European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 4, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 18 the stars and stripes August 1985 Douglas Macarthur right at Start of surrender ceremony aboard battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay in background is japanese headed by foreign minister Mamoru end of the Al Stiffl by Richard Pyle associated press As the Allied War machine closed in on them in the summer of people in scores of bomb ravaged japanese cities struggled to maintain a civilized they listened dutifully to government broadcasts telling them the great East asian War would continue on to but the japanese Empire that had begun its spread across Asia 50 years before was in its final the allies were on the japanese Island of planning the invasion of the Homeland japanese sailors and airmen who since had ranged from the Aleutian islands off Alaska to new Guinea off Australia had been driven Back by Allied forces fighting under the command of Douglas Macarthur and Chester Germany surrender a few months on May and the loss of Okinawa in june convinced Tokyo Mili tary leaders that an invasion was in they correctly predicted the allies plan Allied chiefly would strike the southernmost main Island of Kyushu in november with a final assault on the Tokyo coastal Region in Spring but atomic bombs the first and Only nuclear weapons to be used in War fell on Hiroshima on 6 and on Nagasaki on making the inva Sion the devastating horror of atomic War was the japanese surrendered with emperor Hirohito himself telling his people in a broadcast at 4 Oclock in the afternoon the time had come to think the Bear the not once did he use the terms surrender or defeat but to his nation and the the meaning was in those hot summer Days before the atomic attacks 40 years millions of japanese women and children not directly engaged in War production had been evacuated from cities to Rural areas where there was More food and safety from american air but in the Countryside they also could be trained As National volunteers to help fight off an with essential supplies reserved for regular the authorities decreed that this conscripted Home guard be armed with other weapons including Bam boo Staves to repel the enemy on the Eiko then a 20yearold translator at the official Domei news recalls that she saw peo ple drilling with Staves and thought they seemed less than but it was something she would not have dared to remark upon then because of the secret police and the neighbourhood spies who watched for signs of subversion or flagging Allied leaders believed that although Japan was near it remained a formidable Britain prime minister Winston Churchill wrote later that an Allied invasion of Japan could have meant death for a million americans and half a million the allies projected that japanese civil Ian and would have reached several times that japans population then was 75 the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki took close to lives and left thousands of survivors in pain or unknown to the and to the japanese Public As was a split within Tokyo highest inner councils on one Side a peace faction led by the prime 80yearold Baron Kantaro Suzu and foreign minister Shigenori Togo on the other the Militarist clique headed by Kore Shika Anami and Yeijiro although years of War had seen the loss of Many of its Best troops and the great Imperial Japan still had million men under according to Allied estimates at the about million were in the rest in Manchuria and North the Home based most of whom had never seen were being taught to strap explosives to their bodies and hurl themselves against enemy in the tradition of the Kamikaze suicide air attacks on american ships earlier in the Japan also retained and intelligence estimated that its factories were still churning out to planes a month in having foreseen the fall of Tokyo leaders took the news of the nazis surrender in on May juxtaposed with headlines Reading Ger Many was a statement by prime minister Suzuki the Empire will persevere with the great East asian War and will not be shaken at for Ordinary Germany defeat was a we could not believe that with All its would be Tamotsu then a 20yearold veterinary the former news Agency but we just  imagine what it would be to end the the thought did not enter our thus the taking shelter from the american bombers and surviving on an officially ordered subsistence diet of calories a nodded in agreement when the government declared in a communique May 29 we must be prepared for the and renew our Resolution to win or die braving death this is what will decide whether we do or do not leave behind us a heritage of Ignominy for thousands of by Tokyo prewar population of 7 million had shrunk to 4 Hirohito Imperial Palace remained an Oasis of Green within its ancient but vast areas of the City were an Ashen except for a clusters of buildings that had escaped the army air forces b29 it was the same All across Japan water shortages from bomb damaged a Telephone system in trains running mostly at night to avoid fighter cars and buses wheezing along on Coal fired steam so feeble that they had to be pushed up sen then a ministry of communications technician and now a Sony recalled recently that people became inured to the general com motion created by the air like citizens of modern Day we just got used to the there was a determination that we would fight on to the last although everything was scarce medical supplies starvation was not a the military kept a tight rein on food and a neigh boyhood group system that handled distribution continued to behind the Suzuki and foreign minister Togo futilely sought a solution that would preserve the Imperial throne and avoid an Allied occupation of their response to the Allied demand for unconditional surrender was so that the allies misread it As a the soviets ignored a proposal by Togo that they arrange a Deal with the the soviet Union declared War on Japan on 9 the Day the atomic bomb struck with Hiroshima and Nagasaki in emperor Hiro Hito told his War Council it was time to give but military diehards plotted Mutiny and tried to seize the recording of his surrender on the japanese people assembled around radios and loudspeakers across the the Emper whose voice they never heard told them in ancient court japanese few of them understood that the War situation has developed not necessarily to japans and to continue would mean japans of course there were soldiers committing har Akiri suicide outside the Imperial said but for most people there was this feeling of being