Harold Skinner: The stirring days of August 1945
August 14, 1945: A day that should rank with July 4, Nov. 11, May 8, and a host of other epic-rich dates that color America’s 244 years of independence, yet people seem to memorialize dates like June 6, 1944, and Dec. 7, 1941 as more significant in World War II, especially since history records the official end of those hostilities as Sept. 2, 1945, forever viewed through the prism of Gen. Douglas MacArthur signing peace formalities on the deck of the battleship USS Missouri.
We need only consult the records of WWII veterans regarding recollections of the first news of the end of that war to discover where they were on Aug.14, 1945, and their reaction to that news. I am among those with such memories – as vivid as if they happened only a few years ago.
It is helpful to call up the unforgettable weeks preceding the eventful days of August. As a member of a little-known branch of the Navy – the Armed Guard – I had spent months of active sea duty on cargo ships and a tanker in the Pacific theater, a service fraught with danger and tension as we moved from island to island with holds filled with tons of explosives, weapons, food and medical supplies. The deck crews and engine-room personnel were merchant marine civilians, but the 28 Navy men were mainly gunners, a signalman and possibly two radiomen. Every man on board knew that in the event we encountered Japanese suicide planes or submarines our chances of survival would be slim.
On July 12 our Liberty ship S.S. Francisco Coronado left Okinawa, making our way past the Philippines in waters where lurked enemy submarines. In that area on July 30 the cruiser USS Indianapolis would be torpedoed with a heavy loss of life. We sailed 26 days to San Francisco and coasted under the Golden Gate Bridge where dozens of people were waving and shouting a welcome from above. We could never have imagined that we were in home port on the eve of one of the most historic moments of our lifetime. Moving into the bay, we dropped anchor between Alcatraz Island and the shoreline on Aug. 7. Not until Aug.10, however, did our ship berth at Pier 18, when we could go ashore for a few hours. The next day I was in charge of 25 gunners as we transferred to our West Coast operations center on Treasure Island.
A devastating bomb had recently been dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, and at the Armed Guard Center on Aug. 12 everybody was in a state of restrained excitement, hanging on to the expectation of earth-shaking developments in war news. A short time earlier the rumor was spreading that Japan had surrendered; two minutes later the announcement was canceled. What a disappointment! Then came the electrifying report of the second bomb and the beginning of negotiations for peace.
Aug. 14 at last arrived. At first I could hardly believe it, and I was never truly convinced until President Harry Truman spoke to the nation. Oh, it was wonderful! So many had dreamed of this day but assumed it was a long way in the future. Immediately all personnel on the base were assembled in a large hall and addressed by a captain. He made a moving and heartfelt speech, saying we would soon be released to get on with our lives. At first we were stunned as the reality struck us. Then the crowd erupted in shouts and screams, bursting into tears as they embraced one another. What a relief as the pent-up burden of tension and anxiety was suddenly released. We would all live to plan a future. And the end had come so quickly.
That was Aug. 14 in one sailor’s remembrance. Even though there was much more to come in the celebrations and excitement of those days of August, for those of us in that hall there never was any doubt, when Sept. 2 came along, that it was only a faint last-minute echo of the closing curtain of World War II.