As Japan and the United States continued negotiations, the public was kept in the dark. On August 13, the Chicago Tribune reported: "With nerves a little frayed from an overlong period of expectancy, Chicago continued yesterday to wait and wonder about the result of Japanese peace negotiations."
The war had been on for the U.S. ever since Pearl Harbor had been bombed in 1941. The war would end with a frantic effort to drop supplies and medical supplies to GIs held in the horrible conditions of Japanese prison camps. In between, there had been the savage battles on remote Pacific islands that few gad ever heard of: Midway, Guam and Iwo Jima.
So, when Japan's unconditional surrender was announced August 14, it unleashed a flood of pent-up emotion.
On U.S. aircraft carriers, the news elicited "rebel yells and western cowpoke hoots."
--GreGen
The USS North Carolina (BB-55) My all-time favorite warship. As an elementary school student in North Carolina, I donated nickels and dimes to save this ship back in the early sixties.
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