The Forgotten Harrowing, Near Disaster Japanese Surrender Flight That Ended WWII

Discover the forgotten story of how the Second World War truly ended. From tense negotiations to a harrowing surrender flight, witness the heroic efforts that brought the deadliest conflict to a close.

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[douglaswilkinson]

My Dad, after fighting in France & Germany, was en route to the US to prepare for the invasion of Japan when news came of the surrender. The transport captain announced: "Japan has unconditionally surrendered, the war is over, we're going home!" It was the happiest day of his life he said (till I came along!)

[leonardoglesby]

This is a story I have known all my life. My father, who will be 100 next week is the last survivor of the 49th Fighter Group, 9th Fighter Squadron, P38 "surrender Betty" escort to Le Shima. Several days later he was one of 8 9th FS pilots to land at Atsugi airport to become the first tactical fighter unit, and occupying unit before the VJ Day surrender in Tokyo Bay.

[BeauBargerTBI]

Simon, you are absolutely killing it when it comes to your WWII Pacific theater videos. You and your writers not only present your viewers with a detailed history of important events but also an important context in which these events took place. This, in my opinion, is one of the aspects that separates you from the vast majority of those in your business. Along with your excellent delivery, of course.

[edhenderson]

Although I was a U.S. Marine when I was younger, I was never deployed to a war zone, and I never experienced being in battle and thus, never witnessed or experienced the horrors that come with war.
I believe that going to war, being in battle, and experiencing the horrors of war first hand scars a person in ways that someone cannot really understand unless they have also experienced similar things themselves. I have a friend who was also a Marine and he was deployed to and served in Afghanistan. He was in multiple firefights and was never physically injured, but he never talked about it after he was discharged and came home and would avoid the subject. One day when he and I were alone I asked him if he would be willing to tell me what it was like to be in combat. I told him that I had read about it and that I knew combat was an awful thing to go through, but I had never been in it and I was respectful of him but curious. He got silent for a moment, not upset, but pondering, and then told me that since I was a fellow jarhead he was willing to tell me....once. And he did. In full detail. I won't repeat what he told me except to say he experienced the horrors of war and it scarred him for life. I now have a better understanding of why veterans who were in combat so frequently remain silent afterward. I honored our veterans before this happened. I honor them even more so now.

[Plaprad]

My grandfather was on one of the 5"/38's aboard the USS Alabama. He told me many stories over my childhood, some true, some obvious "Let's have some fun with the youngin". But I'll never forget the time he told me the story of entering Tokyo Bay for the surrender. You could tell that even fifty years later that was terrifying. Especially since he was on the first ship and their orders were to stand their ground in case of a trap so the fleet could get away.

Kinda wild how many stories there are in war that no one ever hears about or reads in history books.

[Mondo]

My father was on Okinawa preparing for the invasion of Kyushu while all this was going on. As a US Army Combat Engineer that had survived the cave fighting on Guam and Okinawa, you can only imagine his feelings when the surrender was announced.

I was born on Tachikawa Air Force Base in Tokyo during the occupation. I went on to become a US Merchant Marine officer (Engineer) and spent a lot of time in Japan. There were a number of older Japanese survivors of the war that I got to know, including a Zero Pilot that was at Pearl Harbor and Midway. Some interesting conversations were had.

[Frankiechannel]

I visited Japan back in the 1970s and 1980s. At that time there were plenty of older Japanese who experienced the war and the surrender. The elder Japanese people I spoke to revered General MacArthur. They considered the 'Americans' to be the most compassionate and empathic conquerors they had ever experienced. Prior to this they only knew the historically traditional conquerors as violent, cruel and destructive (note the Mongol invasions, medieval Europe, any of the wars on any of the continents in the previous centuries). The Americans created a new 20th century model of a 'compassionate victor' and many of the Japanese folks really appreciated it. (sure the fanatics wouldn't give up but years of brainwashing that 'the white devils' would kill their families and destroy their homes, was hard to break. Only when presented with the civility of the US American commanders did they realize the truth. As a side point, there was still tons of resentment and racism in American society. Some wanted to kill ALL Japanese regardless, yet cooler heads prevailed. Genocide, even of an enemy that did terrible things, is NEVER a justified course of action. Our leaders were pretty wise and it takes a good history lesson to truly appreciate that fact.

[darrylday]

Just when I have lost all hope in humanity, I learn about this brilliant life saving diplomacy. I am astonished.

[TheAidenator]

Simon whistling our brains with knowledge yet again.

[skyden]

Thanks for detailing all of these details. Very interesting video. Learning of all these "little" but vital to history event-details was quite captivating.

[tompepper]

Thanks for the detailed explanation of this historic event.

[formerice]

My dad was one of the first US Army soldiers to go into Hiroshima after the end of the war. 25th Infantry. He was shocked by the destruction.

[Omani]

My parents lived through WWII. My grandmother bought a pair of porcelain figurines stamped "made in occupied Japan" and passed them down to me.

[diGritz]

Japan did not ignore any ultimatums or refuse to surrender. The issue was they wanted a conditional surrender and the Potsdam declaration was unconditional. On August 10th they responded that they would accept the Potsdam Declaration, but wanted to keep the Emperor in his position. The Allies accepted this with the understanding he would be subject to the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers. As for the bombs, It took 3 day before confirmation of the 1st bomb even reached them due to their communications infrastructure was destroyed. It's likely they didn't even know about the second bomb, as it was dropped just 12 hours before the Emperor called the meeting with High Command. What they did know was on August 8th the Soviets refused their request to arbitrate a better surrender and instead informed Japanese Ambassador Sato they were declaring war. They were far more fearful of what would happen if the Soviets got there before the Americans.
So why drop the bombs? The single most costly project in human history up to that point and they're not going to use it? Ask yourself why choose the targets they did? They had little military value, which is why they were pretty much clear of destruction. This made them perfect for damage assessment. They also wanted to make it clear to the cough cough, who had the biggest stick. History is written by the victors, this is as true for the US as any other nation.

[ConnorNolan]

My uncle was on that ship! Standing right behind the emperor

[dictatorofthecheese]

This was absolutely fascinating. After 17 years of reading 20th century history, especially WWII this was never mentioned in any books, movies, or documentaries about the war. Absolutely fascinating.

[b]

Imagine hearing you god like emperor's voice for the very first time just to hear that the county was surrendering.

[punditgi]

Valuable information, Simon! Many thanks for this video. 😊

[keithwesley]

Very interesting with the details of the lead up to the surrender I never knew, and suspect many people did not know either!

[thehomeschoolinglibrarian]

My late grandfather served as an army air core machinist in the Pacific and I wish he had lived long enough to tell me about it. Sadly he had several strokes and die of a heart attack after my grandmother made and illegal left turn. My grandmother hated the Japanese until the day she died but my grandmother hated a lot of people so that doesn't mean much.