Shangri La (CV 38) - Naval Cruise Book

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President Truman receives surrender documents. carriers, ten cruisers, and nine destroyers in the greatest defeat in naval history. ln the bitterly contested Okinawa campaign she was barely able to pool enough oil to fill the bunkers of the battleship Yamato, the light cruiser Yahagi, and eight destroyers for a fatal sortie which ended under carrier plane attack off Kyushu the following morning. Shorn of sea power, the enemy resorted to air attacks by fledgling suicide flyers, sinking fifteen destroyers and two minesweepers, damaging nine battleships, nine carriers, two cruisers, ninety-nine destroyers, and twenty miscellaneous ships in eleven weeks off Okinawa. Fleet strikes against the enemy homelands in June and July were made under the ever-increasing shadows of B-29's from the Marianas and Okinawa. Japan's industries melted into rubble even as her vast merchant and warring fleets had submerged under persistent American attack. The Japanese Supreme War Guid- ance Council had accepted defeat in early June, but fearing army and navy rebellion, failed to act until Emperor Hirohito requested surrender terms through ' Admiral Mitscher KT.F. 58j invites Admiral Halsey fTbird Fleetj for the fabled ' ride ..

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his ambassador in Moscow. Unwilling to act as mediator, Russia conveyed the report unoflicially to the Potsdam Conference of the Big Three where an ulti- matum was drawn up on Japan's capitulation. J apan's War Council deliberated almost to the eve of invasion, before the destruction at Hiroshima and Naga- saki, plus Russia's declaration of war gave them the opportunity to save face. Emperor Hirohito, in his first broadcast, stated, . . . The war has lasted nearly four years. Despite the best that has been done by everyone . . . the war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan's advantage, while the general trends of the world have all turned against her interests . . . Moreover, the enemy has begun to employ a new and most cruel bomb, the power of which is incal- culable. This is the reason we have ordered acceptance of the provisions of the declaration. Units of the Third Fleet steamed into the broad jaws of Sagami Bay on August 27, l945, delayed by a two-day bout with a typhoon which swept up from the Philippines, wrecking shipping and newly finished installations on Oki- nawa. Stalty stacks and top hamper, plus an occasional twisted davit or missing life raft, gave silent evidence of its expended fury. Cruisers and destroyers led attack transports manned by crack invasion teams to the enemy beaches for recon- naissance and rescue work. Into the Inland Sea area special Navy details rushed trained personnel to secure strategic naval bases and to view at first hand the wreckage of Nagasaki under the second, and more powerful fplutoniumj bomb. Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz hoisted his five star flag at the South Dakota s main on August 29th as Admiral Halsey s flagship M zssourz anchored off Yoko suka Naval Base Boarding parties removed vital gun parts from the burned N agato lying at anchor off the Yokosuka breakwater Gflicers and enlisted men manned the rails of United States men o war as they steamed in single iile through mine swept Uraga Strait into Tokyo Bay to anchor smartly under Emperor Hrrohrto s officzal authorrzatzon for surrender -by .?.-F5192 ii 5 . 1 3 ', W , 5. ,E f . 5 -v l' .......l. XX XX UTI 4 4 t l 1 5 it flifsfwt 7 7' il JG r is- li la ei .HS iw fr A 4321196 A 1 x. IJ- lpfgu ss ref? 1 uw s Eli' fl -if-2 33 3 ,L I JCE gif bf P Eg la 5 .,.,,.,,. ,.,.,,., , i, it - 4 idawpgig ,aa gppp,,, l pi5.V if Vypppplp. Vppi xpipp, Vipi E - .... . . . ..,. . . A . -i i .. t. 4 ., -i, if . t l .Finn , l e f .- ' . ' .fi i . Q i - . . if l Q ' C . ,. e . W, i ' A , i - w ' l . 3, ' - , ,, 'ff P' .. ' ' ,. ., N e Q ' Q , ., - , ,, .. .TiLjisrf..,fi-,.,....ei t T ' S1 . .. C. 55 'E' Q . ,,F'tl - - ,. , , . , , , fill T' l M i , sl' .WW N 'EW le tt - .itli