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VOL. 4, NO. 25 TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1945 FOR U.S. ARMED FORCES
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MacArthur Gets Tough, Cracks Down On Japan
Informs Nippon She Is Not An Equal Of Allies TOKYO - Gen. MacArthur got tough with Japan this week. The Supreme Allied commander bluntly informed Japan that she was not an equal of the Allies in any way, and would have to quit acting like one. Assuring American and Australian critics of his occupation program that he had no intention of applying the surrender terms in "a kid glove fashion," MacArthur stiffened his attitude toward "a defeated enemy which has not yet demonstrated its right to a place among civilized nations" and cracked down on Japs who refuse to admit defeat. Underscoring his warning by quick actions, MacArthur closed the Jap Domei news agency for 24 hours, allowing it to resume with only a limited domestic service and under 100 percent U.S. censorship. Domei's suspension, ordered because of "distortions and bad faith" in it's service, came a few hours after a series of news transmissions in which Domei charged American occupation troops with rape and looting, and Soviet troops with varied atrocites in Manchuria, Korea and Sakhalin. MANHUNT OVER When Domei was permitted to resume its domestic service, but not its overseas service, MacArthur directed that the stark facts of Japanese atrocities committed all the way from the Philippines to New Guinea be told in detail to the Japanese people through the press. The manhunt for men responsible for those atrocities was nearly over, meanwhile. Arrests, surrenders, suicides and illness accounted for virtually every member of Hideki Tojo's Pearl Harbor cabinet. One of the top men sought, Shigenori Togo, foreign minister who carried on sly negotiations while Japan's carriers were moving to attack Pearl Harbor, was found ill at his Tokyo home. Tokyo police announced that Nobosuke Kishi, Tojo's commerce minister, was en route to the capital from his southwestern Hinshi home to surrender. This left only Vice Adm. Ken Terashima among those not accounted for on MacArthur's "wanted" list of Tojo's former cabinet ministers. All but a few of the top saber-rattling militarists were in custody, including Lt. Gen. Masaharu Homma, held accountable for Bataan's Death March; Jose Laurel, puppet president of the Philippines; Lt. Gen. Shigenori Kuroda, who succeeded Homma as Philippines commander; Dr. S. T. Tokuka, accused of conducting experiments which resulted in the death of Allied prisoners; Col. Kingoro Hasimoto, the man generally blamed for ordering the bombing of the American gunboat Penay in the Yangtze River in 1937. Recent suicides included Kinihiko Hashida, former education minister in Tojo's cabinet; Lt. Gen. Chikahiko Koizumi, welfare minister; and Field Marshal Gen. Syugiyama of the Kwangtung Army, who was not on MacArthur's list but who decided to eliminate himself when Imperial headquarters was dissolved. Gen. Teichi Yoshimoto of the northeastern Japan districts army did a good job of it, committing hara-kiri with a sword and then shooting himself with a pistol. SMOOTH SAILING Meanwhile, the most strategic centers of all four Jap home islands were marked for occupation by October in a stepped-up schedule testifying to the smooth spread of U.S. military power across the fallen nation. So smoothly was the occupation going that Eighth Army commander Lt. Gen. Robert Eichelberger expressed the hope that the occupation of Japan may be finished within a year. Eichelberger pointed out that when an insular country like Japan has lost its land, sea and air power and is without raw materials, it cannot be much of a threat to peace. MacArthur meanwhile answered critics of his so-called "easy peace" program by saying they had an "erroneous concept of what is occuring." "No one," said the supreme commander, "need have any doubt about the prompt, complete and entire implementation of the terms of surrender." "It is well understandable that in the face of the atrocities committed by the enemy, that there should be impatience. However, it should be tempered by the fact that security and military expediency still require the exercise of some restraint. "The surrender terms are not soft, and they will not be applied in a kid glove fashion." Stilwell's Son Joins Navy SAN DIEGO (ANS) - Benjamin Watson Stilwell, 18-year-old son of Lt. Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell, arrived at the Naval training center here to become a sailor, shattering a family tradition. "I'm the first member of the family to wear a sailor suit," Ben said, "and I don't know how the Stilwells are going to like it." He admitted that neither his father nor his mother knew he planned to enter the Navy. "I've a pretty fair idea of Army life," he explained, "and I guess I just wanted to see how the other half lives." Joseph W. Stilwell, Jr., Ben's brother, is an infantry Lt. Colonel. |
TOKYO ROSE - Iva Iuke Togurt, 30-year-old graduate of the University of California, known to thousands of Yanks in the
Pacific area as Tokyo Rose through her propaganda broadcasts for the Japs, rests after an interview in Tokyo following
her capture by American forces.
Quit China By Xmas
CHUNGKING - (ANS) - A "goodly proportion" of American troops in China may be home for the Christmas holidays, Lt. Gen. A. C. Wedemeyer told a news conference.
The China Theater commander said homegoings would depend on the speed with which the Americans complete missions which, in general terms, amount to reoccupation and securing of areas formerly held by the enemy.
UP quoted him as saying the Yanks may be used to occupy Chinese cities until the internal situation in China is stabilized.
Gen. Wedemeyer's headquarters meanwhile announced that critical scores for discharge have been ordered recomputed to add all points earned between May 12 and Sept. 2.
Each man in China will receive eight additional points for overseas service between V-E and V-J Days, and whatever other points they may have earned for combat or parenthood.
Three Out Of Four Out Of Army By July
May Be Reduced
WASHINGTON (ANS) - With three out of four men now in the Army already assured of release by next July, military leaders held out the possibility today of a still faster demobilization speedup.
The Senate Military committee was advised by Maj. Gen. I. H. Edwards, assistant chief of staff, that estimates of occupation troops needed in Japan may be scaled down. If so, this would permit a reduction below the Army's planned strength of 2,500,000 by next July.
Edwards said general staff officers now are discussing the matter with Gen. MacArthur and that the supreme commander's estimates are "very fluid." Any change probably would be downward, he added.
Plans for an Army of 2,500,000 by midsummer next year are based on divisions of troops in this manner - in the Pacific, 900,000; in Europe and the Atlantic bases, 500,000, and in the United States, 1,100,000. Maj. Gen. S. G. Henry, also an assistant chief of staff, gave his personal opinion that Army needs would work out to fewer than 2,500,000 troops.
Plans for a reduction to that figure contemplate the release of about 6,000,000 of the present Army of 8,050,000 or about three out of every four men. They call for induction, meantime of 500,000 additional men. The Army hopes also to enlist a regular army of 300,000 volunteers, but the majority of these may come from men already in uniform.
Henry told the committee the Army expects to discharge and additional 1,300,000 men by Christmas. With about 700,000 released since V-E Day, this will mean a reduction of 2,000,000 since Germany's defeat. Henry said demobilization is running ahead of schedule with an estimated 400,000 released September instead of the anticipated 250,000. Henry said by January the discharge rate will reach 672,000 monthly or 22,500 daily.
Henry disclosed a total of 1,400,000 men now are eligible for discharge but are caught in a jam in the demobilization "pipeline" headed for separation centers. He said approximately 258,000 of them will be released within 45 days as a result of a temporary increase in the number of separation centers.
Henry said as soon as 900,000 are released, the discharge score will be reduced from the present 80, but he did not specify the new figure.
145 CENTERS
henry reported that Air and Service forces are setting up 145 temporary separation centers to speed discharge of 258,000 men eligible for release, adding that 200,000 officers already have been tagged for release and 400,000 others will be out by July.
One committee member still critical of the Army policy was Sen. Edwin C. Johnson (D.-Colo.). Johnson proposed that the job of policing Germany and Japan be left to Europeans, China and Russia. The Coloradoan suggested that posting of 10,000 American observers in the Axis countries was all this country need do.
The War Department meanwhile disclosed details of a plan to return 13,000 physicians, 25,000 nurses, 3,500 dentists and many other Army medical department officers to civilian life by the end of this year.
Any Army doctor or dentist, with the exception of about 200 scarce specialists, will be released if he was in service before Pearl Harbor, or is 48 or older or has 80 or more discharge points.
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MACARTHUR AT TOKYO FLAG-RAISING - Gen. Douglas MacArthur, second from left, Supreme Allied Commander, and other
high-ranking officers bow their heads during a prayer September 8 following the historic ceremony at which the American
flag was raised on the roof of the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo. The chaplain, left, offering the prayer is Lt. Col.
Eugene P. Walsh of Richmond, Va. Other men, standing behind MacArthur, left to right, Lt. Gen. Robert L.
Eichelberger, Lt. Gen. Richard K. Sutherland and Brig. Gen. Bonner Fellers.
Base Command Arrive
KUNMING - Fifty-two officers and 70 enlisted men, the first echelon of the new Shanghai Base Command, have arrived in the liberated port to prepare the way for other GIs who will operate the port as a major supply and evacuation base for American troops in China.
Meanwhile, the first American ship to enter Shanghai harbor arrived this week, Army News Service reported. She was the Navy minesweeper YMS 49, and she arrived towing the Jap gunboat Ataki, which escaped from Shanghai after the surrender was signed at Nanking. The Jap craft was caught at sea off Shanghai.
The Shanghai Base Command will be headed by Maj. Gen. Douglas L. Weart of Chicago, formerly deputy commander of SOS, on DS with Chinese SOS. The new command, established at the direction of Lt. Gen. A. C. Wedemeyer, will include seven eastern provinces of China.
The command will cooperate with all military and semi-military organizations operating in China since the end of hostilities. These include the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, American Red Cross, and the Nelson Mission.
Evacuation of American personnel recovered from prison camps in Manchuria and China and repatriation of disarmed Japanese troops will also be major missions of the new command.
STAFF CHIEFS
Chief of Staff will be Col. Thomas G. M. Oliphant, Alexandria, La., formerly SOS commander at Kweiyang, China. All personnel in the Shanghai area are being taken from Services of Supply personnel who have been operating the lines of communication and furnishing supplies to Chinese forces since SOS was established here in November, 1944.
Staff section chiefs include Col. Robert F. Seedlock, Lakewood, Ohio, formerly commander of the Burma Road Engineers, builders of the Tengchung Cutoff and much of the China side of the Burma Road, who will head the Engineer section in Shanghai; Col. Archibald D. Fiskin, long-time resident of Peking, China, before the beginning of the war, who will be deputy chief of staff G-1; Col. Walter H. Wells, Arlington, Va., formerly publicity director at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, N.Y., who will be deputy chief of staff, G-2; Col. Isaac L. Kitts, deputy chief of staff, G-3; Col. S. F. Silver, deputy chief of staff, G-4.
Col. Harry G. Johnson, Buffalo, N.Y., medical section; Col. Edward C. Reber, Ordnance section; Lt. Col. Harold Spigelmyre, Quartermaster; Lt. Col. Thomas A. Pitcher, Elberon, N.J., Signal section; Lt. Col. John H. Sharp, Transportation section.
390 POWs Released From Nip Prison Camps In China
KUNMING - Three hundred and 90 prisoners of war, civilian internees and foreign nationals have been evacuated to Kunming from Jap prison camps in China, according to Maj. Gen. H. S. Aurand, commanding general, SOS, who is charged with the welfare of recovered personnel.
Three hundred and 24 of them, said the general, already have started on their way home.
First reports of the Japanese Manchurian prison camp at Mukden meanwhile were given by 21 gaunt, pale and exhausted survivors of Bataan and Corregidor, flown here for emergency treatment.
Too weak to walk more than a few yards, the prisoners are suffering from malnutrition, exposure and disease after three years and eight months imprisonment.
"Every one of the men is suffering, or has suffered, from tuberculosis brought on by the living conditions at Mukden camp and working conditions in the Mukden factories," said Col. Furman H. Tyner, commanding officer of the general hospital.
Meanwhile Lt. Gen. A. C. Wedemeyer, China Theater commanding general, officially commended the Office of Strategic Services for the splendid way it carried out the assignment of entering prison camps in Jap-occupied territory before the formal surrender.
General Wedemeyer said other organizations assisted in the task, but OSS "bore the brunt of the assignment." Another organization working under Gen. Wedemeyer's direction, the Air Ground Aid Section, was among the first to contact American prisoners after Japan accepted Allied peace demands.
"MISS AMERICA 1945" CROWNED - Venus Ramey, of Washington, D.C., "Miss America of 1944," crowns Bess Myerson,
seated, Miss New York City, "Miss America 1945" at the finals of the beauty contest in Atlantic City, N.J.
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KUNMING - All officers and men of Services of Supply in China have been commended by Gen. Brehon H. Somervell, commanding general, Army Service Forces, for "accomplishing the most staggering supply job in military history."
In a message received by Maj. Gen. H. S. Aurand, commanding general, Services of Supply, China Theater, Gen. Somervell extended congratulations to supply troops in China for their part in the victory over Japan.
"You have done this job swiftly and well," Gen. Somervell said. "All members of your command are to be commended for their splendid efforts. They have earned the respect and gratitude of both their Army and their nation. They have made possible the greatest of all victories."
Ledo Group Spearheads IB Homeward Shipment
NEW DELHI (AP) - A large-scale movement of American troops in the India-Burma Theater to debarkation areas for transportation home got underway this week.
A theater headquarters announcement said the first contingent of homeward bound troops from Ledo, western terminus of the Stilwell Road to China, will complete the 3,500-mile rail journey to Karachi on Sept. 21.
65,000 Yanks Now In China, Says AP
KANDY (AP) - With the end of the war, about 65,000 American personnel in the China Theater and about 190,000 more in India-Burma are to go home within the next several months. Those deemed essential to the enormous task of liquidation of American war projects in these theaters will be delayed longer. Meanwhile, the liquidation of American interests and the probable retention of some for peace-time exploitation posed problems now being debated.
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VICTORIOUS ALLIED COMMANDERS, left, at the surrender table at the Nanking military academy, where Japan formally surrendered her 1,000,000 troops in China. Commanders include Maj. Gen. Robert B. McClude, commanding general of the U.S. Army Chinese Combat Command, and Gen. Ho Ying-Chin, supreme commander of Chinese forces. Center picture shows Nip Gen. Okamura, chief of all Jap forces in China, as he puts his official "chop" on the surrender documents. Looking on in sullen silence are other Japanese delegates. Right picture shows the historic moment when Gen. Ho Ying-Chin signed the document that formally ended eight years of war for his nation.
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7,000,000 Japs Doomed If War Lasted A Year
TOKYO (AP) - Japan was beaten to her knees before the surrender by the American "aerial invasion" which virtually paralyzed industry and so completely blockaded the islands that 7,000,000 Japanese would probably have starved to death if the war had continued another year.
This was reported by seven prominent Japanese industrialists at a press conference.
They said that Japan was defeated before the first atom bomb was dropped. Only the militarists and the industrialists, however, knew that they were beaten. They added the militarists would not admit it, and "we industrialists were too cowardly to speak out."
War Left 16,000 Amputees
WASHINGTON (ANS) - The war has left approximately 16,000 amputees in the Armed Forces - "far less" than civilian amputations caused by industrial accidents in the same period. Army and Navy officials told the House sub-committee. Fourteen thousand of the 16,000 were in the Army, the report added.
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Q. A guy in our outfit was ordered to button his shirt by a lieuetenant. He didn't do so fast enough to suit the
officer. As punishment the EM was ordered to go on a hike. This guy had just been read the Articles of War, and refused
to comply. Was he within his rights?
AWARDS
SPECIAL BREAST ORDER OF CLOUD AND BANNER (Chinese) - Col. Antonio L. Gado, El Paso, Tex.; Col. Carl R. Dutton, Paducah, Ky.
SPECIAL COLLAR ORDER OF CLOUD AND BANNER (Chinese) - Brig. Gen. Aubry L. Moore, Hillsboro, Tex.; Lt. Col. Waldo A. Kennerson, Marblehead, Mass.
BRONZE STAR - Col. Charles B. Layton, Albuquerque, N.M.; Lt. Col. Harry G. Thomas, Washington, D.C.; Lt. Col. Phillip A. Livesley, Portland, Ore.; Lt. Col. Paul R. Slater, Burlington, Va.; Maj. Israel W. Morris, Jr., Ordmore, Pa.; Capt. William F. Glei, Lancaster, Ohio; Capt. Vincent E. Mullin, Berkeley, Cal.; M/Sgt. Edward M. Hensley, Walton, W. Va.; T/Sgt. Harold L. Block, Jeanerette, La.; T/Sgt. Leland H. Buckley, Jr., Edwardsville, Ill.; S/Sgt. Charles E. Wagner, harrisburg, Ill.; S/Sgt. Frank L. Copeman, New York, N.Y.; S/Sgt. Albert L. Moore, Newton, Kans.; Sgt. Richard H. Crotty, Chagrin Falls, Ohio; Sgt. Henry W. Kiehl, Evansville, Ind.
The CHINA LANTERN is the newspaper for the United States Forces in the China Theatre and is published three times weekly by Lt. Lester H. Geiss, Editor-in-Chief, for military personnel only. Lt. Harry D. Purcell, Managing Editor; Lt. Maurice Pernod, Production Chief. Pfc. Richard P. Wilson, Reporter. Editorial offices: Hqrs., SOS China Theater, Kunming, China, and Hqrs., SOS, Calcutta, India. Printed by Ajit Kumar Sinha at the "Amrita Bazar Patrika" Press, Calcutta. Unless specifically stated, news and features appearing in the China Lantern do not necessarily represent the views of the War Department; the Commanding General, USF, CT, or any other official source.
SEPTEMBER 18, 1945
Original issue of The China Lantern shared by Paul Shindelar
Copyright © 2009 Carl Warren Weidenburner
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