Japanese Surrender and SCAP Occupation
Japan surrendered on 15 August 1945 and signed the instrument on the deck of the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on 2 September. The sequence of that week is still argued about. Hiroshima was destroyed on 6 August, the Soviet Union declared war and invaded Manchuria on the night of 8 August, Nagasaki was destroyed on 9 August, and the Supreme War Council met that day still deadlocked three to three. The military members wanted four conditions: no occupation, self-disarmament, self-conducted trials, and the preservation of the imperial institution. The civilians wanted the last alone. Hirohito broke the deadlock in the early hours of 10 August in favour of accepting the Potsdam terms with the single condition about the throne, and the Allied reply was ambiguous enough about it for the argument to restart. He intervened again on 14 August and recorded a broadcast. A group of army officers attempted a coup that night, occupied the palace grounds, searched for the recording and failed to find it, and the broadcast went out at noon — the first time most Japanese had heard the emperor's voice, in court language that said the war situation had developed not necessarily to Japan's advantage. Some officers killed themselves; some units fought on for days. The occupation lasted until 1952. Japan's last soldier in the Philippines surrendered in 1974 after his former commanding officer was flown out to order him to. Which factor actually forced the decision is a genuine historical dispute rather than a settled matter. The bombs, the Soviet declaration and the state of the blockade all landed inside four days, and the Japanese records show the leadership discussing all three.
- Year: 1945 CE
- Category: Political
