PORTLAND, Ore. -- Eighty years ago, August 15, 1945, U.S. and Allied forces in the Pacific were fighting with Imperial Japanese forces on land, sea and air across the theater of operations. Colossal production, assembly, logistical, staging and deployment efforts were underway to bring the men and materiel from the U.S. and even faraway Europe into theater for the prospective invasion of Japan in Operation Downfall. The first landings were scheduled in Downfall’s planned Operation Olympic for November 1, 1945, on the beaches of the home island of Kyushu. Operation Coronet, the final landings to achieve a decisive victory, were to be on the beaches of the Kanto Plain on Honshu was to follow, tentatively, on March 1, 1946.
Invading Japan was a prospect many in uniform regarded with great dread. In the last year of the war in the Pacific, as the Allies pressed in against Japan, the battles grew more ferocious and costly. Airmen and air units with Oregon connections were part of the effort to secure victory in the Pacific, including prominent future leaders of the Oregon Air National Guard (ANG), from locations in the Pacific, Europe and the United States.
The Potsdam Declaration and Response
The Allies jointly issued the Potsdam Declaration on July 26, 1945 demanding “…unconditional surrender of all Japanese armed forces,” with additional surrender terms specified in detail. The militarists in the Japanese government bristled at these demands, and insisted on continuing the war, even after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the Soviet invasion of Japanese-held Manchuria. But as the Allies continued to exert military pressure on the Empire, men of reason in Japan saw otherwise.
On August 15, 1945, at 12:00 p.m. Japan Standard Time (August 14 in the U.S.), a voice recording by Imperial Japan’s Emperor Hirohito broadcast over radio throughout the country proclaimed an end to the war in the Pacific. Most of his subjects had never heard Emperor Hirohito’s voice before, as he announced his decision to terminate hostilities.
The Emperor Speaks
“After pondering deeply the general trends of the world and the actual conditions obtaining in Our Empire today, We have decided to effect a settlement of the present situation by resorting to an extraordinary measure.
“We have ordered Our Government to communicate to the Governments of the United States, Great Britain, China and the Soviet Union that Our Empire accepts the provisions of their Joint Declaration.
“To strive for the common prosperity and happiness of all nations as well as the security and well-being of Our subjects is the solemn obligation which has been handed down by Our Imperial Ancestors and which lies close to Our heart.
“Indeed, We declared war on America and Britain out of Our sincere desire to ensure Japan's self-preservation and the stabilization of East Asia, it being far from Our thought either to infringe upon the sovereignty of other nations or to embark upon territorial aggrandizement.
“But now the war has lasted for nearly four years. Despite the best that has been done by everyone—the gallant fighting of the military and naval forces, the diligence and assiduity of Our servants of the State, and the devoted service of Our one hundred million people—the war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan's advantage, while the general trends of the world have all turned against her interest.
“Moreover, the enemy has begun to employ a new and most cruel bomb, the power of which to do damage is, indeed, incalculable, taking the toll of many innocent lives. Should we continue to fight, not only would it result in an ultimate collapse and obliteration of the Japanese nation, but also it would lead to the total extinction of human civilization.
“Such being the case, how are We to save the millions of Our subjects, or to atone Ourselves before the hallowed spirits of Our Imperial Ancestors? This is the reason why We have ordered the acceptance of the provisions of the Joint Declaration of the Powers...
“The hardships and sufferings to which Our nation is to be subjected hereafter will be certainly great. We are keenly aware of the inmost feelings of all of you, Our subjects. However, it is according to the dictates of time and fate that We have resolved to pave the way for a grand peace for all the generations to come by enduring the unendurable and suffering what is unsufferable.”
Around the Pacific
Across the Pacific, indeed, around the world there was a collective sigh of relief at the end of the Second World War. Allied forces remained on guard against the possibility of Japanese zealots acting on their own to continue fighting the Allies. Indeed, such was the case when Japanese fighter plane attacked U.S. Okinawa-based Convair B-32 Dominator very heavy bombers conducting reconnaissance over Tokyo to monitor the ceasefire on August 16 and again the next day. In the clash on August 17, Sergeant Anthony J. Marchione, a photographer's assistant, became the last American to die in aerial combat in World War II in the clash with rogue fighters over Tokyo.
In south and southeastern China, the 35th Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron Redhawks, today’s Oregon’s 123rd Fighter Squadron at Portland ANG Base, 51 officers and 189 enlisted men and their Lockheed F-5E Photo Lightning aircraft, was scattered at airfields across China, with HQ and “H” Flight at Chanyi, “G” Flight at Nanning, “F” Flight at Lao Whang Ping, “E” Flight at Chihkiang and an advanced detachment at Luichow preparing for the HQ to relocate there from Chanyi. Each flight was composed of about 50 men and four F-5E aircraft, which expanded the reach of photo reconnaissance operations. A dozen or so of the original charter members of the 1941 123rd Observation Squadron (redesignated to the 35th PRS in 1943) were still assigned to the squadron in China. Most of the charter members of the squadron were reassigned to other air units and served worldwide during the great expansion of the U.S. Army Air Force in World War II.
But as the end of the war was anticipated in China, indeed, “G” Flight intelligence officer Lt. Arthur Clark wrote on August 11, the same day his detachment at Nanning learned of a big bomb dropped on Japan, the following: “News came last night that the war is over. We find it hard to believe. Rather it’s hard to realize. There was a veritable barrage here for hours. All types of rifles, pistols, Tommy guns, and machine guns were shooting all grades of ammunition for an hour or so. They were really being sprayed around. We drank a little FIC (French Indochina) rum. I don’t mix liquor and gunpowder, so I did no firing.” It was a bit premature, and some more diplomatic efforts, accompanied by additional B-29 and carrier air raids against Japan, finally obtained the sought-after response.
Across the East China Sea, at Machinato Airfield on Okinawa, was the 439th Bombardment Squadron (Light), Oregon’s 114th Fighter Squadron at Kingsley Field today. The 439th was assigned to the 319th Bomb Group (L) (aka Col. Joseph R. “Randy” Holzapple’s Flying Circus) in Seventh Air Force. The group was the first complete combat group to redeploy from Europe to the Pacific. It left the Mediterranean Theater of Operations in January, 1945, redeployed to the US where personnel took 30 days leave, transitioned into the new Douglas A-26 Invader attack bomber, and redeployed for combat in the Pacific.
The group flew its first combat mission from Okinawa on July 16, 1945 and flew a total of 22 against Japanese forces in China and Japan when the war ended, including an August 9 mission against Kanoya Airfield where group aircrew saw the atomic mushroom cloud over Nagasaki some 110 miles to the northwest. It experienced some aircraft battle damage and a wounded gunner, but likely would have incurred personnel and aircraft losses in an invasion effort.
Major Charles H. Wolf, a 439th Bomb Squadron A-26 pilot, penned this poem about his experience on Okinawa with a yearning for the end of the war with expression in the vernacular of the time:
“Ryukus the name of this blasted place, An island of reddish hell,
But it’s known by a more specific name, The which I can not tell.
It’s not that I don't know the name, Of this lush tropic isle,
But the censors say it’s not to be, So them I will not rile.
Now this lsland is set in the midst of violent tropic seas,
And is studded with hills, and rocks and rills, And stunted runty trees.
It rains half the time in this lousy clime, And the muddy waters rush,
Down the sides of the hills to level ground, Where it quickly turns to mush.
When it doesn't rain it’s hot as hell, And the dust flies thick and free,
Till it coats your hair, and lungs, and nose, And you lose your sense of smell.
What God thought when he made this place, I'll probably never know,
But for all I wait is the day they say, "My boy, you're free to go."
I know now why Japs fight so hard, I know damn well it’s from fear,
They're afraid if we win, we'll make them move, And transport all of them here.
Then they'll live on this isle, The name of which I can not tell to you,
And we'll make them write letters at night, From somewhere in Ryuku.”
(Poem via the 319th Bomb Group website, shared with permission of Maj. Wolf’s grandson, Mr. Blair Wolf)
Among members of the group granted a reprieve by Japan’s surrender were Donald K. “Deke” Slayton in a sister squadron, a future astronaut; and William B. Monroe, Jr., the Group's Public Relations Officer and Historian who became the executive producer and moderator of NBC's "Meet the Press" program, 1975-1984.
Aside from Oregon-connected air units, several future leaders of the Oregon ANG suddenly found themselves at peace in the Pacific and not in a state of war.
Lt. Col. G. Robert Dodson, the first commander of Oregon’s first military aviation unit, the 123rd Observation Squadron, the founding father of the Oregon ANG if you will, had recently completed a command tour of the 3rd Combat Cargo Group in the China-Burma-India (CBI) Theater, a Douglas C-47 Skytrain unit transporting troops (including wounded), cargo, consumables like gas and equipment. During his command, the group moved from Dinjan, India into Myitkyina, Burma in June, 1945. He previously commanded the 1st Liaison Group under Tenth Air Force in Burma, where he flew 413 combat hours in light liaison-type aircraft like those the 123rd Squadron operated earlier in the war.
Experienced in fighting Imperial Japan, he probably was glad not to have to return to war, and would conceivably been involved in air transport operations enabling or conducting the invasion of Kyushu and/or Honshu. After the war, he was released from active duty in November, 1945 and returned to the Oregon National Guard. He commanded the 142nd Fighter Group from activation in 1946 until the Korean War activation in 1951. After the group returned from active duty, he became the first commander of the Oregon Air National Guard until his sudden illness and death in late 1958.
Capt. Waldo E. Timm was a Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber Aircraft Commander in Twentieth Air Force. He was based at North Field on Guam in the Mariana Islands in the 52nd Bombardment Squadron (Very Heavy) of the 29th Bomb Group (VH). He named his aircraft, a B-29-65-BW Superfortress, serial number 44-69869, “City of Portland” with the group tail code “Square O” and aircraft "victor" number 48 on the fuselage. He completed 35 combat missions by the end of the war.
Although never seriously damaged, “City of Portland” was holed 12 times, and the propellers were damaged on three occasions. With the war’s end Capt. Timm averted any further holing of his aircraft, his crew and his person. After the war he joined the Oregon ANG and became the Commander of Oregon’s 142nd Fighter Group from 1957 to 1962. He also commanded the Oregon ANG
Of note, assigned to the same bomb squadron as Waldo Timm was a fellow Oregonian, George A. Simeral, aircraft commander of the “City of Los Angeles.” On this ship, during a mission to Koriyama, Japan on April 12, 1945 his crewman, radio operator Henry E. “Red” Erwin, deployed a white phosphorous flare as a signal to other aircraft, but the fuze malfunctioned and the flare ignited inside the aircraft, filling the crew compartment with smoke.
Completely blinded by the 1500-degrees Fahrenheit heat, he struggled to keep hold of it and carried it forward and tossed it out of a cockpit window. Erwin was grievously burned in the process – back in Guam he was expected to die of his wounds. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for saving his crew and aircraft and ultimately survived. After 30 months in hospital and 41 surgeries, he regained his eyesight and use of one arm. He lived to reach 80 years of age before he passed away in 2002.
Elsewhere in the broad expanse of the Pacific theater, Capt. Patrick E. O’Grady was busy in the Air Transport Command’s India-China Division (ICD). In early 1945 he deployed overseas when he ferried a Curtiss C-46 Commando twin-engine transport to India, and was then assigned to the 1345th Army Air Force Base Unit at Tezgaon Airfield in eastern India (Bangladesh Air Force Base Bashar, Bangladesh today).
From India he flew the four-engine Douglas C-54 Skymaster transport aircraft in the China-Burma-India theater, including 754 combat hours in 79 round trips over the "Hump," the Himalayan mountains in between India and China. In July, 1945, the last full month of ICD operations, 662 aircraft airlifted 71,042 tons to China. Even with the early 1945 completion of the “Stillwell Road” to resupply China by road from India, air transport still delivered the bulk of cargo and personnel to China.
Although O’Grady had completed the 750 flight hours required for rotation back to the U.S., it’s unclear if he was required to remain in-theater for the 12 month tour of duty, a requirement established in March, 1945 by Brig. Gen. William H. Tunner, who also achieved notoriety in the Berlin Airlift. O’Grady could possibly have been diverted to other tasks in the Pacific War in closer proximity to Japanese forces.
After the war Patrick O’Grady served in the Air Force Reserve, and then the Oregon ANG in which he commanded the 123rd Fighter-Interceptor Squadron 1959-1962, then the 142nd Fighter Group from 1962 to 1971, deputy commander of the Oregon ANG 1972-1977 and commander of the Oregon ANG 1977-1978.
In Europe
On the other side of the world, the personnel in Oregon-connected units also welcomed the end of World War II.
The 371st Fighter Group, these days designated Oregon’s 142nd Wing, was about to make a move with its Republic P-47D Thunderbolts and personnel from Fürth-Industriehafen Airfield (Advanced Landing Ground R-30) by Nürnberg (Nuremberg), Germany to Hörsching (Hoersching) Airfield (ALG R-87), near Linz, Austria in the postwar occupation of the former Third Reich. Hörsching was the group’s best base in all its European Theater of Operations experience of the war.
But many group veterans didn’t have the chance to enjoy it as those with a sufficiently high number of points in the Adjusted Service Rating (ASR) Score system were ordered back to the States. Many were replaced by men with a lower number of points from other units being drawn down in Europe after the end of the war there.
Hörsching was also an airfield last used by the first group of the Luftwaffe’s Jagdgeschwader 52 (I./JG 52) and its ace of aces commander, Hauptmann Erich A. Hartmann before he and the men of his group surrendered to the US 90th Infantry Division. They were subsequently handed over to the Soviet Union in accordance with the Yalta agreement which stipulated German forces who had fought against the Soviets were to surrender to them. Hartmann is generally credited with 352 aerial victories against seven USAAF P-51s and 345 Soviet aircraft during the war.
Although some personnel were to be demobilized and discharged, others remained in Europe, where the 371st Fighter Group’s future was uncertain before Japan surrendered, and rumors speculated that the unit would be sent to China via the United States. The group may have transitioned to the longer-range P-47N variant of the Thunderbolt. But Japan’s surrender obviated all that; the group closed the old HQ at Fürth on August 16, completed the move to Austria, and celebrated Japan’s surrender with a holiday for all personnel the next day.
With the end of the war, the group and its three fighter squadrons returned to the U.S. in November, 1945 and inactivated. The following spring, in May, 1946 the 371st Fighter Group was redesignated into National Guard 100-series unit numbers as the 142nd Fighter Group and allotted to Oregon. The group’s 404th Fighter Squadron was redesignated as the 186th Fighter Squadron and allotted to Montana; the group’s 405th Fighter Squadron was redesignated as the 190th Fighter Squadron and allotted to Idaho. All these new National Guard units inherited the lineage and honors of their World War II predecessors.
And in the States
There were other future leaders of the Oregon ANG in Europe whose fate might have been different if the Pacific War hadn’t ended when it did.
Capt. Gordon L. Doolittle flew the Lockheed P-38 Lightning and then the North American P-51 Mustang in the 435th Fighter Squadron of the 479th Fighter Group in the ETO where he completed 70 combat missions and achieved three aerial victories. After completing his combat tour in March, 1945, he was reassigned to Portland Army Air Base (PAAB), where P-38 Lightning transition training was conducted for new pilots assigned to fighters. See “Pacific Northwest Lightning: Portland's P-38 Lightning Flying Training Program of 1944 – 1945,” here.
The end of the war in the Pacific meant Capt. Doolittle didn’t need to train pilots for combat, nor operate PAAB supporting a war effort or to go to combat again himself. He joined the Oregon ANG after the war, commanded the 123rd Fighter Squadron from 1947 to 1952, the 142nd Fighter Group in 1953 and filled in a few months in 1958 for G. Robert Dodson when he was ill. Doolittle later commanded the Oregon ANG from 1962 to 1977.
While Capt. Doolittle was in no immediate danger of being sent to the war in the Pacific, such was not the case with another future Oregon ANG leader, 1st Lt. Staryl C. Austin, Jr. He was home on 30-days leave from the 410th Fighter Squadron of the 373rd Fighter Group, a Republic P-47D Thunderbolt fighter unit in Ninth Air Force which fought in the ETO. Lt. Austin flew 58 combat missions in the ETO and like other airmen in other combat groups in Europe expected to redeploy with his group to the Pacific to help finish the war.
In fact, the 373rd had already returned from Europe to the US and was at Sioux Falls Army Air Field in South Dakota when the war ended. His group might have transitioned to the longer-range N-model variant of the P-47 enroute to the Pacific for combat had the war continued. Austin joined the Oklahoma ANG after the war, and after the Korean War activation returned to Oregon. He commanded the 142nd Fighter Group from 1953 to 1956 and later served as the Assistant/Deputy Adjutant General of Oregon from 1963 to 1978; he then commanded the Oregon ANG from 1978 to 1980.
President Truman Responds
President Truman held a news conference on the evening of August 14 to announce receipt of an important message from the Government of Imperial Japan, received through the Swiss Government. He said: “I have received this afternoon a message from the Japanese Government – in reply to the message forwarded to that Government by Secretary of State on August 11. I deem this reply a full acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration which specified the unconditional surrender of Japan. In the reply there is no qualification.
“Arrangements are now being made for the signing of the surrender terms at the earliest possible moment.
“General Douglas MacArthur has been appointed the Supreme Allied Commander to receive the Japanese surrender. Great Britain, Russia, and China will be represented by high-ranking officers.
“Meantime, the Allied Armed Forces have been ordered to suspend offensive action.
“Proclamation of V-J Day must wait upon the formal signing of the surrender terms by Japan…”
The prospective end of the war in the Pacific rendered an invasion of the Home Islands of the Imperial Japanese Empire unnecessary. This sudden end to the war thus spared the lives of many American military personnel, Allied prisoners of war, Japanese military personnel and civilians, and many combatants and civilians in the portions of Asia occupied by Imperial Japan. It was an outcome in the best interest of all.
The combat and operational experience of American military personnel in the units was vital to the postwar establishment of the air component of the National Guard. This air component was built up significantly from prewar levels, as a lesson for readiness to have a robust and capable reserve force to meet future challenges. Oregon’s citizen Airmen have done just that since, for community, state and nation, always ready to answer the call of duty.
On this day, we remember with gratitude August 15, 1945 when the fighting in the Pacific War ended. For the United States, Victory over Japan would be proclaimed with the formal surrender of Imperial Japan on the deck of the US Navy battleship USS Missouri (BB-63) in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945.
Special thanks to Mr. Blair Wolf, webmaster of the 319th Bomb Group; Mr. Allan Pawlikowski, former Secretary of the 29th Bomb Group Association; and Mr. Mark Martin of the B-29 Museum in Pratt, Kansas for their assistance in producing this article and images.