Hither and yon, happy days are here again! Our U.S. 8th Army was on the island of Mindanao in the southern Philippines in the waning years of World War II. To the best of my memory, August 15, 1945, when Japan surrendered, has to be one of the happiest days of my life. I was 25 years old. Staging for the invasion of Japan came to a stunning halt. D-Day Japan was scheduled for October 1, 1945, and would involve 300,000 U.S. and Allied troops. (Note: D-Day Normandy on June 6, 1944, involved 156,000 troops.) Nisei linguists became go-betweens. In two days stockades were set up by combat engineers; the boundaries were two sets of barbed wire. If a prisoner wanted to escape it would have been easy, but where would he go? Every GI gave up a set of khakis and a blanket and we went on short rations—that happens when there are 13,000 extra mouths to feed and bodies to clothe. Among them were about a thousand Japanese army civilian employees and their families of young kids and babies. “War is over” leaflets were dropped by low-flying B-25 bombers; the Philippine Scouts knew exactly where every large Japanese camp was located. It seems that it was easy for the enemy to surrender. They had no air force or navy, no mail in months and months, were low on food, medical supplies, and ammo. We found out that the city-bred soldiers were quick to accept defeat. The country-bred soldiers, with zero contact with any Americans, were more gung-ho and prone to resist but they quickly changed their attitude and realized how lucky they were to surrender to American forces in the Philippines. There was mutual respect from both sides.

There were mixed emotions for several older Japanese businessmen. They had met and married younger Filipino women; now had children. They had heard rumors of a devastated Japan—no economy, cities and villages in ruins. They had nothing to return to, and if they did return, knew they would be just another mouth to feed. Some businessmen appealed to American officials as they desired to remain in the Philippines. Their wishes were granted. Then there was another problem: More than 60,000 Japanese soldiers were still on bypassed islands in the Southwest Pacific. They had to be rounded up and returned to Japan. Lo and behold, mission accomplished.

—George Shimizu, 2140 Sepulveda Ave., Milpitas, CA 95035; (408) 930-2488; marymariko@comcast.net