Japanese Surrender, Waiting 2

Japanese Surrender, Waiting 2

Military uniforms

"Excited US Soldiers awaiting the arrival of the 2 Japanese 'Betty Bombers,' bringing the Jap envoy members to be transferred to a US C-54 for the long flight to Manila" From "Darkroom Soldier": "Surrender Bombers. The afternoon of August 19, all soldiers had been ordered to stay away from Birch Airstrip, the main white coral airstrip on Ie Shima, but as one of Hill's comrades wrote, 'This was too big a thing to miss, and from one end to the other were thousands of Dogfaces lined along the edges of the runway.' They were all waiting for the Japanese Surrender Delegation to land en route to Manila. Harumi Takeuchi, a Japanese translator aboard one of the planes, recalled 'As our plane approached the runway, we saw what seemed to be thousands of American soldiers forming a solid ring around the field. It was obvious that this was not security, but mere curiosity. But so many!" ("Darkroom Soldier" caption authored by George Venn)

Hill, Fred

8/19/1945

(c)Eastern Oregon University. This image is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution - Noncommercial - No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/). Acknowledgement of Eastern Oregon University as a source is required. For print quality images, prints, or high resolution tiff files, or commercial uses please contact the Library Director at Eastern Oregon University.

2010.1.780