Post by TheCameraReturns on May 4, 2008 16:19:11 GMT 8
I recently came across this gem of a photo with the following caption, "General of the Army Douglas MacArthur watches from a balcony above a crowd of soldier spectators as the sixteen-man Japanese delegation arrives at City Hall, Manila to make surrender arrangements." Photo dated August 20, 1945.
It's one of the lesser known episodes that the arrangements leading to the formal surrender of Japan on board the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay were concluded in the Manila City Hall. After Japan had made its intentions of surrendering unconditionally known, General MacArthur had ordered that the Japanese Government send representatives to his headquarters in Manila. This was accomplished by flying these representatives in specially marked planes to Le Shima, an island off Okinawa already occupied by the Americans, and from where they were flown by American aircraft to the Philippines on August 19, 1945.
According to articles written of this occassion, the Japanese representatives landed on Nichols Field at 6pm, had dinner at their billets at the Rosario Manor, and did not get to City Hall until it was 9pm, where they worked all night until the following day, when they left Manila at 1pm. Incidentally, General MacArthur did not at anytime see them, all negotiations being handled by his Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Sutherland. Since this photograph was taken on the 20th, it was likely that some of the Japanese representatives were returning to the negotiations from their billets at the Rosario Manor. Notice some of the men with cameras? It would have been fascinating to see the photographs they took.
It's one of the lesser known episodes that the arrangements leading to the formal surrender of Japan on board the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay were concluded in the Manila City Hall. After Japan had made its intentions of surrendering unconditionally known, General MacArthur had ordered that the Japanese Government send representatives to his headquarters in Manila. This was accomplished by flying these representatives in specially marked planes to Le Shima, an island off Okinawa already occupied by the Americans, and from where they were flown by American aircraft to the Philippines on August 19, 1945.
According to articles written of this occassion, the Japanese representatives landed on Nichols Field at 6pm, had dinner at their billets at the Rosario Manor, and did not get to City Hall until it was 9pm, where they worked all night until the following day, when they left Manila at 1pm. Incidentally, General MacArthur did not at anytime see them, all negotiations being handled by his Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Sutherland. Since this photograph was taken on the 20th, it was likely that some of the Japanese representatives were returning to the negotiations from their billets at the Rosario Manor. Notice some of the men with cameras? It would have been fascinating to see the photographs they took.
Signal Corps Photo SC 210517 Gen MacArthur watches as Japanese envoys arrive in Manila
Manila City Hall 2005. Almost 60 years later. The Old Soldier has long faded away, but this is the same corner. And life goes on as usual.