Unconditional Surrender

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“August 1945. We drop anchor in Tokyo Bay, begin unloading equipment, and send the troops ashore in attack waves. A few weeks ago the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and just a few days ago the Emperor Hirohito went on radio to inform his people of Japan’s unconditional surrender to the Allies. When I go down to inspect the mooring lines of our ship, I look ashore and see that everything that is not destroyed has been blackened by fire. We are at Pier 33, on the other side of the bay from where I had departed for America five years and eight months ago. The world will never be the same again.”