter, a large niece of chocolate cake, an apple and a banana. He asked for beer and got it. He expressed himself happy at the end of the war. When asked jf he was committing haraklri. General Yamashita jokingly answered: “No harakiri.” A policeman assigned to guard the Japanese surrender staff took a dim view of the proceedings after he discovered a live grenade on one of the orderlies.

The Palaus surrendered to-day to Marine Brigadier-General F. O. Rogers. It is estimated that there are 44,000 Japanese in the Palaus. The Americans are beginning to occupy Malakai Island in about 10 days. The occupation of other., islands, including Babelthaup and Koror, will await the evaculion of the Japanese.

SURRENDER OF TRUK

‘ BIG GARRISON TAKEN (10 a.m.) GUAM, Sept. 3. The surrender of Truk was accomplished without incident. The Japanese envoys have not been identified. The preliminary arrangements were made with Rear-Admiral Sumikawa. Chief of Staff of the Japanese Fourth Fleet. The capitulation eliminated Japan’s strongest by-passed garrison.