Louisville (CA 28) - Naval Cruise Book

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190 PEACE WE WERE in the middle of intense re- fresher training in Hawaiian Waters when persistent rumors of peace reached their climax. On Thursday, August 9th, Japa- nese radio reports stated the Emperor had made overtures to accept the Potsdam ultimatum. The alleged peace proposals left us with mixed emotions. On the one hand, we now had apparent evidence that on the Jap home front, and at some point high in her government councils, the futility of further resistance was manifest. On an- other hand, We had heard for years the Jap propaganda for a finish Hght, and all too Well We had observed the suicidal devotion of the foe to ultimate victory or death. We thought, too, of the treachery which had been so readily adopted hy the enemy as a strategem of war, and We were inclined to he skeptical of these late indications of Willingness to call the whole

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fered through interminable boarding par- tiesi' from other ships in the area, bring- ing urgent requests for everything, includ- ing the hull. Departing for Pearl on June 14, minus one stack, we were fittingly escorted by the destroyer Stack. So it was the Louisville won a battle star at 0kinawa. We had swelled by one the startling list of over 200 ships dam- aged and sunk in this costly campaign. We had added names of our men to the role of more than 5000 Naval dead, wounded, and missing. But in retaliation we had thrown tons of steel on the mauled and mutilated Jap forces ashore, and we had helped and speeded the campaign's victorious conclusion, which was announced 011 .lune 30. 0kinawa will never be forgotten by the U. S. Forces who fought there, and it will never be forgotten by the Japanese. To us it represented one of the greatest trials of courage in a long war of tough chal- lenges, and to the ,laps it meant the destruction of over 4,000 planes, the core of their weakened air force, the loss of their last outpost of defense, and conse- quent proof that the home islands them- selves could be successfully invaded. Significantly, the first peace feelers from the Emperor came in June 1945, after the capture of Okinawa was first admitted by the Japanese High Command. u. s. s. LOUISVILLE U. S. NAVAL COMMUNICATION SERVICE HEADHNT RESTRICTED 271430 PRIORITY THE OPERATION WHICH WE HAVE BEEN CONDUCTING FOR THE CAPTURE OF OKINANA HAS BEEN THE LARGEST AND LONGEST ONE SO FAR UNDERTAKEN BY THE 5TH FLEET x THE FIGHTING BY SHIPS OF THE FLEET HAS BEEN MARKED BY GREAT COURAGE AND DETERMINATION AND HAS CAUSED US THE HIGHEST NAVAL CASUALTIES OF ANY OPERATION UP T0 THIS TIME x IN PARTICULAR, THE DESTROYER AND SMALL TYPE VESSELS WHICH HAVE SO SUCCESSFULLY SCREENED THE TRANSPORT AND UNLOADING AREAS AROUND OKINANA FROM ENEMY - AIR AND SUBMARINE ATTACK HAVE SET US EXAMPLES OF GREAT HEROISM IN ACTIONS TOO NUMEROUS TO BE CITED INDIVIDUALLY x OUR AIM HAS ONCE MORE EXHIBITED ITS MARKED SUPERIORITY OVER WHAT THE ENEMY HAS HAD T0 OFFER IT AS TARGETS x I AM PROUD TO HAVE BEEN ASSOCIATED ONCE MORE WITH SO FINE A BODY OF FIGHTING MEN AND I REGRET HAVING TO LEAVE YOU BEFORE OUR UOB IS COMPLETED x WELL DONE TO ALL HANDS SPRUANCE BU ZfBUZ 271435 TOR Q247 METHOD NPM NR H S557 DATE 28 MAY 1945 FROM X Priority I Routine 1 Nite 'Originator Release COM FIFTH FLEET fiction! F I FTH FLEET 'ffnfop C I NCPAC ADV , ic-ps. lam. Im Lex Gun. H Nav. N Eng. xsupplyl Med. tc.mm.1 num I isps. ' oon i Am. I ggi I 533 lsagliflbggifl I I I 9123-M.I.N.Y. 5-20-42-500M 189

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ll- ' thing off. News of the disaster that had struck the cruiser Indianapolis only a few days before gave fortification to our skepticism. Yet at the same time we were too human not to be stirred by hope that what we had heard was true: that it was to be all over, that fear in battle, and death in battle were past, that victory was ours, and that we might at last return to loved ones at home. Later, on the evening of August 14, we were off the island of Maui, waiting the arrival of planes which were going to tow illuminated target sleeves for night AA practice. The Hawaiian night was magnificent with stars and the perfume of the islands, the sea was calm, and here and there long yellow tracks ran from the ship over the placid water to brilliant, low swinging stars. Soon planes appeared and the quiet of the night was shattered by the racket of our AA guns opening up on target. Orange-red tracers added their brilliance to the rich illumination of the heavens. The smell of burnt powder filled the air, and little clouds of smoke from the ship's guns drifted up against the stars. ln the course of a lull, while we were waiting for the plane to make another run, the radio announced that the Emperor had accepted the Potsdam ultimatum. It was still unofficial, but the sources seemed authentic. lt was really over! Practice continued through the evening, however. The guns fired, tracers rose from hot barrels, and preparation W61'1T 011, even though it had become probable that the guns of the Louisville would never fire in earnest again. But we hoped that our warlike activity while peace was first becoming a reality, would be a symbol of the alertness the Navy would maintain in years to come. Let there never again be a Pearl Harbor! The following day the formal announce- ments were made by the President and Prime Minister Attlee. We were sailing back to port under a bright noonday sun, when the captainps voice came over the '.'I'A': system, gave all hands the official good news, and added warning against possible treachery of individual enemy units. Shouts went up, and a spirit of celebration settled over the ship that lasted for many days. Everyone felt good inside. Several weeks later, riding out a typhoon off Okinawa, whither we had come to commence our occupation duties, we heard the finale of the drama. While forty-knot winds drove green water over our bows, we listened to the broadcast of the solemn ceremony that was taking place on the forecastle deck of the Missouri. The nation had been everywhere tri- umphant. Peace, diflicult and uncertain of achievement, was again settling slowly on the world. And much work lay ahead. Many important undertakings .remained for our forces abroad, and at home, as we soon learned, painful readjustments were in the making. The same basic problems and heavy obligations of the nation had been phrased by Lincoln for another gen- eration of Americans: fGWith malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan-to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nationsf' I9