Onto the Sacred Soil

Japan's campaign for world empire was dead, and it was about to be interred with due pomp and ceremony. Details of the funeral preoccupied both the Japanese and the Allies, but vanquished Japs still could not bring themselves to accept the reality.

The first contact on the enemy's ground provided a preview of the conquered's behavior under occupation. Two Lightning pilots from Okinawa set down unexpectedly on a Kyushu airfield to wait for a rescue plane carrying gas. Jap personnel at the field were courteous and co operative -- and they treated the Americans as equals.

Devil's Breath. If the superstitious Japanese had put any faith in a "divine wind" to drive off the 1945 occupiers as it had driven off Kublai Khan's in 1281, they were disappointed. True, there was a devil's breath of typhoons roaring around the western Pacific -- far more numerous than the Allies had expected -- but they delayed the occupation of Japan for only 48 hours.

The Third Fleet stood in to Sagami Bay, southwest of Tokyo. Even its vanguard made a ponderous show of power, with great U.S. and British battleships.

Contact was made between the 2,100-ton destroyer Nicholas, with a magnificent two-and-a-half-year combat record, and a frowzy little Japanese can bearing envoys and harbor pilots. Beside the Nicholas, the Hatsuzakura was pathetic; amid the power of the Third Fleet, she was ridiculous. Her three 5-inch guns were depressed toward her deck, as though humbly bowing.

Taken to Admiral William F. Halsey's 45,000-ton flagship Missouri, the Japs handed over armloads of charts covering Yokosuka's approaches to serve as guides for the occupiers.

Commander of the first invasion force was spare, deep-voiced Rear Admiral Oscar C. Badger. Badger had been the first U.S. officer ashore when the Navy went into Tokyo Bay in 1923 to relieve earthquake victims. Now, with his flag on the San Diego, he led Task Force 31, with 10,000 sailors and marines, through the narrows into Tokyo Bay.

From the Iowa, anchored in Sagami Bay, TIME Correspondent John Walker radioed: "Off our port beam we saw the vast bulk of the holy mountain, Fuji, almost concealed in a wreath of clouds which could have been a mourning robe of traditional Japanese white -- the color of death." The advance guard of airborne invaders landed at Atsugi; their transports disgorged aviation engineers, jeeps, gasoline, rations, radios, to prepare for the grand entry of the 11th Airborne Division and of MacArthur himself. Between Atsugi and the fleet was the Emperor's seaside palace at Hayama, destined to be MacArthur's headquarters.

For the Ages. MacArthur spent his last days in Manila putting the finishing touches to the great performance in which he would play the leading part. He made sure that he would be accompanied, at the final surrender ceremony, by high officers who had been with him in the darkest Philippine days. Their presence, and that of the old West Virginia, temporarily sunk by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor, would not be lost on the Japs.

The Supreme Commander painstakingly wrote and rewrote the short speech he would deliver (and practiced it aloud). He was writing for the ages.

At first no paper could be found suitable for printing the instrument of surrender, but in the basement of the Catholic Trade School were just enough sheets of rich, heavy parchment. Army engineers printed the job in offset. It was decided to use plain staples, instead of white satin bows, to bind the sheets.

End Contract. All around the vast perimeter of the territories about to be delivered from Japanese oppression, smaller dramas were being acted out. In Manchuria a Japanese officer told the Russians that "unconditional surrender" was not to be found in the Japanese vocabulary. In China, the delegate to Chihkiang euphemistically was careful not to use the expression, but called it "the contract ending this war."

On Tokashiki islet, near Okinawa, there was no sign of humility in Major Yoshi-tsugu Akamatsu. The cocky 26-year-old self-consciously patted his polished boots --"Cavalry officer, you know"--then offered to fight it out, said it would be glorious to die in battle. In the end, he surrendered.

Objective: Peace. The main stage was to be the leviathan Missouri. There, MacArthur at the climax of the pageant, would sign for all the Allied powers.

When the representative of Japan's Imperial Headquarters placed his chop on the parchment, hostilities would be over. After that, it would be up to MacArthur and the armies of occupation to win the peace--on the soil that the Japanese still consider sacred.

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