Joyous Finale

Nowhere did the expected "pockets of resistance" develop. The Japs quit as unanimously as they had fought. Did they all suddenly realize the hopelessness of the struggle? Or all bow to the will of the Emperor? Or all share a hope of their power's revival? Anyway, they quit.

At Wake, Redemption. When the Stars & Stripes went up on Wake Island (see cut), the U.S. redeemed the second territory (after Guam) to be occupied by a foreign foe since 1814.

The Japs had eaten all the island's gooney birds, and most of its rats. Everywhere were relics of Major James ("Send us more Japs") Devereux's stand: U.S. ammunition was stacked in neat piles; rusted machinery was everywhere.

At Singapore, Threat. The British made the Japs sweep Singapore's streets, just as the Japs had done to British prisoners in 1942. The point was not childish retribution, but restoration of British "face" with the natives.

The Japs retreated over the Johore causeway over which they had entered the supposedly impregnable fortress city. Lieut. General Seishiro Itagaki told the Sultan of Johore: "We hope the peace will last 20 years. Then we will be back again."*

At Nanking, Doubt. At his Nanking headquarters, General Yasuji Okamura surrendered 1,000,000 Jap troops in China to General Ho Ying-chin.

There were no crowds, no cheers, no bunting in Nanking. Food was plentiful, shops were full of goods, but the people were lifeless.

Explained one Nanking citizen: "The truth is that we have all been puppets, more or less. We have held jobs under the puppet government, or we have done business with the Japanese. After eight years you get used to it. This is our city. What will happen to us now that you have come back?"

But in Shanghai, Joy! The war's orphans, the men from the gorges of the Salween and the mountain bivouacs of Central China, came to Shanghai, which greeted liberation as no city in the world had greeted it.

The laughter of yeh chi ("wild chickens") rang through every thick-carpeted hotel corridor. The steaks were thick and plentiful. Real Scotch (not Australian) whiskey flowed. Hotel beds had spring mattresses and clean white sheets. By changing U.S. dollars to Chungking dollars to Nanking dollars to Japanese yen, the fabulously inflated prices unreasonably became reasonable (steaks 50-c-, silk nightgowns $3). For 15 incredible days the celebration throbbed--firecrackers and kisses, music and laughter. British and U.S. soldiers were surrounded by "saltwater plums" (sailors' girls) from Szechwan Road, and by delicate Eurasian women, warm Russians, big-eyed Hungarians.

Chinese soldiers of the Ninety-fourtn Army, the men who halted the last Japanese drive in southeastern China last spring, arrived wearing shabby yellow uniforms and straw sandals. They stared at silken gowns and leather shoes. They were bewildered when the crowds cheered them. The men of the Ninety-fourth had never heard cheers before.

Japanese soldiers, allowed to keep their arms until sufficient Chinese forces arrived in the city that the Japanese had possessed but never won, stared blankly at the joyous finale as the curtain, ruffled by Shanghai's breezes, came down upon their empire.

*For news of the Sultan, see PEOPLE.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.