August 13th, 1945 (MONDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Submarine HMS Andrew laid down.
LUXEMBOURG: Hermann Göring is off drugs for the first time in years, but still takes breakfast in bed. Von Ribbentrop relaxes as his room-mate Frank, the "butcher" of Poland, reads aloud from the Bible. Like others of the top 24 Nazis held under guard at the Palace Hotel, Mondorf les Bains, Frank is a high suicide risk. He was admitted with multiple, self-inflicted knife wounds. Soon all will go on trial at Nuremberg, exchanging a sun terrace for the more forensic light of a war crimes tribunal. Hess pleads that he is a case of amnesia.
GERMANY: Berlin: French troops take up garrison duties in the British and US zones in the west of the city.
MONGOLIA: Ulan Bator: Mongolia declares war on Japan.
JAPAN:
The Cabinet Secretary Sakomizu and Lord Kido among others, have been branded as "false advisors" to the Emperor. Placards and posters over the country have sprung up urging that they and others of the "peace faction" be killed on sight.Lt. Gen. Okido, commander of the Kempeitai (Military Police), appears in the PMs office demanding to see Suzuki. After finding out he is not there he tells Cabinet Secretary Sakomizu that "If Japan surrenders the army will rise. This is certain. Has the PM confidence that he can suppress the revolt?"
The Japanese Supreme Council for the Direction of the War, meets at 8:45 this morning. The SCDW is know as the Big 6 of the Japanese Cabinet. PM, FM, War Minister, Navy Minister, Army CofS, Navy CofS. The meeting is interrupted by a call from Hirohito for both Chief of Staffs. Hirohito asks for their offensive plans during peace negotiations. They agree to refrain from offensive measures. After the SCDW meeting resumes, it accomplishes nothing. FM Togo leaves to report to the Emperor. He instructs the FM to do his best to settle the matter.
Junior Japanese Army officers meet in small groups during the day. They are determined to take over the government and continue the war. The full cabinet meets at 3:00 pm. Anami leaves to call Lt. Gen. Yoshizumi and tells him that the cabinet is coming around to the army's way of thinking. It is not.
At 4:00 pm a Japanese IGHQ communiqué is released: "The Imperial Army and Navy having hereby received the gracious Imperial Command to protect the national polity [Emperor System] and to defend the Imperial Land, the entire armed forces will single-heartedly commence a general offensive against the Allied enemy forces." The War Minister and Army Chief of Staff immediately order the distribution of this message stopped. They know nothing about it.
By 7:00 pm the cabinet meeting has decided nothing. The PM, desiring to follow the Imperial will announces that he will report to the Emperor and again ask His Majesty to give his gracious decision. This in effect puts the military on notice that any coup must happen before another Imperial Conference.
- US Far East Air Force B-24s and B-25s from Okinawa pound shipping in the waters off Korea and Kyushu Island and in the Inland Sea claiming several vessels sunk and damaged; P-47s over Keijo encounter 20 Japanese aircraft and claim at least 16 shot down.
- RN and USN carrier-based aircraft of Task Force 38 attack Japanese airfields in the Tokyo area and claim 250 aircraft destroyed on the ground.
A USAAF OA-10A Catalina rescues a TBM Avenger crewman from the inner reaches of Tokyo Bay midway between Yokohama and Kizarazu, marking the first time that a U.S. plane has accomplished a rescue in those waters. The crewman was assigned to Torpedo Squadron Eighty Seven (VT-87) in the aircraft carrier USS Ticonderoga (CV-14).
In total 1600 US aircraft bomb Tokyo tonight.
PACIFIC OCEAN: Japanese submarine I-373 is sunk by the USS Spikefish in the Eastern Sea off China. (Mike Yared)(144 and 145)
CANADA: HMC ML 115 paid off.
TERRITORY OF ALASKA: The US Eleventh Air Force in the Aleutians dispatches its last combat mission when 6 B-24s radar-bomb the Kashiwahara Staging Area on Paramushiru Island with incendiaries, leaving huge columns of smoke. PB4Y-2 Privateers of the USN's Patrol Bombing Squadron One Hundred Twenty Two (VPB-122) based on Shemya Island, bomb Kakumabetsu and strafe Torishima Retto on Paramushiru Island.
U.S.A.: Submarine USS Sirago is commissioned.