Pacific News-Review

Notes And Comment On

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International Affairs

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Aug. 15: Japan has capitulated and General MacArthur has been appointed Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers in Japan. After the surrender, the Japanese Government resigned and the Minister for the Army committed hara-kiri.

Aug. 17: Emperor Hirihoto has ordered all his armed forces to cease hostilities immediately and has asked Prince Naruhiko Higashi-Kuni to form a new Government. Japanese leaders appear unrepentant in defeat. No attempt has been made to bring home the simple fact of defeat to the Japanese people. A vigorous face-saving campaign seems to be going on.

Aug. 17: Japanese Emperor announced that members of the Royal Family will go to the various fronts to see that the cease-fire order is carried out. Japanese surrender emissaries are expected in Manila on August 19.

Aug. 19: Japanese envoys arrived in Manila by air and began preliminary talks in the City Hall. Surrender moves are expected from Bougainville and New Guinea but the Jap armies in Burma and Singapore show signs of attempting to fight on.

Aug. 20: General MacArthur an nounced that he expects to land in Japan with adequate forces within ten days and the surrender will be signed in Tokio immediately after. It is expected that Australian troops will be part of the oc cupying forces. The Japanese delega tion which arrived in Manila yesterday has left again for Japan after complet ing preliminary surrender talks.

Aug. 22: Surrender instructions have been taken to Japanese headquarters in Bougainville by an Australian officer.

Leaflets have been dropped on Rabaul and reconnaissance aircraft report that troop-carryine barges appear to be con verging on the town for surrender.

Aug. 22: According to Tokio radio, there were 480,000 victims of the atomic bomb—either killed, injured or homeless.

Sixty thousand were killed in Hiroshima; many still are dying from the effect of burns.

Aug. 23: A clash of views on Hong Kong is likely to develop between Britain on one hand, and United States and China on the other. China’s claims for Hong Kong are regarded with favour in Washington. China expects to send oc cupation troops to Hong Kong. London says that as Hong Kong is a British colony the surrender there should be to the British, and troops are on their way there for that purpose. Britain does not object to the Chinese being associated with the surrender.

Aug. 24: The cessation of Lend-Lease aid to Britain by the United States with out warning or notice, has gravely em barrassed Britain. Washington says that as Lend-Lease was purely a measure for helping the Allies wage war, it could not be used for rehabilitation purposes, and President Truman had no choice but to immediately terminate all transactions.

London expected Lend-Lease to be tapered off over a short period, not ended suddenly. Talks between Britain and America probably will evolve some plan to lessen the privations which the British peonle will be called upon to undergo, owing to sudden cessation of food supplies.

Aug. 25; A typhoon has delayed pre parations for the arrival of the Allied occupation forces in Tokio.

Aug. 26: A conference has opened in Rangoon between British and Japanese for the surrender of Japanese Armies in

Burma, Malaya, the East Indies and Indo-China. The Supreme Allied Com mander in SE Asia, Lord Mountbatten, will receive the surrender of Terauchi’s forces in Singapore early in September.

Aug. 30: Formal occupation of Japan began to-day. A huge fleet of air trans ports is flying General MacArthur and his occupying troops from Okinawa to Tokio. General Douglas MacArthur arrived at Atsugi airfield (18 miles from Tokio) at 2 p.m.

Sept. 1; Appalling cruelties inflicted on prisoners of war and internees by the Japanese are being revealed as prison camps in Japan. Manchuria, Borneo, Malaya, Thailand and Sumatra, are being liberated.

Sept. 2: Japan’s formal surrender to the Allies was signed in Tokio Bay to day at 10.5 (Sydney time). The 37 minutes’ ceremony ended World War 11, which had lasted exactly six years.

Sept. 4; Russia is quickly accepting sur render of all Japanese forces in Man churia and Korea. The Japs are being sternly treated and put straight into prison camps.

Sept. 4: Scenes of great rejoicing attended the entry of the British into Hong Kong and the release of pri soners.

Sept. 5; There was an appalling death roll among AIF prisoners on the Burma railway—of 3,598 employed, well over 1,000 died.

Sept. 6; It is officially confirmed that 3,007 members of the AIF died while prisoners of war in Singapore. Total AIF deaths reported in South-East Asia are over 5,000. AIF men taken at Singa pore were 16,320, and 3,489 were taken in the Netherlands East Indies.

Sept. 6: The formal surrender of 139,000 Japanese in Rabaul, New Ireland, Bougainville, New Guinea mainland and other islands was accepted by Lieut.- General V. A. H. Sturdee aboard the air craft carrier “Glory” in St. George’s Channel, 28 miles south-east of Rabaul to-day.

Sept. 7: Japanese in Shanghai to-day formally surrendered to the Chinese.

Sept. 10: Every day, the disclosures of tortures, starvation, murder and general brutality suffered bv prisoners at Jap hands become worse. The civilised world is horror-stricken. United States is accused of treating Japanese far too leniently.

Sept. 11; As Allies took steps to seek out and arrest leading Jap war crimi nals, General Tojo tried to commit sui cide with a revolver. He is seriously wounded, but vfcl. recover.

Sept. 12: Japanese armies in Malaya, Singapore and Netherlands Indies form ally surrendered to British and Dutch in Singapore to-day.

Sept. 14; Streams of liberated prisoners of war are now arriving in Manila, Borneo, Singapore and Rangoon. Thou sands are receiving urgent hospital treat ment.