Japan – June 1945

Hidecki Tojo meets with Wang and other officials

From: the diary of Commander Tadakazu Yoshioka, 26th Air Flotilla, Luzon

… following the Vassal’s Conference, a new ‘Gist of the Future War Guidance’ was issued say:

Policy: Based upon the firm belief that Loyalty to His Majesty should be fulfilled even though one should be born seven times, the war must be accomplished completely with the unified power of the land and the unified power of the people in order to protect the nationality of our nation, to defend the Imperial Domain, and to attain the object of the war subjugation.

Meanwhile however overtures were being made to the Allies via Moscow, as the Soviet Union had not yet declared war on Japan.  But the negotiations faltered when Stalin and Molotov headed to Berlin to attend the Potsdam Conference.  One result of the conference was the declaration demanding Japan’s unconditional surrender.  When some began to voice their fear that the Soviet would break its neutrality agreement and attack Japanese forces in Manchuria, Secretary Tanemura berated his colleagues for defeatism, “They should be planning for victory on the mainland.,”

Tannemura said,  “In the evening, I received an unofficial order from the Chief of the Military Affairs Bureau, Yoshizumi, transferring me as a staff officer to the Korean Army.  Simultaneously with thanking my superior for the favor of giving me a place to die at this final phase of the war, I left the Imperial General Headquarters after 5 years and 8 months with the feeling of utter shame in my inability to serve His Majesty, which led to this situation.  I will compensate for my past crime by burying my bones on the front line.”

Tanemura was captured in Korea and spent 4½ years in a Soviet prisoner-of-war camp before being returned to Japan in January 1950.

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Evacuation of school children into rural areas.

The Japanese home front was elaborately organized, block by block, with full-scale food rationing and many controls over labor. The government used propaganda heavily and planned in minute detail regarding the mobilization of manpower, identification of critical choke points, food supplies, logistics, air raid shelters, and the evacuation of children and civilians from targeted cities. Food supplies were very tight before the heavy bombing began in the Fall of ’44 and then grew to a crisis

Agricultural production in the home islands held up well during the war until the bombing started. It fell from an index of 110 in 1942 to 84 in 1944 and only 65 in 1945. Worse, imports dried up. The Japanese food rationing system was effective throughout the war, and there were no serious incidences of malnutrition. A government survey in Tokyo showed that in 1944 families depended on the black market for 9% of their rice, 38% of their fish, and 69% of their vegetables.

The Japanese domestic food supply depended upon imports, which were largely cut off by the American submarine and bombing campaigns. Likewise there was little deep sea fishing, so that the fish ration by 1941 was mostly squid harvested from coastal waters. The result was a growing food shortage, especially in the cities. There was some malnutrition but no reported starvation.  Despite government rationing of food, some families were forced to spend more than their monthly income could offer on black market food purchases. They would rely on savings or exchange food for clothes or other possessions

Click on images to enlarge.

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Current News – 

Tomorrow is POW/MIA Day here in the United States.  Please spare a moment to remember those who never made it home.

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Farewell Salutes – 

John Antolik – Nanticoke, PA; US Army, Korea, Co. A/85th Tank Battalion, Cpl.

Edward Brook – Lancashire, ENG; Royal Navy, WWII

Glenn Frazier – AL; US Army, WWII, PTO, Col., 75th Ordnance Co., (Bataan March survivor)

Josseph Gagner – Cranston, RI; US Coast Guard, Academy graduate, Chief Petty Officer (Ret. 20y.)

James Howard – Maiden Rock, WI; US Army, WWII

William Liell – Staten Island, NY; US Army Air Corps, WWII, PTO, Co. C/511th // Co. A/187th RCT, Korea

Max McLaughlin – Mobile, AL; US Army Air Corps, WWII, PTO, 11th Airborne Division

Freddie Oversteegen – Schoten, BEL; Civilian resistance fighter, WWII

Leonard Tyma – Dyer, IN; USMC, WWII, KIA (Betio)

James Welch – Salt Lake City, UT; USMC, WWII, PTO, Purple Heart

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