September 2 in the Russian Federation is celebrated as the "Day of the end of the Second World War (1945)". This memorable date was established in accordance with the Federal Law "On Amendments to Article 1 (1) of the Federal Law" On Days of Military Glory and Memorable Dates of Russia ", signed by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on July 23, 2010. The Day of Military Glory was established in memory of compatriots who showed selflessness, heroism, devotion to their Motherland and allied duty to the countries - members of the anti-Hitler coalition in the implementation of the decision of the 1945 Crimean (Yalta) Conference on Japan. September 2 is a kind of second Victory Day for Russia, victory in the East.
This holiday cannot be called new - on September 3, 1945, the day after the surrender of the Japanese Empire, the Day of Victory over Japan was established by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. However, for a long time in the official calendar of significant dates, this holiday was practically ignored.
The international legal basis for establishing the Day of Military Glory is the Act of Surrender of the Empire of Japan, which was signed on September 2, 1945 at 9:02 am Tokyo time on board the US battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay. On behalf of Japan, the document was signed by Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu and Chief of the General Staff Yoshijiro Umezu. The representatives of the Allied Powers were the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers Douglas MacArthur, American Admiral Chester Nimitz, Commander of the British Pacific Fleet Bruce Fraser, Soviet General Kuzma Nikolayevich Derevyanko, Kuomintang General Su Yun-chan, French General Blrallisky Leclerc, T. Australian K. Halfrich, New Zealand Air Vice Marshal L. Isit and Canadian Colonel N. Moore-Cosgrave. This document put an end to the Second World War, which, according to Western and Soviet historiography, began on September 1, 1939 with the attack of the Third Reich on Poland (Chinese researchers believe that World War II began with the Japanese army attack on China on July 7, 1937).
The most significant war in the history of mankind lasted six years and covered the territories of 40 countries of Eurasia and Africa, as well as all four oceanic theaters of military operations (Arctic, Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans). 61 states were drawn into the world conflict, and the total number of human resources plunged into the war was over 1.7 billion people. The main front of the war ran in Eastern Europe, where the armed forces of Germany and its allies fought against the Red Army of the USSR. After the defeat of the Third Reich and its satellites, on May 8, 1945, the final Act of the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany and its armed forces was signed in the German capital, and May 9 was declared Victory Day in the Soviet Union, the Great Patriotic War ended. Moscow, wishing to secure its eastern borders and meeting the allies halfway, at the Yalta (February 1945) and Potsdam conferences (July - August 1945), the leaders of the three allied great powers assumed the obligation to enter the war with Japan after two or three months after the end of the war with the German Empire.
Background of the signing of the Act of Unconditional Surrender of Japan in 1945
On August 8, 1945, the Soviet Union declared war on the Japanese Empire. On August 9, Soviet troops launched an offensive. In the course of several operations: the Manchurian strategic, the South Sakhalin offensive and the Kuril landing operations, the grouping of the Soviet Armed Forces in the Far East defeated the main grouping of the ground forces of the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces during the Second World War - the Kwantung Army. Soviet soldiers liberated areas of northeastern China (Manchuria), the Korean Peninsula, the Kuril Islands and southern Sakhalin.
After the USSR entered the war in the Far East, many Japanese statesmen realized that the military-political and strategic situation had radically changed and it was pointless to continue the struggle. On the morning of August 9, an emergency meeting of the Supreme Council for the Leadership of the War was held. Opening it, the head of government, Kantaro Suzuki, said that he had come to the conclusion that the only possible alternative for the country was to accept the terms of the Allied powers and end hostilities. Supporters of the continuation of the war were Minister of War Anami, Chief of the General Staff of the Army Umezu and Chief of the Naval General Staff Toyoda. They believed that the adoption of the Potsdam Declaration (a joint declaration on behalf of the governments of England, the United States and China, in which the demand for the unconditional surrender of the Japanese Empire was voiced) was possible only if four obligations were fulfilled: preserving the imperial state system, granting the Japanese the right to independent disarmament and preventing the occupation of the country. allies, and if the occupation is inevitable, then it should be short-lived, carried out by insignificant forces and not affect the capital, the punishment of war criminals by the Japanese authorities themselves. The Japanese elite wanted to get out of the war with the least political and moral damage, to preserve the potential for a future battle for a place in the sun. For Japan's leaders, the loss of life was a secondary factor. They knew very well that a well-trained and still very powerful armed force, a highly motivated population would fight to the end. In the opinion of the military leadership, the armed forces could inflict enormous damage on the enemy during an amphibious operation against the mother country. Japan was not yet in a state where it was necessary to surrender unconditionally. As a result, the opinions of the participants in the emergency meeting were divided, and no final decision was made.
At 14:00 on August 9, an emergency meeting of the government began. It was attended by 15 people, of whom 10 were civilians, so the balance of power was not in favor of the military. The head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Togo read out the text of the Potsdam Declaration and proposed to approve it. Only one condition was stipulated: the preservation of the power of the emperor in Japan. The Minister of War opposed this decision. Anami again stated that if the powers that signed the Potsdam Declaration did not accept all of Tokyo's conditions, the Japanese would continue to fight. When voting: the Minister of the Navy, the Ministers of Justice, Armaments and Communications, Agriculture, Education and a minister without portfolio supported the idea of surrender, five ministers abstained. As a result, the seven-hour meeting did not reveal a unanimous decision.
At the request of the head of government, the Japanese emperor convened the Supreme Council for the leadership of the war. On it, Emperor Hirohito listened to all points of view and said that Japan had no chance of success, and ordered the adoption of the draft by the head of Togo's foreign ministry. On August 10, the Japanese government announced through the neutral states Switzerland and Sweden that it was ready to accept the terms of the Potsdam Declaration, provided that the Allied powers "agree not to include in it a clause on depriving the emperor of sovereign rights." On August 11, a response was given from the governments of the USSR, the USA, Great Britain and China, the Allied powers confirmed the demand for unconditional surrender. In addition, the allies drew Tokyo's attention to the provision of the Potsdam Declaration, which stipulated that from the moment of surrender, the power of the Japanese emperor and the government in relation to state administration would be subordinate to the supreme commander of the forces of the allied powers and he would take whatever steps he deemed necessary to implement the conditions of surrender. The Japanese emperor was asked to secure the surrender. After the surrender and disarmament of the army, the Japanese people had to choose the form of government.
The allied powers' response caused controversy and disagreement in the Japanese leadership. The Minister of War, even on his own initiative, appealed to officers and soldiers, urging them to continue the holy war, to fight to the last drop of blood. The commander-in-chief of the Southern Army Group in the region of Southeast Asia, Field Marshal Hisaichi Terauchi and the commander of the expeditionary forces in China, Okamura Yasutsugu, sent telegrams to the head of the defense department and the chief of staff, where they expressed disagreement with the decision on the need for surrender. They believed that all the possibilities for struggle had not yet been exhausted. Many military men preferred to “die with honor in battle”. On August 13, the military-political leadership of Japan was expecting news from the fronts.
On the morning of August 14, Japanese Emperor Hirohito brought together the members of the Supreme War Leadership Council and the Cabinet of Ministers. The military again suggested continuing the struggle, or insisting on reservations in the face of surrender. However, most of the members of the meeting were in favor of complete surrender, which the emperor approved. On behalf of the monarch, a statement was drawn up for the adoption of the Potsdam Declaration. On the same day, through Switzerland, the United States was informed about the publication of the emperor's rescript accepting the terms of the Potsdam Declaration. Thereafter, Tokyo conveyed several wishes to the Allied Powers:
- to notify the Japanese government in advance about the introduction of the allied armies and fleets, so that the Japanese side would conduct appropriate training;
- to reduce to a minimum the number of places where the occupation troops will be based, to exclude the capital from these areas;
- to reduce the number of occupying forces; carry out disarmament in stages and give control over it to the Japanese themselves, leave the military with edged weapons;
- not to use prisoners of war for forced labor;
- to provide units that were located in remote areas, additional time for the cessation of hostilities.
On the night of August 15, the "young tigers" (a group of fanatic commanders from the Department of the War Ministry and the capital's military institutions, headed by Major K. Khatanaka) decided to disrupt the adoption of the declaration and continue the war. They planned to eliminate the "supporters of peace", to remove the text with the recording of Hirohito's speech on the acceptance of the terms of the Potsdam Declaration and the end of the war by the Japanese Empire before it was broadcast on the air, and after that to persuade the armed forces to continue the struggle. The commander of the 1st Guards Division, which was guarding the imperial palace, refused to take part in the mutiny and was killed. Giving orders on his behalf, the "young tigers" entered the palace, attacked the residences of the head of the Suzuki government, Lord Keeper of the Seal K. Kido, Chairman of the Privy Council K. Hiranuma and the Tokyo radio station. However, they could not find the tapes and find the leaders of the "party of peace". The troops of the capital's garrison did not support their actions, and even many members of the organization of “young tigers, not wanting to go against the decision of the emperor and not believing in the success of the cause, did not join the putschists. As a result, the mutiny failed in the very first hours. The instigators of the conspiracy were not tried, they were allowed to commit ritual suicide by ripping open the abdomen.
On August 15, an appeal from the Japanese emperor was broadcast on the radio. Given the high level of self-discipline among Japanese statesmen and military leaders, a wave of suicides took place in the empire. On August 11, Hideki Tojo, a former prime minister and minister of the army, a staunch supporter of the alliance with Germany and Italy, tried to commit suicide with a shot from a revolver (he was executed on December 23, 1948 as a war criminal). On the morning of August 15, the Minister of the Army Koretika Anami performed hara-kiri "the most magnificent example of the ideal of a samurai", in a suicide note he asked the emperor for forgiveness for the mistakes he had made. The 1st Deputy Chief of the Naval General Staff (previously commander of the 1st Air Fleet), the "father of the kamikaze" Takijiro Onishi, Field Marshal of the Imperial Japanese Army Hajime Sugiyama, as well as other ministers, generals and officers, committed suicide.
Kantaro Suzuki's cabinet resigned. Many military and political leaders began to lean towards the idea of a unilateral occupation of Japan by US troops in order to keep the country from the threat of the communist threat and to preserve the imperial system. On August 15, hostilities between the Japanese armed forces and the Anglo-American forces ceased. However, Japanese troops continued to offer fierce resistance to the Soviet army. Units of the Kwantung Army were not given the ceasefire order, therefore, the Soviet troops were also not given instructions to stop the offensive. Only on August 19 did the commander-in-chief of the Soviet troops in the Far East, Marshal Alexander Vasilevsky, meet with the chief of staff of the Kwantung Army Hiposaburo Khata, where an agreement was reached on the procedure for the surrender of the Japanese troops. Japanese units began to surrender their weapons, this process dragged on until the end of the month. The Yuzhno-Sakhalin and Kuril landing operations continued until August 25 and September 1, respectively.
On August 14, 1945, the Americans developed a draft "General Order No. 1 (for the Army and Navy)" on accepting the surrender of the Japanese troops. This project was approved by the American President Harry Truman and on August 15 it was reported to the allied countries. The project indicated the zones in which each of the allied powers was to accept the surrender of the Japanese units. On August 16, Moscow announced that it generally agreed with the project, but proposed an amendment to include all the Kuril Islands and the northern half of Hokkaido in the Soviet zone. Washington has not raised any objection to the Kuril Islands. But with regard to Hokkaido, the American president noted that the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in the Pacific, General Douglas MacArthur, surrendered the Japanese armed forces on all the islands of the Japanese archipelago. It was clarified that MacArthur will use symbolic military forces, including Soviet units.
From the very beginning, the American government was not going to let the USSR into Japan and rejected allied control in post-war Japan, which was provided for by the Potsdam Declaration. On August 18, the United States put forward a demand to allocate one of the Kuril Islands for the American Air Force base. Moscow rejected this impudent harassment, stating that the Kuril Islands, according to the Crimean agreement, are the possession of the USSR. The Soviet government announced that it was ready to allocate an airfield for the landing of American commercial aircraft, subject to the allocation of a similar airfield for Soviet aircraft in the Aleutian Islands.
On August 19, a Japanese delegation headed by the Deputy Chief of the General Staff, General T. Kawabe, arrived in Manila (Philippines). The Americans notified the Japanese that their forces were to liberate the Atsugi airfield on August 24, the Tokyo Bay and Sagami Bay areas by August 25, and the Kanon base and the southern part of Kyushu island by the middle of the day on August 30. Representatives of the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces asked to postpone the landing of the occupying forces for 10 days in order to increase precautions and avoid unnecessary incidents. The request of the Japanese side was granted, but for a shorter period. The landing of the advanced occupation formations was scheduled for 26 August, and the main forces for 28 August.
On August 20, the Japanese were presented with the Act of Surrender in Manila. The document provided for the unconditional surrender of the Japanese armed forces, regardless of their location. Japanese troops were to immediately stop hostilities, release prisoners of war and interneed civilians, ensure their maintenance, protection and delivery to the indicated places. On September 2, the Japanese delegation signed the Act of Surrender. The ceremony itself was structured to show the central role of the United States in the victory over Japan. The procedure for the surrender of Japanese troops in various parts of the Asia-Pacific region dragged on for several months.
Representative of the USSR K. N. Derevianko puts his signature under the act of surrender.
