USS Columbia - Naval Cruise Book

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High Japs bow low to the Gem. Signing Occupation Terms (aboard COLUMBIA). General Blake, USMC, and staff.

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Here follows the message of Chaplain Thomas H. Bodie: My dear shipmates : We have fought to gain the peace. Wc shall be eternally grateful to God for His enduring cooperation in assisting us to earn this Victory. Let us humbly give thanks to God. The more grateful we are towards God, the more new graces shall we attract to ourselves; whilst ingratitude stops the course of graces, dries up like a burning wind the source of piety, the dew of mercy, and places an obstacle in the way of all the designs of God with regard to us. You, my dear mates, and countless unseen millions have prayed patiently for the dawn of peace over the world during the long days and nights since that fateful December 7th, nineteen hundred and forty one. Our prayers have been answered. Thanks be to God ! Let us resolve : first, to make acts of gratitude toward God at the sight of the heavens, the beauties of nature, and still more at the sight of churches and crosses, and for every good thought with which the goodness of God inspires us; secondly, to be faithful in making our Thanksgiving when rising, at our meals, and in the evening. Our spiritual slogan will be the The church pennant flies on V-J day. song of the Church; Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. Each cloud-capt mountain is a holy altar; An organ breathes in every grove; And the full heart ' s a Psalter, Rich in deep hymn of gratitude and love. At Okinawa — Cease Firing — PEACE!

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he ixspectiox of truk AAN September 9, the COLUMBIA proceeded - to Guam via Iwo Jima and Saipan, assist- ing in the transportation of troops. Upon arrival at Guam on September 18, she was assigned duty as flagship of Vice Admiral G. D. Murray, USN, Commander Mariana Islands. On October 1, 1945, the COLUMBIA left Guam bound for Truk. She was to serve as headquarters ship for Brig. General Robert Blake, USMC, future Island Commander of the atoll, and members of his party who were to make a survey of conditions existing on the former Jap stronghold. Truk atoll had been completely neutralized by severe poundings during the war from Allied Air and sea forces, and a tight naval blockade had prevented importation of materials and supplies. The Japanese military commanders and the civil governor of Truk had surrendered to Vice Admiral George D. Murray, USN, Commander Marianas, aboard the USS PORT- LAND on September 2, but since that time no United States occupation troops had been sent ashore. Jap air support. As the COLUMBIA lay ofl Truk on October 3, Lt. General Shunzaburo Magikura, com- mander of the 31st Imperial Japanese Army and military chief of the vast Nipponese com- mand based on Truk atoll, with his conferees, arrived on board at 0900 to report on the prog- ress of Truk ' s demilitarization and to be informed of inspection tours planned by the American survey group. The Japanese delegates arrived alongside the COLUMBIA in a highly polished and well-kept gig, manned by Japanese sailors done out in their dress uniforms. The delegates themselves were dressed in their formal military uniforms, thus affording the Gem ' s crew their first glimpse of what the well dressed Japanese officer wears. Close inspection, how- ever, revealed many a patched trouser and frayed cuff in the Japanese group. The pre-inspection conference lasted for two hours and was held in the CO LUMBIA ' S ward room. The Jap conferees answered extensive verbal questionnaires and also presented data they had previously been directed to compile. (They also enjoyed a few American cigarettes). The Jap General revealed the urgent need for food. Truk, he said, had been cut off from supplies since June 1944, when the last transport to sneak through the American blockade brought 600 tons of rice. Approximately 4,000 Japs died after that time 60 percent of them from disea.se and malnutrition. General Blake and his party went ashore on October 4, to make their first inspection. It is believed that General Blake ' s inspection marked the first time since 1935 that an American had set foot on the shores of the Jap Pearl Harbor. Inspecting Dublon Island on the first day, the American party found the naval base site had been bombed into uselessness and that broken skeletons of planes littered the ramp from which hundreds of Jap pilots had left to scout the sea lanes and cut off American shipping earlier 39