THE END OF THE WAR

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 4704, 17 August 1945, Page 3

THE END OF THE WAR

J apart Surrenders Unconditioally t„A^““° ATED 15TH august stated that japa » had surrendered ™e STATED THAT THE 0F OH® enemies is laid low. HE EMPEROR OF JAPAN IS PREPARED TO AUTHORISE AND ENSURE BY THF TUBE OF HIS GOVERNMENT THAT IMPERIAL GENERAL HEADQUARTERS UNDER IMPERI AL AUTHORITY WILL CARRY OUT THE PROVISIONS OF THE POTSDAm LcLAp1 TI ON GRIM RECORD REVIEWED TAP AN has surrendered, in that sentence lies the Jutlilment ol the dreams ol 9M people great and small throughout the world for the past six years VE Day thTwar Whl 01 ! war VJ Day —in official language - signifies the end of a . Whether it was the war to end wars history will decide. Today, with eager relish. a war-tired world is eagerly acclaiming the end of war. Peace. The ox tie AffierfT Slg g , lo l lt for Six years - Toda y> with Japanese acceptance tianshmv if 7® translate d into jubilance. The jubilance will be ensure that id k' e ..^° thmg else - U remains lor the makers of the peace to nsure that they are building upon a sound foundation, that peace is to be assured wor not an armistice, not a breathing space between wars, fne story, the grim, terrifying story, of the war in the' Pacific which has just ended began officially tne seeds had been sown years before on December 7 1941 ffi iffiiT h lane l b r b6d PCarl Harbour > the United naval strokghold ffict J I" United Stat6S ’ the iast S rea t neutral Power, into the con- ' met, making it, in the full sense of the word, a “world” war l de th a “ aCk ° n Pearl Harbour has been described as a “stab in the back.” It was. Z, J Q hj tnne negotiations between Japan and the United States were still in profirlv’n ,p hj Halted States could not claim that the blow was unexpected. As arly as February IJ, 1941, the Australian Government had issued a warning that Sn.rafma m ST* f “ Ve ‘' b “ n acute ' th « ““V warships ware conassembled Japanese waters ' 11 was no secret that Japan had secretly t h S !T bl d , n aI L 31r an land lorCes in Ind °nesia, ready for the zero hour. In July a Mrnlu H y 16 VlChy Government of air and naval bases in Indo-China gave ' than a i f° SSI , ble action against Malaya and the Dutch East Indies. It was more n ' “ hm , ; , da Pan moved fast. She invaded the Philippines, Thailand and seVed ihe <sibe a t Tf Slngapore and Manila - In a few days the Japanese attacked Hdna K 7 and Guam and on December 17 a force bombarded and Hong Kong. Wake Island was captured on December 23. Early in the suffi T,f anUa iO H and the garrison retired to the mountainous Bataan peninfhe ,7 succeeding weeks Japanese forces over-ran practically the whole of S ‘ hj, ? S iVOng capitula ted after a 25 days’ siege and the Japanese committed horrible atrocities on the vanquished. bourne, ai nhw! tdG PaClfiC Start6d dlsas tr°usly. Two days after Pearl Harcruiser HpTT, a m r P ’ PrlnCe 01 WaleS (35 > 000 to nsJ and the battleS ( ’ . J Were SUnk ln action off the Malayan coast. The PeTuafv 15 th -h aP ? re Pr ° Ved t0 be sm g ulal ’iy vulnerable from the land and on Indian div Kin °* 6 Pacmc ” fed - One British, one Australian and two def "nc„"S“aUr U ' OOPS ' “ °‘ 6 °' o “' Was ° b ‘* ad to on B Ja™ a t rv U 27 U h SUCCe “ I ‘l 1 a “ emPt *° stave ofi an hvasion from Java was made ° np ™7 t 27 by a combined squadron under Dutch command in the Java Sea. fne Allied force was outnumbered and outgunned and 12 ships were lost cantered f Jan d a 7^ he JaPaneSe had reached the northern Solomons and n P 7n Habaul, invaded limor and Sumatra and raided the harbodr of Port ThallS’dTto Burma 3 * '° SS of li,e ' had &»■» ° OUglaS Mac Arthur, rescued from the Philippines, removed the threat to CoSmindTn ih se < siesdl5 iesdl easterly blows, while at the same time the American Naval anHew Britaffi. PaClfk looSened the enem y’ s grip on the Solomons ceffira7pacifir ee r' Admira i Chester Wl Nimitz’s island-hopping advance across the a tlrr.fi. , Cdmmand oi Iw ojima and Okinawa enabled the Americans to mount invasion nf e ih a U° !, aga T inSt the Japanese home islands and to prepare for the of Borneo Lffind 7 a Japanese reverses in Burma and the Australian invasion of Borneo added in the discomfiture of the Tokyo war-lords. but 6 ffie a 7u the f P ° tSdam deClaration Whkh called upon the Japanese to surrender, out tne ultimatum was ignored. u G l ial ° ffenSive culminated in the dropping of the first atomic a week« u’ WhlCh ’ tog6ther With the Russian declaration of war less than week later, finally convinced Japan’s leaders that resistance was futile.