Japan’s Surrender

The Japanese surrender

     What is most likely not well known or even remembered is that with the War in Europe over from May 1945, the War Office began to concentrate more with the war in the Far East.  With resources now able to be re-directed, the US was planning an invasion of Japan and the Allied South East Asia Command were also drawing up plans to invade Malaya, codenamed Operation Zipper.  With over 100,000 Allied infantry, the plan was to capture Port Swettenham and Port Dickson (East coast of Malaya), and would involve an airstrike of more than 500 aircraft of the RAF.  The assault was scheduled for 9^th September 1945, but was forestalled following the Surrender of Japan on 15^th August 1945.  Once the landing was secure, the Allies would have initiated Operation Mailfist, during which ground forces were to advance south through Malaya and liberate Singapore.  It was expected that Operation Mailfist would begin in December 1945 and conclude in March 1946.

     With the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6^th and 9^th August, Operation Tiderace was planned soon after.  The Japanese naval fleet in Singapore consisted of the destroyer Kamikaze and two cruisers, Myōkō and Takao, both of which had been so badly damaged before, that they were being used as floating anti-aircraft batteries. Two ex-German U-boats, I-501 and I-502 were also in Singapore.  Air strength in both Malaya and Sumatra was estimated to be a little more than 170 aircraft.

     Operation Tiderace commenced when Mountbatten ordered Allied troops to set sail from Trincomalee (Sri Lanka) and Rangoon (Burma) on 31^st August for Singapore.  The fleet was not armed with offensive weapons as Mountbatten had good reason to believe that the Japanese in Malaya and Singapore would surrender without a fight; on 20^th August General Itagaki Seishiro, the commander in Singapore, had signalled Mountbatten that he would abide by his emperor’s decision and was ready to receive instructions for the Japanese surrender of Singapore.  Japan’s defeat had caught the Japanese Command in Singapore by surprise.  Many were unwilling to surrender and had vowed to fight to the death.  Itagaki had initially balked at the order to surrender and instead ordered the 25^th Army to resist when the Allies arrived.  There was even a secret plan to massacre all Allied PoWs on the island.  However, three days after the Emperor’s announcement on 15^th August, Itagaki flew from Singapore to Saigon to confer with his leader Field Marshal Count Terauchi, Commander of the Japanese Southern Army.  Terauchi prevailed over Itagaki who then sent his signal to Mountbatten.

     The Allies arrived in Malaya on 28^th August, with a small portion of the fleet sent to recapture Penang, Sumatra as part of Operation Jurist.  On 30^th August 1945 a flight of 9 RAAF Catalinas landed in Singapore bearing medical supplies and personnel documents in preparation for the Japanese surrender and the liberation of the thousands of PoWs on the island.  When Penang surrendered without resistance under Operation Jurist, the Allied fleet sailed for Singapore on 2^nd September.  The fleet arrived in Singapore on 4^th September 1945, meeting no opposition.

     General Itagaki, accompanied by Vice Admiral Shigeru Fukudome and his aides, were brought aboard HMS Sussex in Keppel Harbour to discuss the surrender.  They were received by Lieutenant-General Sir Philip Christison and Major-General Robert Mansergh.  A tense encounter began when a Japanese officer reportedly remarked, “You are two hours late,” only to be met with the reply, “We don’t keep Tokyo time here anymore !.”  By 18:00, the Japanese had surrendered their forces on the island. An estimated 77,000 Japanese troops from Singapore were captured, plus another 26,000 from Malaya.  The formal surrender was finalised on 12^th September at Singapore City Hall.  Lord Louis Mountbatten, Supreme Allied Commander of Southeast Asia Command, came to Singapore to receive the formal surrender of Japanese forces in South East Asia from General Itagaki on behalf of Field Marshal Hisaichi Terauchi.  A British Military Administration was formed to govern the island until March 1946.  Itagaki departed for Japan shortly afterwards to face trial and execution as a war criminal.

     Once the Japanese surrender had been announced the one thing which was probably on most of the POWs mind was “how soon can I get back home ?”  After three and a half years in Japanese POW camps, the realisation that the war was over brought tears of joy but also tears of sadness, as it hit home that mates would be left behind, mates that would never see Blighty again.  The prisoners had to adapt themselves to this new found freedom and they would find later they would never be completely free, the freedom would be short lived, the nightmares would return.