August 17th, 1945 (FRIDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Westminster: The long and the short and the tall may worry less about their "demob" dates - the day when British servicemen discard uniform and come home - as a result of a scheme to accelerate the release process. The official target increased today from 115,000 to 171,000 a month, to return a million men and 100,000 women by 31 December instead of 825,000. An additional million people will be released from munitions work within eight weeks, many of them to begin a belated retirement. Some service people will be disappointed when they study the small print of the Labour government's plan. An individual's release depends on his service trade and number. Men in trades where skills are scarce, such as Fleet Air Arm radar mechanics, will find themselves in uniform for months, perhaps years longer than simple truck drivers. The minister of fuel and power, Emmanuel Shinwell, has announced a drive to increase coal production by 18 million tons annually to avert fuel shortages.
The government announces a programme of social reform, with a national health service at its centre.
FRANCE: Paris: The death sentence on Marshal Petain is commuted to life, on account of his advanced age.
FRENCH INDOCHINA: Ho Chi Minh, the leader of the Indochina Communist Party's National Liberation Committee, reads a proclamation calling on the Vietnamese people to begin the revolution. Viet Minh troops seize power from Japanese puppet government authorities in the Hanoi suburbs.
MANCHURIA: This morning the Russian's liberate the Japanese prisoner-of-war camp at Diren. Included amongst the American prisoners is Arnold Bocksel, now weighing 97 pounds from New York. (Newsday.com Rachel Leifer, August 14, 2005)
JAPAN: Hirohito dispatches three princes to carry word of the surrender to various units of the armed forces. Prince Takeda is sent to the Kwantung and Korean armies. Prince Kan-in is sent the the Southern Army and the 10th Area Fleet HQ. Prince Asaka is sent to the China Expeditionary Army and the China Area Fleet. These missions, of members of the Royal Family, are successful at convincing the various commanders that the decision is in fact that of the Emperor and not that of "traitors around the Throne."
Soldiers of the Army Air Signal Training Division advance on Tokyo by train after receiving the Emperor's broadcast. They are convinced that he has been advised by traitors and it is not his decision. They occupy the Imperial Museum of Art. It will take two days for them to be removed, in the end by actual armed assault.
KURILE ISLANDS: In the Kurile Islands, the Soviet 101st Infantry Division lands on Shimushu Island. The Japanese 91st Division counterattacks resulting in heated combat.
NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES: The Indonesian Nationalist Achmad Sukarno proclaims the independent Republic of Indonesia, upon hearing confirmation of the Japanese surrender.
CANADA: Corvette HMCS Brantford paid off Sorel, Province of Quebec.
Gate vessel HMCS Festubert paid off Halifax, Nova Scotia. HMC ML 124 is paid off.
U.S.A.: 100,000 workers are laid off from war jobs as contracts end.
The motion picture "The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry" is released today. Based on a play by Thomas Job, this film-noir drama is directed by Robert Siodmak and stars George Sanders, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Ella Raines and Harry von Zell. The plot involves a bachelor (Sanders), head designer in a small-town cloth factory, who lives with his two selfish sisters. He becomes involved with a new colleague (Raines) and the sisters try and break the romance up.
Submarine USS Mero commissioned.
ARGENTINA: U-977 surrendered after a lengthy patrol from Norway including a 66-day submerged run.