Retribution_ The Battle For Japan, 1944-45 Part 20

There was characteristic confusion at Girin airfield on the afternoon of 19 August. Russian troops landed in transport aircraft and deployed. In response to a summons from their commander, Major Belyaev, a j.a.panese delegation appeared wearing white armbands, unarmed save for swords. There was a parley. The Soviet officer wrote sourly later: "The samurais were942 playing for time. Eventually one of their officers took from his pocket a white handkerchief, and waved it. j.a.panese machine guns immediately opened fire on us." The Russians dived for cover, but four men were wounded, and Belyaev's face was cut open by fragments. He shouted at the j.a.panese officers to stop the shooting, but nothing happened. After a short, sharp firefight the Russians captured four officers and forty men, killing many others. "To be honest, we were so angry that we weren't keen on taking prisoners," said Belyaev. "We'd agreed a ceasefire, and there they were, shooting at us!" The incident was more likely the product of contradictory sentiments in the j.a.panese ranks than of a "samurai" ruse, but the Russians were disinclined to generosity. In subsequent skirmishes in the nearby town they found some j.a.panese troops struggling to escape in civilian clothes, others still offering resistance. By the morning of the twenty-first, however, most of the j.a.panese had surrendered. Belyaev's company was guarding 12,000 prisoners. He observed wryly that these seemed too fearful of falling into Chinese hands to attempt escape. playing for time. Eventually one of their officers took from his pocket a white handkerchief, and waved it. j.a.panese machine guns immediately opened fire on us." The Russians dived for cover, but four men were wounded, and Belyaev's face was cut open by fragments. He shouted at the j.a.panese officers to stop the shooting, but nothing happened. After a short, sharp firefight the Russians captured four officers and forty men, killing many others. "To be honest, we were so angry that we weren't keen on taking prisoners," said Belyaev. "We'd agreed a ceasefire, and there they were, shooting at us!" The incident was more likely the product of contradictory sentiments in the j.a.panese ranks than of a "samurai" ruse, but the Russians were disinclined to generosity. In subsequent skirmishes in the nearby town they found some j.a.panese troops struggling to escape in civilian clothes, others still offering resistance. By the morning of the twenty-first, however, most of the j.a.panese had surrendered. Belyaev's company was guarding 12,000 prisoners. He observed wryly that these seemed too fearful of falling into Chinese hands to attempt escape.

Souhei Nakamura, son of a teacher of j.a.panese music who had lived in Manchuria since 1941, was inducted into the j.a.panese army only a week before the Russians attacked. On 12 August, every man of the five hundred at his depot, all either raw recruits or elderly reservists, was issued with a weapon and a stocking full of rice to tie on his pack, then crammed onto a train south, towards the front. During their march to the station, a j.a.panese bank manager astonished them by rus.h.i.+ng into the street with armfuls of paper money. He broadcast banknotes among the soldiers as they pa.s.sed, rather than leave them for the Russians.

After days of faltering progress, the recruits disembarked at a halt where they were supposed to join a regiment. They found the place already abandoned by the retreating army, the rail bridge ahead cut by Russian bombing. They had no officers, and milled about uncertainly for hours before glimpsing two figures walking down the track carrying white flags. At first these looked like children. As they came closer, however, the j.a.panese perceived that they were Russian soldiers, who told them the war was over. Without much concern, indeed with relief, the young recruits surrendered their weapons. Some emotional older men drove their swords into the earth and bent them until they broke, rather than present them to the Soviets. Then they lingered, expecting a train to take them to Korea, and thence home to j.a.pan. "I was nineteen943," said Nakamura. "The whole thing of defeat didn't mean much to me. I just felt grateful that because there were five hundred of us all together there, it seemed unlikely the Russians would shoot us."

There was no train to Korea; instead a long, gruelling march under Russian guard. Exhausted soldiers began to throw away packs, personal effects, even boots. It was a time of rains, and they were often trudging through thick mud. They pa.s.sed a village of j.a.panese immigrants, where they saw an elderly grandmother beseeching impa.s.sive local Chinese to relieve her of a baby which she clutched. A gaggle of j.a.panese orphans killed a bullock, and distributed slabs of its raw meat to the thankful men. Nakamura noticed that no young women were visible, and guessed that they had been carried off by the Russians. After a few hours, the prisoners were herded on down the road. "I always wondered afterwards what happened to those kids, and all those immigrants." The likely answer was that they starved.

Russian brutality towards their prisoners was cultural rather than personal. Few Red Army men harboured much animus towards the j.a.panese, only puzzlement about people beyond their experience in appearance and character. "We felt nothing944 like the hatred we held towards the Germans," said Sgt. Anatoly Fillipov. In Manchuria's "liberated" towns and cities, the victors revelled in rickshaw rides and brothels. Lieutenant Chervyakov acquired a kimono for his mother, as did Boris Ratner on Sakhalin. The pilot was bewildered to see a column of j.a.panese prisoners struggling past, the men enc.u.mbered with packs, their officers even in captivity using soldiers to lug their baggage. As Ratner watched, one j.a.panese fell down and died. A j.a.panese prisoner who spoke a little Russian said bitterly to Anatoly Fillipov: "Well, you've got your prize, but it is an unlawful one. Stalin deceived us. He always promised that he would not attack us." Thousands of j.a.panese soldiers and civilians in Manchuria killed themselves. like the hatred we held towards the Germans," said Sgt. Anatoly Fillipov. In Manchuria's "liberated" towns and cities, the victors revelled in rickshaw rides and brothels. Lieutenant Chervyakov acquired a kimono for his mother, as did Boris Ratner on Sakhalin. The pilot was bewildered to see a column of j.a.panese prisoners struggling past, the men enc.u.mbered with packs, their officers even in captivity using soldiers to lug their baggage. As Ratner watched, one j.a.panese fell down and died. A j.a.panese prisoner who spoke a little Russian said bitterly to Anatoly Fillipov: "Well, you've got your prize, but it is an unlawful one. Stalin deceived us. He always promised that he would not attack us." Thousands of j.a.panese soldiers and civilians in Manchuria killed themselves.

For Manchurian women, rejoicing at the defeat of the j.a.panese soon gave way to horror at the conduct of the Russians, as they found themselves facing wholesale rape: "We didn't like them at all," said Liu Yunxiu, who was twenty-one and living in Changchun. "They stole food, they raped women in the streets. Every woman tried to make herself look as ugly as she could, to escape their attentions. My parents hid me for weeks, in which I was never allowed out of the house." Some Soviet soldiers afterwards claimed that their army's excesses were chiefly committed by veterans of Rokossovsky's front, notorious for its conduct in Europe. "They did not behave very well," said Sgt. Anatoly Fillipov. "They were always showing off, saying 'We're Rokossovsky's boys!'" Souhei Nakamura's thirty-one-year-old aunt, a married woman, offered herself to the conquerors in the absurd hope, she claimed, of sparing some virgin from rape. Her reward was syphilis, which she sought to conceal from her husband when he eventually returned from Soviet captivity, and thus infected him. Communist guerrilla Zuo Yong was among those appalled by the behaviour of the Red Army: "The Russians were our allies945-we were all in the same boat. We thought of their soldiers as our brothers. The problem, however, as we discovered, was they had no respect for our people. Their behaviour in Manchuria was appalling." Jiang De, another guerrilla, shrugged: "The Russians simply behaved946 in the same way they did everywhere else." in the same way they did everywhere else."

EVEN AS S SOVIET armies completed the occupation of Manchuria after the j.a.panese surrender, amphibious units were a.s.saulting the Pacific islands promised to Stalin at Yalta. Eight thousand men were dispatched across five hundred miles of sea to the Kuriles, a chain of some fifty islands situated north-east of j.a.pan. The northern Kuriles were defended by 25,000 imperial troops, of which 8,480 were deployed on the northernmost, Shanns.h.i.+r, eighteen miles in length by six wide. Their morale was not high. This was, by common consent, one of the most G.o.dforsaken postings in the j.a.panese empire. armies completed the occupation of Manchuria after the j.a.panese surrender, amphibious units were a.s.saulting the Pacific islands promised to Stalin at Yalta. Eight thousand men were dispatched across five hundred miles of sea to the Kuriles, a chain of some fifty islands situated north-east of j.a.pan. The northern Kuriles were defended by 25,000 imperial troops, of which 8,480 were deployed on the northernmost, Shanns.h.i.+r, eighteen miles in length by six wide. Their morale was not high. This was, by common consent, one of the most G.o.dforsaken postings in the j.a.panese empire.

On the night of 14 August, Shanns.h.i.+r's senior officer, Maj.-Gen. Fusaka Tsutsumi, was alerted by 5th Area Army to listen with his most senior staff to the emperor's broadcast next day. Having done so, Tsutsumi awaited the arrival of an American occupation force, whom he had no intention of fighting. Instead, however, at 0422 on 18 August, without warning or parley a Russian division a.s.saulted Shanns.h.i.+r-and met resistance. For all the Red Army's experience of continental warfare, it knew pitifully little about the difficulties of opposed landings from the sea. From the outset, the Shanns.h.i.+r operation was a shambles, perfunctorily planned and chaotically executed. The landing force was drawn from garrison troops without combat experience.

At 0530 j.a.panese sh.o.r.e batteries began to hit Soviet s.h.i.+ps as they approached. Some a.s.sault craft were sunk, others set on fire. Those who abandoned foundering boats found themselves swept away by the currents. The invaders' communications collapsed, as radios were lost or immersed when their operators struggled ash.o.r.e. Sailors laboured under j.a.panese fire to improvise rafts to land guns and tanks-the Russians possessed none of the Western Allies' inventory of specialised amphibious equipment. A counter-attack by twenty j.a.panese tanks gained some ground. What was almost certainly the last kamikaze air attack of the war hit a destroyer escort. Early on the morning of the nineteenth, the Soviet commander on Shanns.h.i.+r received orders to hasten the island's capture. Soon afterwards, a j.a.panese delegation arrived at Russian headquarters to arrange a surrender. Yet next morning, some coastal batteries still fired on Soviet s.h.i.+ps in the Second Kuril Strait, and were heavily bombed for their pains. Tsutsumi's men finally quit on the night of 21 August, having lost 614 dead.

SAKHALIN REPRESENTED a less serious challenge, for its nearest point lay only six miles off the Asian coast, and its northern part was Soviet territory. But the island was vastly bigger-560 miles long and between 19 and 62 miles wide. j.a.pan had held the southern half since 1905, a source of bitter Russian resentment, now to be a.s.suaged. Sakhalin's terrain was inhospitable-swamp-ridden, mountainous, densely forested. For reasons of prestige, the j.a.panese had lavished precious resources on fortifying the place. The consequence was that when Soviet troops began an a.s.sault on 11 August, their advance made little headway. Only after bitter fighting did they capture the key Honda strongpoint, whose defenders fought to the last man. The weather was poor for air support, and many tanks became bogged. Russian infantry were obliged to struggle through on foot, to outflank j.a.panese positions. Early on 16 August, however, after the imperial broadcast the j.a.panese obligingly launched "human wave" counter-attacks, which enabled the Russians to inflict much slaughter. Next day, yard by yard, Soviet troops forced pa.s.sages through the forests, battering the defenders with air attacks and artillery. On the evening of 17 August, the local j.a.panese commander in the frontier defensive zone surrendered. a less serious challenge, for its nearest point lay only six miles off the Asian coast, and its northern part was Soviet territory. But the island was vastly bigger-560 miles long and between 19 and 62 miles wide. j.a.pan had held the southern half since 1905, a source of bitter Russian resentment, now to be a.s.suaged. Sakhalin's terrain was inhospitable-swamp-ridden, mountainous, densely forested. For reasons of prestige, the j.a.panese had lavished precious resources on fortifying the place. The consequence was that when Soviet troops began an a.s.sault on 11 August, their advance made little headway. Only after bitter fighting did they capture the key Honda strongpoint, whose defenders fought to the last man. The weather was poor for air support, and many tanks became bogged. Russian infantry were obliged to struggle through on foot, to outflank j.a.panese positions. Early on 16 August, however, after the imperial broadcast the j.a.panese obligingly launched "human wave" counter-attacks, which enabled the Russians to inflict much slaughter. Next day, yard by yard, Soviet troops forced pa.s.sages through the forests, battering the defenders with air attacks and artillery. On the evening of 17 August, the local j.a.panese commander in the frontier defensive zone surrendered.

Elsewhere on Sakhalin, however, garrisons continued to resist. When the Soviets' Northern Pacific Flotilla landed a storming force at the port of Maoka on 20 August, they mowed down civilians at the sh.o.r.eside. j.a.panese troops opened fire. Thick fog hampered gunfire observation. Defenders had to be painstakingly cleared from the quays and then the city centre. "j.a.panese propaganda had successfully imbued947 the city's inhabitants with fears of 'Russian brutality,'" declared a Soviet account disingenuously. "The result was that much of the population fled into the forests, and some people were evacuated to Hokkaido. Women were especially influenced by propaganda, which convinced them that the arriving Russian troops would shoot them and strangle their children." The Soviets claimed to have killed three hundred j.a.panese in Maoka and taken a further six hundred prisoners. The rest of the garrison fled inland. Sakhalin was finally secured on 26 August, four days behind the Soviet schedule. the city's inhabitants with fears of 'Russian brutality,'" declared a Soviet account disingenuously. "The result was that much of the population fled into the forests, and some people were evacuated to Hokkaido. Women were especially influenced by propaganda, which convinced them that the arriving Russian troops would shoot them and strangle their children." The Soviets claimed to have killed three hundred j.a.panese in Maoka and taken a further six hundred prisoners. The rest of the garrison fled inland. Sakhalin was finally secured on 26 August, four days behind the Soviet schedule.

Stalin harboured more far-reaching designs on j.a.panese territory. Before the Manchurian a.s.sault was launched, Soviet troops were earmarked to land on the j.a.panese home island of Hokkaido, and to occupy its northern half as soon as north Korea was secure. On the evening of 18 August, Vasilevsky signalled the Stavka in Moscow, asking permission to proceed with a Hokkaido attack scheduled to last from 19 August to 1 September. For forty-eight hours Moscow was silent, brooding. On 20 August Vasilevsky signalled again, asking for orders. Continue preparations, said Stalin: the a.s.sault force should be ready to attack by midnight on 23 August.

Meanwhile the Americans also dallied with possible landings in the Kuriles and at the mainland port of Dalian, to secure bases-in breach of the Yalta agreement-before the Soviets could reach them. Both sides, however, finally backed off. Was.h.i.+ngton recognised that any attempt to pre-empt the Soviets from occupying their agreed territories would precipitate a crisis. Likewise Truman cabled Moscow, summarily rejecting Stalin's proposal that the Russians should receive the surrender of j.a.panese forces on north Hokkaido. At midday on the twenty-second the Stavka dispatched new orders to Far East Command, cancelling the Hokkaido landings. The Americans confined themselves to hastening U.S. Marines to key points on and near the coast of mainland China, to hold these until Chiang Kai-shek's forces could a.s.sume control. A huge American commitment of men and transport aircraft alone enabled the Nationalists to reestablish themselves in the east during the autumn of 1945.

THE LAST BATTLE of the Second World War was fought at a place few Westerners have ever heard of. Hutou means "tiger's head." In 1945 there were still some tigers in the Wanda Mountains, where the town stands beside the great Ussuri River, eastern frontier of Manchuria. On the Russian sh.o.r.e, forests stretch for miles across flat country. On the Manchurian side, however, steep bluffs rise from the swamps and railway yard at the waterside. Here, beginning in 1933, the Guandong Army created the most elaborate defensive system in Asia: its commanders were rash enough to call it their "Maginot Line." Hutou was centred upon five forts built on neighbouring hills which rise up to four hundred feet above the riverbank. The concrete roofs and walls were nine feet thick, with generators, storerooms and living quarters sunk deep underground, linked by tunnels. The whole system was almost five miles wide and four deep, supported by some of the heaviest artillery in Asia, including 240mm Krupp guns and a 410mm howitzer. The Chinese a.s.sert that the 30,000 slave labourers who built the fortress were killed when their work was complete, and indeed many bodies were exhumed after 1945. of the Second World War was fought at a place few Westerners have ever heard of. Hutou means "tiger's head." In 1945 there were still some tigers in the Wanda Mountains, where the town stands beside the great Ussuri River, eastern frontier of Manchuria. On the Russian sh.o.r.e, forests stretch for miles across flat country. On the Manchurian side, however, steep bluffs rise from the swamps and railway yard at the waterside. Here, beginning in 1933, the Guandong Army created the most elaborate defensive system in Asia: its commanders were rash enough to call it their "Maginot Line." Hutou was centred upon five forts built on neighbouring hills which rise up to four hundred feet above the riverbank. The concrete roofs and walls were nine feet thick, with generators, storerooms and living quarters sunk deep underground, linked by tunnels. The whole system was almost five miles wide and four deep, supported by some of the heaviest artillery in Asia, including 240mm Krupp guns and a 410mm howitzer. The Chinese a.s.sert that the 30,000 slave labourers who built the fortress were killed when their work was complete, and indeed many bodies were exhumed after 1945.

To the j.a.panese, Hutou was an unpopular posting, remote from any pleasures or amenities. For those who occupied its echoing caverns, it was also chronically unhealthy-moisture dripped off the concrete walls, rusted weapons, spoilt food. In winter the bunkers were icy cold, in summer stiflingly hot. Anyone familiar with the 1916 casemates of Verdun would readily have recognised 1945 Hutou. Through the years of war, veteran units had been removed from the fortress garrison and replaced by less impressive human material. Despite evidence of Soviet patrolling and the discovery of pontoons drifting on the Ussuri, Hutou's commander was absent at a briefing on the night of the initial attack, and was never able to return to his post. The defence was therefore directed by the local artillery commander, Captain Masao Oki.

The initial Soviet barrage cut road links and spread terror among the few hundred hapless civilians living behind the fortress. On 9 August, the Chinese inhabitants of Hutou towns.h.i.+p, a wattle-and-wooden settlement, were awakened in the early-morning darkness by the roar of aircraft overhead, the whistle of falling bombs and thud of sh.e.l.ls. Some fell on the j.a.panese defences, others among the houses, killing five Chinese. Jiang Fushun and his family huddled terrified beside a brick bed, the most substantial object in their flimsy hut. After two hours the sh.e.l.ling stopped, and hundreds of villagers ran out into the street. They saw the horizon rippling with gun flashes from the Russian sh.o.r.e of the Ussuri River, and at once understood that the Soviets were coming. j.a.panese soldiers ran into the town. Though some buildings were already blazing after being hit by bombs and sh.e.l.ls, they merely claimed that an air-raid practice was taking place. All civilians must move immediately into the nearby woods. There was no time to gather food or possessions. Jiang's father cried: "Go-go-go! I'll stay and look after the house948." The family fled, along with hundreds of others.

The defenders exploited a lull in Russian artillery fire to move all the garrison's family members and nearby immigrant j.a.panese farmers into the tunnel system. As well as six hundred regular troops, there were then sheltering underground a thousand civilians, some with militia training and weapons. An hour later, sh.e.l.ling resumed, and at 0800 Soviet infantry started crossing the Ussuri. The j.a.panese responded with mortar fire. This inflicted some casualties, but within three hours the attackers had secured a bridgehead. Amazingly, Hutou's biggest artillery pieces did not fire. They were short of gunners, and Captain Oki was preoccupied with directing the infantry defence. All that day and the next, Soviet troops continued to shuttle across the river. The local j.a.panese army commander, Lt.-Gen. Noritsune s.h.i.+muzu, telephoned Hutou on the evening of the ninth to deliver a wordy injunction to Oki to hold fast: "In view of the current war situation949 and the circ.u.mstances of the garrison, you are all requested to fight to the last breath and meet your fate, when it comes, as courageously as flowers, so that you may become pillars of our nation." After this heady torrent of mixed metaphors, all contact was lost between the defenders and the outside world. and the circ.u.mstances of the garrison, you are all requested to fight to the last breath and meet your fate, when it comes, as courageously as flowers, so that you may become pillars of our nation." After this heady torrent of mixed metaphors, all contact was lost between the defenders and the outside world.

By nightfall on 10 August the surrounding area was securely in the hands of the invaders. When darkness came the Russians began attacks on the bunker system. All failed. It became plain that, against such strong defences, subtler tactics would be necessary. Through the days that followed, artillery was used to keep j.a.panese heads down, while infantry and engineer groups inched forward among the trenches. Soon they had isolated the individual forts, and destroyed j.a.panese artillery observation posts. The condition of the defenders became grim. "After the first [Russian] salvo950, we knew the battle could have only one outcome," wrote one of the few j.a.panese survivors, gunner Gamii Zhefu. "In the tunnels beneath the fort, it was incredibly hot. We were desperate for water. The women were terrified. Then one soldier produced a canteen and gave everyone a sip, which did wonders for our morale. We were also very hungry, however, and started looking for food. We found some cans, ate-and started feeling thirsty again. Soon, for all of us, water became an obsession. It overcame even our fears about the battle and the threat of death. We were reduced to animal needs and desires."

On 13 August, adopting a technique familiar in the Pacific island battles, Russians poured petrol down ventilation inlets and ignited it. Hundreds of defenders and their families perished in the conflagrations that followed. Yet the j.a.panese continued to surprise Russian troops with sallies, sometimes dislodging the attackers from newly occupied positions. One j.a.panese rush was led by a twenty-two-year-old probationary officer brandis.h.i.+ng a sword, who fell to a Russian grenade. Hutou's gunners, unable to use their huge weapons, destroyed them with demolition charges and formed suicide squads. A j.a.panese artillery piece was destroyed by a round from its neighbour, firing at point-blank range. The central heights of the fortress changed hands nine times.

The wretched defenders of Hutou knew nothing of the emperor's broadcast on 15 August, nor of their country's surrender. They rejected all Russian calls to lay down their arms. On the seventeenth, a five-man party of local Chinese and captured j.a.panese carrying a white flag was dispatched from the Soviet lines to tell the garrison that the war was over. The officer who received them dismissed such a notion with contempt. He drew his sword and beheaded the elderly Chinese bearing the Soviet proposals. "We have nothing to say to the Red Army," he declared, before retiring into his bunker. The Soviet barrage resumed. Conditions underground became unendurable. Many of those in the tunnels and casemates suffered carbon monoxide poisoning. "There were plenty of951 bodies down there," wrote Gamii Zhefu. "I heard a wounded man crying repeatedly 'Water, water,' but no one took any notice of him. I was momentarily excited by seeing a trickle of fluid running across the floor, until I realised that it was leaking from a corpse. I drank it. Another man said: 'That stuff will kill you.' I didn't care. I was dying of thirst anyway." bodies down there," wrote Gamii Zhefu. "I heard a wounded man crying repeatedly 'Water, water,' but no one took any notice of him. I was momentarily excited by seeing a trickle of fluid running across the floor, until I realised that it was leaking from a corpse. I drank it. Another man said: 'That stuff will kill you.' I didn't care. I was dying of thirst anyway."

For hundreds of peasants sheltering in the woods, in the first days there was nothing to eat save a few berries and wild plants. They drank water from the river, and listened to the appalling cacophony of battle on the Hutou hills. A few j.a.panese immigrants huddled among them, but most had sought the shelter of the fortress. On the fourth day, while fighting still raged, Red soldiers appeared and herded the civilians down to the riverbank, which was now secure. The Russians smashed open a big j.a.panese food store, and invited the Chinese to help themselves. They were able to make rice soup to sustain them through another ten days of uncertainty and gunfire on the hills above.

On 19 August, a large party of j.a.panese from the fortress attempted a break for freedom. They were cut down by Russian machine guns. By the twenty-second, almost all the underground bunkers had become untenable. Soviet troops probing cautiously down the steps met a ghastly stench of humanity, cordite and death. In one bunker, the bodies of men, women and eighty children aged between one and twelve were heaped together. In a cavern beneath Strongpoint "Sharp" lay another pile of women's corpses. There was also the detritus of the dead-cooking pots, wire-rimmed spectacles, gramophones, a few bicycles, pin-up pictures of surprisingly smartly dressed "comfort women." The Soviets declared the Hutou Fortified Region secure. Yet for four days more, one isolated j.a.panese company continued its resistance. Only on 26 August was this remnant snuffed out. Thus, today, a huge Soviet war memorial on the site declares Hutou to be the scene of the final battle of the Second World War. Almost 2,000 j.a.panese men, women and children perished in and around the fortress, days after the rest of the world celebrated peace.

Russians told the Chinese fugitives in the woods behind Hutou that it was now safe to come out. In a curious introduction to their new lives, these bewildered peasants were shown a propaganda film about the Russian Revolution. A commissar addressed them through an interpreter: "Red soldiers have made great sacrifices in this battle to bring you liberty, and now it is yours." The j.a.panese were all dead, he said. The villagers could go home. Home? They drifted uneasily back to their huts, to find only ruins and blackened earth. In the ashes of Jiang Fushun's family home lay the body of his father, a bullet through his head, the price of his rashness in staying behind. Every Chinese who ventured into the village during the battle had met the same fate. Those who had relatives elsewhere began long treks in search of sanctuary, but Jiang's family had no one to go to. They lingered among the ruins, scrabbling to build themselves a shelter, scavenging for food. The task was made no easier by the fact that Russian soldiers began to remove everything edible or of value. The Chinese were appalled to see the liberators drive off the horses on which their tiny farms depended. Women were raped in the usual fas.h.i.+on.

Soviet soldiers warned peasants not to approach the forts, which were still littered with mines and munitions. After a few days, however, Jiang and a few others wandered up to the blackened casemates, gazing in revulsion at the unburied corpses of j.a.panese soldiers and their women. When the Russians finally departed, taking with them even the tracks of the local railway, the thousand or so desolate people left in Hutou found themselves existing in a limbo. The village headman was dead. For more than two years thereafter, no one attempted to exercise authority over them, nor to provide aid of any kind. When the Communists eventually a.s.sumed control of their lives, "things became a little better."

Only forty-six j.a.panese are known to have escaped from the fortress with their lives. "The defence was extraordinarily brave952," says Chinese historian w.a.n.g Hongbin, "which usually demands respect. But it was also completely futile. It is hard to admire blind loyalty to the emperor at that stage. They all died for nothing."

Lt. Stanislav Chervyakov's rocket battery entered Shenyang having scarcely fired a salvo, and without meeting serious resistance. The soldiers were amazed to meet Russian emigres, who welcomed them warmly. Chervyakov found himself billeted on one such family. In this city where Russian influence had always been strong, some local people spoke a few words of the language. Chinese stood outside little cafes, urging the soldiers: "Come in, have a drink or a meal!" "Kapitana, shango! shango!"-"Good! good!" Sgt. Anatoly Fillipov was delighted to be handed a mess tin of pelmeni pelmeni-ravioli-but became less enthusiastic when he discovered that it was made with donkey meat. "Most of the local people953 welcomed us with open arms," said tank officer Alexander Fadin. "They were threadbare, in rags, but they gave us ma.s.ses of flowers, fruit and Chinese food. We could eat all we wanted in the Chinese restaurants for free. We really felt like liberators." welcomed us with open arms," said tank officer Alexander Fadin. "They were threadbare, in rags, but they gave us ma.s.ses of flowers, fruit and Chinese food. We could eat all we wanted in the Chinese restaurants for free. We really felt like liberators."

Stalin had promised the Allies that he recognised Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists as the sole legitimate government of China. This did not prevent Soviet forces in Manchuria from seeking to give Mao's people a head start in the civil war that was now imminent. "I shall never forget my first sight of the People's Army," said Russian gunner Georgy Sergeev. "I saw some men coming down954 from the mountains. They were in rags, many barefoot. They had no weapons, but each carried a stick with a bundle on its end. So this was the heroic 8th Route Army." Crowds of vengeful Chinese gathered around headquarters and POW cages, shouting at the Russians to surrender the prisoners to them. On 23 August, Soviet front HQ ordered the handover of captured j.a.panese weapons to nearby Chinese Communist units. To satisfy the letter of Stalin's agreement with the Nationalists, Soviet officers were to have no personal dealings with Mao's people, instead merely to withdraw guards from arms dumps. The first Communist unit arrived in darkness, and laboured by torchlight in complete silence, manhandling crates of weapons and ammunition with furious energy. "When I came back to the depots from the mountains. They were in rags, many barefoot. They had no weapons, but each carried a stick with a bundle on its end. So this was the heroic 8th Route Army." Crowds of vengeful Chinese gathered around headquarters and POW cages, shouting at the Russians to surrender the prisoners to them. On 23 August, Soviet front HQ ordered the handover of captured j.a.panese weapons to nearby Chinese Communist units. To satisfy the letter of Stalin's agreement with the Nationalists, Soviet officers were to have no personal dealings with Mao's people, instead merely to withdraw guards from arms dumps. The first Communist unit arrived in darkness, and laboured by torchlight in complete silence, manhandling crates of weapons and ammunition with furious energy. "When I came back to the depots955 with my men," said a Soviet officer, Major Belyaev, "they were completely empty, literally cleaned out. The Chinese had even swept the floor and taken away the shelving." with my men," said a Soviet officer, Major Belyaev, "they were completely empty, literally cleaned out. The Chinese had even swept the floor and taken away the shelving."

THE EMPEROR P PU Y YI heard news of the j.a.panese surrender at Dalizikou, where the final drama of his pitiful reign was acted out. For the third and final time in his life, on 15 August he signed an "Abdication Rescript," surrounded by unhappy ministers and privy councillors. His j.a.panese custodian announced that he was to be evacuated to j.a.pan. He should decide who should accompany him. The emperor chose his brother, two brothers-in-law, three nephews, his doctor and valet. His sole remaining concubine asked through sobs what she was supposed to do. The emperor blandly responded that she could not accompany him: "The plane is too small, so you will have to go by train." heard news of the j.a.panese surrender at Dalizikou, where the final drama of his pitiful reign was acted out. For the third and final time in his life, on 15 August he signed an "Abdication Rescript," surrounded by unhappy ministers and privy councillors. His j.a.panese custodian announced that he was to be evacuated to j.a.pan. He should decide who should accompany him. The emperor chose his brother, two brothers-in-law, three nephews, his doctor and valet. His sole remaining concubine asked through sobs what she was supposed to do. The emperor blandly responded that she could not accompany him: "The plane is too small, so you will have to go by train."

"Will the train get to j.a.pan?"

"Of course it will. In three days at most you and the empress will see me again."

"What will happen if the train doesn't come for me? I haven't got a single relation here."

"You'll be all right."

The inglorious imperial plane landed at Shenyang to transfer its pa.s.sengers to a larger aircraft for the flight to j.a.pan. Yet even as they waited upon this, Soviet transport planes arrived, disgorging scores of Red soldiers brandis.h.i.+ng tommy-guns. A few minutes later Pu Yi became a Russian captive. This was a relief, for more than anything he feared falling into the hands of Nationalist or Communist Chinese. The emperor's Soviet guards were fascinated by their prize, and at first a little awed by the responsibility. Lt. Alexander Zhelvakov, a political officer with 6th Guards Tank Army, was warned by his commander that he would answer with his life for the emperor's security, and believed it. The Soviets shared Pu Yi's perception that if he fell into the hands of Chinese, they would tear him asunder.

"I didn't get a wink of sleep956 during the night of 20 August," Zhelvakov said later, "and the emperor didn't sleep either-didn't even take off his clothes. He was skinny, quite tall, wearing horn-rimmed spectacles, a dark suit and white s.h.i.+rt. He looked rather ordinary, a little pale, depressed, lost. One could see how nervous he was. His brother never left his side. The two of them looked, to be honest, pretty forlorn and unworthy of their rank. There was absolutely no royal grandeur. Pu Yi kept asking: 'Am I going to be killed? Am I going to be shot?' He seemed shy, indeed pretty scared. Once he understood that no one was going to kill him, he gradually calmed down, cheered up, even began to smile." during the night of 20 August," Zhelvakov said later, "and the emperor didn't sleep either-didn't even take off his clothes. He was skinny, quite tall, wearing horn-rimmed spectacles, a dark suit and white s.h.i.+rt. He looked rather ordinary, a little pale, depressed, lost. One could see how nervous he was. His brother never left his side. The two of them looked, to be honest, pretty forlorn and unworthy of their rank. There was absolutely no royal grandeur. Pu Yi kept asking: 'Am I going to be killed? Am I going to be shot?' He seemed shy, indeed pretty scared. Once he understood that no one was going to kill him, he gradually calmed down, cheered up, even began to smile."

Zhelvakov escorted the imperial party and their heaps of expensive luggage onto a transport plane to the Soviet city of Chita, where they were removed to incarceration in a procession of limousines. After Pu Yi departed, one of Zhelvakov's soldiers, a doughty Communist, said sourly: "Comrade Lieutenant957, we should have put a bullet in him." The emperor cherished brief hopes of being permitted to go into exile in Britain or the United States. Instead, he spent the next five years958 in Soviet confinement, for the first of these employed as a compliant witness at successive show trials of j.a.panese. Returned to Mao's mercy in 1950, Pu Yi ended his days as a gardener in Beijing's Botanical Gardens, dying in 1967. in Soviet confinement, for the first of these employed as a compliant witness at successive show trials of j.a.panese. Returned to Mao's mercy in 1950, Pu Yi ended his days as a gardener in Beijing's Botanical Gardens, dying in 1967.

Soviet transport aircraft flew many Chinese guerrillas back from Russia into Manchuria. On the landing strip at Bei An, Li Min and her party were amazed to see j.a.panese soldiers, albeit disarmed, talking to their Russian conquerors. The Chinese were even more astonished by the arrogance of some of their vanquished foes. One j.a.panese officer told them defiantly: "Give us ten years959 and we'll be back!" An affronted guerrilla, Chen Ming, unholstered his pistol and shot the man dead. The Russians sternly ordered Chen to control himself. and we'll be back!" An affronted guerrilla, Chen Ming, unholstered his pistol and shot the man dead. The Russians sternly ordered Chen to control himself.

Guerrilla Zhou Shuling returned to Manchuria from Russia in some style, in a car with her husband. His intelligence work finished, he boasted a chestful of Russian medals. Zhou said: "I was so excited, to see my own country again." But that country was ruined by war, and now by Soviet pillage. Soon the Russians began to dismantle and remove wholesale Manchuria's industrial plant. They a.s.serted that this was j.a.panese property, and therefore represented legitimate reparations for the Soviet Union. Li Fenggui marched into Manchuria with Mao's New 4th Army in October 1945, to find that "the Russians had stripped the peasants960 of everything-including the women's virtue." When Zhou reached her old village, she met desolation. The sole memorials of her family's residence were four water tanks which had once belonged on the roofs of their houses, and now stood derelict on the blackened earth. Two of her four young children died amid the terrible cold and hunger of their first winter back in China. Her husband became a town chief of police, with herself as a precinct chief. of everything-including the women's virtue." When Zhou reached her old village, she met desolation. The sole memorials of her family's residence were four water tanks which had once belonged on the roofs of their houses, and now stood derelict on the blackened earth. Two of her four young children died amid the terrible cold and hunger of their first winter back in China. Her husband became a town chief of police, with herself as a precinct chief.

Zhuan Fengxian knew that the woman who returned to Manchuria from Russia, in the uniform of the Soviet army, was not the illiterate girl "frightened even of spiders" who had gone away to join the guerrillas five years earlier. She had achieved a fulfilment through her wartime experience quite unattainable by a woman, especially a peasant woman, in mid-twentieth-century Chinese society. She and her group flew home in Soviet transport aircraft, and wandered in bewildered horror through the j.a.panese prison in Shenyang where so many political prisoners had died. "We looked at the gallows, and even the device they had for crus.h.i.+ng bodies so that no traces remained. What sort of people could they have been?!" In the chaos of the civil war that now began to overtake China, she had no time to go in search of her family. It was only long afterwards that she discovered that disease had killed her parents, hopelessly weakened by hunger, during the occupation. "They were sick-and they had no money961 to do anything about it." Her father was fifty, her mother forty. She was reunited with her sisters only in 1949. to do anything about it." Her father was fifty, her mother forty. She was reunited with her sisters only in 1949.

"An image of Manchuria962 after the surrender remains imprinted in my memory," said Red Army radio operator Victor Kosopalov: "A lonely j.a.panese infantry soldier is limping along the road with a rifle upon his shoulder. One of our tank gunners jumps down from a T-34 beside the road, and gestures to the j.a.panese to surrender his weapon. The j.a.panese resists, shaking his head, but the tank man wrests the rifle from him. The j.a.panese shrinks back, expecting retribution. The tank man gestures him to move on. He limps away..." after the surrender remains imprinted in my memory," said Red Army radio operator Victor Kosopalov: "A lonely j.a.panese infantry soldier is limping along the road with a rifle upon his shoulder. One of our tank gunners jumps down from a T-34 beside the road, and gestures to the j.a.panese to surrender his weapon. The j.a.panese resists, shaking his head, but the tank man wrests the rifle from him. The j.a.panese shrinks back, expecting retribution. The tank man gestures him to move on. He limps away..."

In Manchuria and the island operations, the Soviets claimed to have killed, wounded or captured 674,000 j.a.panese troops at a cost to the Red Army of 12,031 dead, 24,425 sick and wounded. Stalin's Far Eastern conquests thus incurred about the same human cost as the American seizure of Okinawa, though characteristically the Russians were far less troubled by their losses. First Far Eastern Front bore the heaviest casualties-6,324 dead; 2nd Far Eastern lost 2,449 killed; Trans-Baikal 2,228; the Soviet Pacific Fleet lost 998 naval infantry. j.a.pan identified 21,000 of its own men killed, but the true figure is probably closer to 80,000.

MACARTHUR, in his new role as supreme commander Allied powers, ordered all subordinate commanders to postpone reoccupation of j.a.panese-held territory until after the formal surrender was signed. Seven million j.a.panese troops remained under arms, in the home islands and across Hirohito's empire. A British official wrote: "They do not consider that they have been defeated and say so quite openly. They have simply laid down arms on the Emperor's orders. We are thus in a position that, in a few days' time, we shall be setting out to disarm an undefeated army." It was also plainly a matter of urgency to prevent a vacuum of authority across a huge area where local nationalists were poised to challenge the Allies for control. At SEAC, Mountbatten told his staff he was "at a loss to understand why General MacArthur should wish to impose such a dangerous delay." MacArthur said loftily to his British liaison officer: "Tell Lord Louis to keep his pants on or he will get us all into trouble." Mountbatten responded: "Tell him I will keep my pants on if he will take Hirohito's off." SEAC's commander defied MacArthur's orders and rushed help to Allied prisoners in Malaya and the Dutch East Indies. Without prompt succour, these men would have continued to die, as the U.S. general might have paused to consider. It was widely believed that MacArthur's policy was promoted by vanity, a determination to tolerate no distractions from his own great final performance. in his new role as supreme commander Allied powers, ordered all subordinate commanders to postpone reoccupation of j.a.panese-held territory until after the formal surrender was signed. Seven million j.a.panese troops remained under arms, in the home islands and across Hirohito's empire. A British official wrote: "They do not consider that they have been defeated and say so quite openly. They have simply laid down arms on the Emperor's orders. We are thus in a position that, in a few days' time, we shall be setting out to disarm an undefeated army." It was also plainly a matter of urgency to prevent a vacuum of authority across a huge area where local nationalists were poised to challenge the Allies for control. At SEAC, Mountbatten told his staff he was "at a loss to understand why General MacArthur should wish to impose such a dangerous delay." MacArthur said loftily to his British liaison officer: "Tell Lord Louis to keep his pants on or he will get us all into trouble." Mountbatten responded: "Tell him I will keep my pants on if he will take Hirohito's off." SEAC's commander defied MacArthur's orders and rushed help to Allied prisoners in Malaya and the Dutch East Indies. Without prompt succour, these men would have continued to die, as the U.S. general might have paused to consider. It was widely believed that MacArthur's policy was promoted by vanity, a determination to tolerate no distractions from his own great final performance.

The j.a.panese surrender brought the beginnings of a new round of misery to Indochina. The vanquished occupiers exerted themselves to aid Ho Chi Minh's nationalist Vietminh and inflict further humiliations on the French. In Hanoi, 5,000 French prisoners remained confined for weeks in the citadel, even as the Vietminh hastened to occupy the city. While the Hotel Metropole continued to serve six-course meals, and shops were stocked with silks, the bodies of Vietnamese who had died of starvation lay in the streets. Even after the surrender, the j.a.panese dealt brutally with French officers whom they captured. While awaiting Chinese and British occupation forces, they transferred large quant.i.ties of money and arms to the Vietminh. Some j.a.panese deserters joined Ho Chi Minh's ranks. The first British troops found themselves obliged to partic.i.p.ate in a bitter struggle for power, indeed an open war, until French units arrived to relieve them. In Saigon, the Americans abruptly withdrew from partic.i.p.ation in the Vietnam Control Commission, removing the designated U.S. Army signals team from the Allied occupying force. Brig.-Gen. Timberman, commanding U.S. troops in South-East Asia, a.s.serted that reoccupation of Indochina "had nothing to do with the French."

In the Dutch East Indies, local nationalists swiftly seized control from the j.a.panese. A bitter and b.l.o.o.d.y struggle began, which cost thousands of lives in the months that followed, to resist the restoration of Dutch hegemony. "The j.a.panese," concluded963 a French observer who had been in Batavia since 1941, "though defeated in a general sense, have 'won the war' in this corner of Asia." They had rendered it impossible for the former European colonial powers convincingly to rea.s.sert their authority where they had left off more than three years earlier. a French observer who had been in Batavia since 1941, "though defeated in a general sense, have 'won the war' in this corner of Asia." They had rendered it impossible for the former European colonial powers convincingly to rea.s.sert their authority where they had left off more than three years earlier.

THOUSANDS OF British and Indian Soldiers had been preparing for the amphibious a.s.sault on Malaya, Operation Zipper. For them, as for American soldiers slated to land in j.a.pan, it was an overwhelming relief that they could now land unopposed. Cecil Daniels's battalion of the Buffs had lost ten officers and 205 men in Burma. Looking back on his personal contribution to the war, the infantryman wrote with touching gaucheness: "I felt I had acquitted myself British and Indian Soldiers had been preparing for the amphibious a.s.sault on Malaya, Operation Zipper. For them, as for American soldiers slated to land in j.a.pan, it was an overwhelming relief that they could now land unopposed. Cecil Daniels's battalion of the Buffs had lost ten officers and 205 men in Burma. Looking back on his personal contribution to the war, the infantryman wrote with touching gaucheness: "I felt I had acquitted myself964 reasonably well, but...could and would have done more (in other words, stuck my head out more) if my parents had not already lost one son in the war. I wanted to spare them the grief of the possibility of losing another son if possible." reasonably well, but...could and would have done more (in other words, stuck my head out more) if my parents had not already lost one son in the war. I wanted to spare them the grief of the possibility of losing another son if possible."

From a housing estate in Dagenham, Ess.e.x, a cook's mother wrote to the captain of the British cruiser Nigeria Nigeria, serving in the Pacific: "Dear Sir, we send our greatest thanks & congratulations to you, all the crew & my son Jimmy Underwood, mess 42B. It really seems almost unbelievable that peace with j.a.pan has now been proclaimed & so many of our loved ones will now be spared. You have all done so well and we at home owe you so much. To say 'thanks' is such a small word to show the appreciation we feel in our inner souls. To be parted from our loved ones...has seemed an eternity. No more weeping and sleepless nights & wet pillows. The 'blitz' all finished and now to make ready for a new home to rest our boys. G.o.d speed your return, thanks a million to you, I am faithfully, yours sincerely Mrs. Alice Underwood. PS Let us think for a while of those who have 'pa.s.sed on for this good cause.' They will NEVER be forgotten."

CAPTAIN K KOUICHI I ITO of the j.a.panese 32nd Regiment was one of several hundred j.a.panese who escaped captivity on Okinawa, hiding in the island's mult.i.tude of caves, scavenging for food with some little aid from local people, digging up potatoes in the fields under cover of darkness. On 22 August, a j.a.panese prisoner under American escort appeared at the mouth of the cave being occupied by Ito and his handful of companions, and told them the war was over. They hesitated, but finally decided to believe him. They had seen the offsh.o.r.e firework display a week earlier, as U.S. s.h.i.+ps celebrated the announcement of victory. "It did not seem likely that the Americans were making this up," said Ito. He emerged, and was taken to hear a recording of the emperor's broadcast. Ito had been officially posted missing, along with the rest of the doomed garrison of Okinawa. of the j.a.panese 32nd Regiment was one of several hundred j.a.panese who escaped captivity on Okinawa, hiding in the island's mult.i.tude of caves, scavenging for food with some little aid from local people, digging up potatoes in the fields under cover of darkness. On 22 August, a j.a.panese prisoner under American escort appeared at the mouth of the cave being occupied by Ito and his handful of companions, and told them the war was over. They hesitated, but finally decided to believe him. They had seen the offsh.o.r.e firework display a week earlier, as U.S. s.h.i.+ps celebrated the announcement of victory. "It did not seem likely that the Americans were making this up," said Ito. He emerged, and was taken to hear a recording of the emperor's broadcast. Ito had been officially posted missing, along with the rest of the doomed garrison of Okinawa.

When finally he came home to his parents, he found that while his father had remained convinced that he was alive, his mother had for months been praying for his shade at the shrine for the dead. He found himself collapsing into tears, which he was unable either to check or explain to himself. "I marvelled at my own survival, and could not understand it. I kept thinking of the 90 percent of my men who had died." He felt embittered and frustrated by the collapse of his own hopes for a career as a warrior, as well for his country's defeat. Instead of finding glory in military prowess, he settled down to a humdrum life in his father's transport contracting business. When he married, his wife said sternly: "In the army, you have grown accustomed to having lots of people to boss about, and orderlies to do everything for you. I do not intend to become a replacement for them." It was many years before the ghosts of defeat on Okinawa were laid in Ito's mind, his furious emotions calmed.

THERE WAS MUCH American debate about whether the formal surrender should be signed on j.a.panese soil, or at sea. Truman, the most famous Missourian, made the decision. The battles.h.i.+p bearing his state's name was at sea south of j.a.pan, and the men were opening a new mail delivery. The chief yeoman dashed up to Captain Murray, her commanding officer, and said: "Captain, American debate about whether the formal surrender should be signed on j.a.panese soil, or at sea. Truman, the most famous Missourian, made the decision. The battles.h.i.+p bearing his state's name was at sea south of j.a.pan, and the men were opening a new mail delivery. The chief yeoman dashed up to Captain Murray, her commanding officer, and said: "Captain, Missouri Missouri is going to be the surrender s.h.i.+p-here's a clipping from the Santa Barbara paper." Murray, a forty-seven-year-old Texan who had only commanded the great vessel since May, found that his own wife had sent him the same cutting. The s.h.i.+p had been at sea for eighteen months, and showed it. An appeal for paint was signalled round the task group. Only a slender supply could be found, because paint stores had been such a fire hazard aboard s.h.i.+ps in combat. Men began holystoning decks that had been camouflage-tinted, cleaning every visible part of is going to be the surrender s.h.i.+p-here's a clipping from the Santa Barbara paper." Murray, a forty-seven-year-old Texan who had only commanded the great vessel since May, found that his own wife had sent him the same cutting. The s.h.i.+p had been at sea for eighteen months, and showed it. An appeal for paint was signalled round the task group. Only a slender supply could be found, because paint stores had been such a fire hazard aboard s.h.i.+ps in combat. Men began holystoning decks that had been camouflage-tinted, cleaning every visible part of Missouri Missouri. The Royal Navy's Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser offered a table for the ceremony, which Murray wanted to accept "because it gave the British a chance to say: 'We contributed something.'" In the end, however, this well-meaning condescension was frustrated. A wardroom table was set up on deck, simply because it was bigger.

On the afternoon of 1 September, the huge battles.h.i.+p eased its way cautiously into Tokyo Bay, wary of mines and kamikazes. A party of j.a.panese naval officers boarded from a destroyer to offer the keys of the city of Yokosuka, near the s.h.i.+p's intended anchorage. Advancing further, the battles.h.i.+p pa.s.sed more j.a.panese destroyers, their guns plugged and depressed, and at last stopped engines some six miles off Yokohama. By nightfall, 260 Allied wars.h.i.+ps filled the bay.

Mustering the great crowd of dignitaries and onlookers next morning, Sunday, 2 September 1945, proved a challenge. There were 225 correspondents and seventy-five photographers, two of these j.a.panese, together with representatives of every Allied power. Captain Murray took pains to ensure that the respective flag hoists of MacArthur and Nimitz were exactly level. Two Marines hustled an errant Russian photographer into his proper place, while the Americans scrutinised the j.a.panese cameramen nervously. Soon after 0800, destroyers delivered MacArthur and Nimitz to the s.h.i.+p.

In Tokyo, there was bitter dispute about who should sign the detested peace doc.u.ments on behalf of the government. "The feeling of j.a.pan's leaders965, now that the war was ended so suddenly, was characteristic," wrote Mamoru s.h.i.+gemitsu. "They abhorred, as an unclean thing, the act of shouldering responsibility for the deed of surrender, and they did their best to avoid it." He himself was finally appointed, as minister plenipotentiary. At dawn s.h.i.+gemitsu and a small group, most prominent among whom was Umezu, the army chief, a.s.sembled at the prime minister's official residence. They bowed formally towards the Imperial Palace, then drove through miles of empty streets and bombed-out desolation to Yokohama. There, an American destroyer awaited them for the hour-long pa.s.sage to Halsey's flags.h.i.+p.

The j.a.panese party came alongside Missouri Missouri at 0855. Silence fell over the throng as the defeated enemy's representatives, in formal dress and top hats, mounted the gangway and approached the serried ranks of Allied bra.s.s. s.h.i.+gemitsu, who had lost a leg to an unsuccessful a.s.sa.s.sin's bomb a few years earlier, made every step in visible pain, embarra.s.sing the more sensitive Americans. When the j.a.panese were in their places, MacArthur, Nimitz and Halsey-the last scowling, as usual-emerged from a hatchway and strode to the mess table, covered with a green cloth. MacArthur delivered a short speech, which even his sternest critics have been unable to fault: "The issues, involving divergent ideals and ideologies, have been determined on the battlefields of the world and hence are not for our discussion or debate," he said. "Nor is it for us here to meet, representing as we do a majority of the people of the earth, in a spirit of distrust, malice or hatred. But rather it is for us, both victors and vanquished, to rise to that higher dignity which alone befits the sacred purposes we are about to serve, committing all our people unreservedly to faithful compliance." at 0855. Silence fell over the throng as the defeated enemy's representatives, in formal dress and top hats, mounted the gangway and approached the serried ranks of Allied bra.s.s. s.h.i.+gemitsu, who had lost a leg to an unsuccessful a.s.sa.s.sin's bomb a few years earlier, made every step in visible pain, embarra.s.sing the more sensitive Americans. When the j.a.panese were in their places, MacArthur, Nimitz and Halsey-the last scowling, as usual-emerged from a hatchway and strode to the mess table, covered with a green cloth. MacArthur delivered a short speech, which even his sternest critics have been unable to fault: "The issues, involving divergent ideals and ideologies, have been determined on the battlefields of the world and hence are not for our discussion or debate," he said. "Nor is it for us here to meet, representing as we do a majority of the people of the earth, in a spirit of distrust, malice or hatred. But rather it is for us, both victors and vanquished, to rise to that higher dignity which alone befits the sacred purposes we are about to serve, committing all our people unreservedly to faithful compliance."

His hands trembled as he read. Even MacArthur seemed a little overwhelmed by the magnitude of the occasion. The j.a.panese were deeply impressed by the generosity of the sentiments expressed by the supreme commander. For the first time, they felt a gleam of hope for the future. Then they all signed. At 9:25, the silence was broken by a distant drone, then a great roar overhead, as four hundred B-29s and 1,500 carrier planes staged the greatest fly-past in history. The j.a.panese bowed, retreated, and descended the gangway. MacArthur walked to a microphone, and delivered another slow, majestic speech. "Today the guns are silent," he began. "A great tragedy has ended. A great victory has been won." After rehearsing memories of the long journey from Bataan to Tokyo Bay, he concluded with an appeal entirely worthy of the moment, for mankind to pursue a new spirit of peace: "These proceedings are now closed," he said. Nothing so became MacArthur's tenure of combat command as the manner in which he ended it. The general departed ash.o.r.e, to begin at the age of sixty-five the most impressive phase of his life, as architect of j.a.pan's resurrection and redemption-also, indeed, of his own.

Aboard Missouri Missouri, Captain Murray found that no one had thought of locking up the American copy of the surrender doc.u.ment, and hastily did so himself. He frustrated an attempt by the s.h.i.+p's cooks to abstract the table used for the surrender ceremony. Huge and b.l.o.o.d.y domestic struggles were commencing for the future of Asia, but the war against j.a.pan was ended.

TWENTY-TWO.

Legacies

THE MOST CREDIBLE statistics suggest that 185,647 j.a.panese were killed in China between 1937 and 1941. The Imperial Army lost a further 1,140,429 dead between Pearl Harbor and August 1945, while the navy lost 414,879. At least 97,031 civilian dead were listed in Tokyo and a further 86,336 in other cities, but many more bombing casualties were unrecorded. Over 100,000 died in Hiros.h.i.+ma and Nagasaki. Some 150,000 civilians are alleged to have perished on Okinawa, 10,000 on Saipan, though these latter figures are thought by modern Western scholars to have been exaggerated, perhaps as much as tenfold. Anything up to 250,000 j.a.panese soldiers and civilians died in Manchuria during the icy winter of 1945, after the war ended, along with many more who served as slave labourers for the Soviets in Siberia through the succeeding decade. j.a.pan's total war dead are estimated at 2.69 million, against 6 million Germans. statistics suggest that 185,647 j.a.panese were killed in China between 1937 and 1941. The Imperial Army lost a further 1,140,429 dead between Pearl Harbor and August 1945, while the navy lost 414,879. At least 97,031 civilian dead were listed in Tokyo and a further 86,336 in other cities, but many more bombing casualties were unrecorded. Over 100,000 died in Hiros.h.i.+ma and Nagasaki. Some 150,000 civilians are alleged to have perished on Okinawa, 10,000 on Saipan, though these latter figures are thought by modern Western scholars to have been exaggerated, perhaps as much as tenfold. Anything up to 250,000 j.a.panese soldiers and civilians died in Manchuria during the icy winter of 1945, after the war ended, along with many more who served as slave labourers for the Soviets in Siberia through the succeeding decade. j.a.pan's total war dead are estimated at 2.69 million, against 6 million Germans.

Chinese historians today seek to increase figures for their nation's wartime death toll from 15 to 25 or even 50 million. Some 5 million inhabitants of South-East Asia are thought to have perished under j.a.panese occupation, most of these in Indochina and the Dutch East Indies. None of these numbers are reliable, but they offer an indication of scale. It can confidently be a.s.serted that j.a.pan's human losses were vastly surpa.s.sed by those of the nations which it attacked and occupied between 1931 and 1945. The U.S. Army, meanwhile, lost some 55,145 killed in the Pacific conflict, including 3,650 in South-East Asia, compared with around 143,000 in Europe and North Africa. The U.S. Navy lost 29,263 dead in the east, the Marines 19,163. About 30,000 British servicemen perished in the war against the j.a.panese, many of them as prisoners, by comparison with 235,000 who died fighting the Germans.

The outcome of the Pacific conflict persuaded some Americans that they could win wars at relatively small human cost, by the application of their country's boundless technological ingenuity and industrial resources. The lesson appeared to be that, if the U.S. possessed bases from which its wars.h.i.+ps and aircraft