Soldiers march through Wailuku after the official surrender of the Japanese, ending World War II, in September 1945. — Maui Historical Society photo courtesy of We Grew Up On Maui Facebook page
Cheers, celebrations, parades and tears broke out across the Valley Isle in relief and joy when the war with Japan, which began with the attack on Pearl Harbor, officially came to an end on Victory Over Japan Day on Sept. 2, 1945.
And now with the 75h anniversary of V-J Day approaching Wednesday, national pride still runs deep with old-timers remembering how the United States and the Allies stood their ground against the Japanese during World War II.
“I remember reading in the Maui newspaper that the war was over and them having a celebration,” Wailuku resident Shizue Suzuki, 89, recalled on Thursday afternoon. “For the ones who served and are serving, I thank you for protecting our country.”
“War Ended 7 p.m.” headlined The Maui News on Aug. 15, 1945, in big bold print after the Japanese announced its unofficial surrender six days after the U.S. atomic bombing of Nagasaki. Maui County was to hold a victory parade on the official V-J Day that President. Harry S. Truman would soon proclaim, according to the article.
In the same issue, Hawaii’s then- territorial governor, Ingram M. Stainback, announced that the Instrument of Surrender that was signed aboard the USS Missouri on Sept. 2 will “constitute the final step in achievement of victory over all enemies of our country and is the occasion of great rejoicing.”
This is The Maui News front page published on Aug. 15, 1945, when the Japanese announced its surrender to the Allies. On Sept. 2, 1945, representatives of the Allied forces and the Japanese government signed the documents of surrender on the deck of the USS Missouri, which is currently docked at Pearl Harbor. — The Maui News / DAKOTA GROSSMAN photo
Suzuki, who was a freshman at Lahainaluna High School during this time, said she doesn’t remember much from V-J Day, especially because West Maui was much more isolated from the rest of the island in the 1940s.
“I’m sure there were a lot of celebrations on Wailuku-side,” she said.
And celebrate they did — for a week straight following the end of WWII. Crowds gathered for a parade that proceeded from the Maui County Library on High Street, down Main Street and over to Wells Street, and ended at the Wailuku ballpark, according to The Maui News on Sep. 5, 1945. The ceremony featured around 70 bronze and silver star-studded veterans and other U.S. soldiers of former wars.
Michael Castle Baldwin, 85, was only around 11 years old at the time of Japan’s surrender, but said he can still remember returning home from school and feeling “an overriding sense of relief” with the end of the world war.
While communities let out sighs of relief, many families still were mourning the losses of loved ones, friends and soldiers from the community.
Japanese surrender signatories arrive on board the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on Sept. 2, 1945 to participate in surrender ceremonies. — AP file photo
Suzuki’s memories of the beginning of the war between the United States and imperial Japan were more vivid. The surprise attack on Dec. 7, 1941, left 2,403 Americans dead and 1,178 wounded, 21 American naval vessels damaged or sunk and 347 aircraft damaged or destroyed.
“One thing I can never forget is Dec. 7, 1941,” she said. “I was super young, my family and I were notified that the war had started, and I can describe exactly where I was and what I was thinking . . . . I was taking my sister to school, she was only in kindergarten, from our home in Puamana.”
Although the attack occurred on Oahu, fear still seemed close to home. At school, children had protocols in place in the event the fighting made its way to the Valley Isle. There were gas masks on hand and trenches with tall plants outside classrooms and close to homes to hide in.
“Whenever the state siren would go off, we would all go there,” said Suzuki, who also recalled having a bag under her bed filled with belongings just in case her family needed to evacuate. “That scared us because we were so young. . . . For the most part, life went on as usual.”
To protect the Maui community, a naval air station was commissioned at Puunene in January 1942 and at Kahului in March 1943. There was also a military presence in Haiku and Lahaina.
Gen. Douglas MacArthur signs the Japanese surrender documents on Sept. 2, 1945, aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. — U.S. Navy file photo
After nearly four years of war, the U.S. military decided to drop two atomic bombs over the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 on Aug. 6 and 9, respectively. The devastating new weapon killed more than 120,000 Japanese citizens. A week later, the war came to an end.
In an article published in The Maui News a few days after the Nagasaki attack, an assistant county engineer, A.H. Wong, predicted that most of Wailuku would have been “wiped out by the atomic force” of a nuclear bomb dropped at the intersection of Main and Market streets. The damage would have spread across 4.1 square miles.
During the war, airplanes flew over Baldwin’s childhood home in Spreckelsville, tanks drove on the roads, and sentries patrolled the shoreline. By 1944, the “barbed wire, machine guns, pillboxes and beach sentries were gone,” he said Tuesday, but there was still a strong military presence on Maui.
“I do recall an overriding sense of relief that there would not be an invasion with the consequences of Singapore, Manila and other occupations,” he said via email. “I don’t remember celebrations on Maui specifically, but we knew it was wonderful to know the war was over.”
Lahaina resident Bob Kawaguchi, 90, was attending Lahainaluna High during the attacks on Pearl Harbor before graduating in 1948. Kawaguchi, a longtime athletic director and coach for the Lunas, said Wednesday that he didn’t recall a parade specifically for V-J Day but read about it in the newspapers like most families did.
General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Allied Commander, and General Wainwright, who surrendered to the Japanese after Bataan and Corregidor, witness the formal Japanese surrender signatures aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. — AP file photo
His son, Craig Kawaguchi, told The Maui News that his father didn’t talk much about the war but has mentioned stories of a naval fleet in Lahaina Roads and how the days were “very different.”
“It was pretty impressive, like during the war, how the military would come through,” Kawaguchi said. “It looked like there were ships coming across all the way from Lanai.”
Marine officer Karl Wray’s reports appeared in the 1945-era Maui News on several occasions, and a few covered his experience following the end of the war. On Aug. 15, 1945, Wray wrote how he was laying in bed with a broken ankle at the Makawao service hospital when he first grasped the news of Japan’s unofficial surrender on a Monday evening. He described how somebody at the hospital found an air raid siren while another started beating a metal pan with a hammer to celebrate.
“Others who could find nothing with which to make noise, just shouted and whooped it up with whatever wax they could,” Wray wrote. “Auto horns were honked, radios blared, and conversation buzzed.”
Over 100 Boy Scouts and Scout leaders at Camp Maluhia were “thrilled” when they received the announcement, according to an article published in The Maui News on Aug. 18. All the summer campers were ordered to meet at the main grounds “where 15 victory salvos were fired on the Camp Marksmanship rifles.”
It was reported that Scout Executive Hareld Stein spoke on the meaning of victory and led the campers in a “prayer of thanksgiving.”
In another the Maui News article following the surrender, Lahaina residents were reported decorating their cars and honking their horns, “many of them with tears in their eyes, waving and thanking for the good fortune.”
The Lanai community hosted a “huge parade” for V-J Day on Aug. 16 that traveled from the Lanai Gym to the baseball park.
On Molokai, communities from Halawa to Maunaloa and Kaunakakai rejoiced on Sept. 6 with “a parade, speeches, venison barbecue and dance.” From the county park at the end of the mole, through Ala Malama to the Molokai Community Center, the community marched. The contingent included members of the Kilohana School drum corps, Army Air Corps, military defense units, American Legion and auxiliary, mothers whose sons were in the Armed Forces, war veterans, Molokai High School teachers and Boy Scouts.
On Dec. 7, 1955, the Navy placed a 10-foot basalt stone and plaque as the first memorial over the remains of the USS Arizona, which was the first ship at Pearl Harbor to be attacked by the Japanese, according to the Pearl Harbor Visitors Bureau. The USS Arizona remains at the bottom of the harbor with many crewmen entombed as a memorial.
Today, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Australia celebrate V-J Day on Aug. 15, but the United States recognizes Sept. 2. North and South Korea mark V-J Day on Sept. 2 but call it National Liberation Day when Korea was freed from Japanese occupation.
* Dakota Grossman can be reached at dgrossman@mauinews.com.
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