Japanese Surrender negotiations, August 1945.


American Master-spool Ticker-tape, comprising 3 separate messages, two from the Japanese General Headquarters and one from HQ General MacArthur. Received by Manila HQ and Relayed to [Fort Shafter, Hawaii], August 16-17, 1945. An original paper ticker-tape, height 1.8cm, length 1,557 cm, with typed carbon text running along the upper edge, recording in chronological order with no breaks, the relayed messages received on the 16th and 17th December 1945, from Japanese HQ, via Manila HQ to Fort Shafter, Hawaii, once direct contact had been made on JUM's receiving frequency. Very lightly browned.Provenance: Earl Lohn Jr, Communications Operator, Fort Shafter.HISTORIC TICKER-TAPE LAYING OUT THE MILITARY PROCESS FOR THE JAPANESE SURRENDER. The process of the Japanese unconditional surrender at the end of World War II was a complex procedure, partly because the Japanese forces were spread out around the western Pacific, partly because the hawks and doves were fighting each other in the Government, and lastly because initially the Japanese HQ would not send radio messages directly to the American HQ. The Americans had been listening in to Russian/Japanese radio traffic for some time, and the rise of the dove voices in late July indicated that the Japanese were moving towards a surrender agreement. The dropping of the two atomic bombs provided the final impetus. After the Nagasaki bomb was dropped on August 9th, Emperor Hirohito ordered the military council to sue for peace on August 10th. The Japanese wanted a negotiated settlement, but the US refused negotiations and on 12th August issued a US statement on the terms of an Unconditional Surrender as discussed at the Potsdam Conference. At the same time Russia declared war on Japan and there was an attempted coup d'etat by elements of the military in Tokyo (which was quashed). On the 14th the Tokyo Domei News Agency broadcast in English that Japan had surrendered, while on the 15th August Hirohito recorded, on a disc, his speech to the Japanese people announcing the unconditional surrender of Japan, which was broadcast on radio all over Japan. Despite the attempts of the Japanese Military to contact the US Military, there were still no direct communications between the military HQs. Attempts to contact each other on various radio wavelengths on the 15th and 16th were unsuccessful, and it wasn't until late on the 16th August that the two HQs began to communicate on the same radio frequencies, and began to arrange the operations of a surrender of Japanese Forces around the Pacific. This ticker-tape records those first 3 messages with Japanese HQ, the Japanese announcing how long it would take for the distant parts of the Japanese Army to surrender (up to 12 days for New Guinea and the Philippines), the Japanese indicating their plan to send 3 planes out to Seoul, China and Vietnam, with members of the Imperial family aboard, carrying documents from the Emperor to the armed forces HQs, with details of the planes they would use, so that they might have safe passage. The Japanese had to refuse a request to send a representatives to Manila HQ on the 17th as they could not arrange it in time, but they would dispatch representatives as soon as possible. It is said that Japan still had upwards of 3 million men spread around the battlefields of the Pacific. Although various military listening posts had received the Surrender News through Tokyo Domei, this is a tape of the first official conversations between the two military headquarters. It took another 2 weeks to arrange the Surrender ceremony in Tokyo Bay on September 2nd. This master tape was gathered up by a Communications Operative in Fort Shafter, Hawaii. See Military Review, Volume XXVI no 1, May 1946.