August 23rd, 1945 (THURSDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: London: Parliament ratifies the United Nations Charter.
CEYLON: Colombo: A British fleet sets sail for Singapore to accept the Japanese surrender.
FRENCH INDOCHINA: Demonstrations
against return to French rule are staged in Vientiane, Laos, and other
provincial towns under the auspices of the Indochinese Communist Party (ICP).
The membership of the ICP in Laos is entirely Vietnamese.
KURILE ISLANDS: 4 US
Eleventh Air Force B-24s fly a photo mission over Paramushiru and Shimushu
Islands. During the day, Lieutenant General Fusaki Tsutsumi surrenders to the
Soviets thus ending the battle for Shimushu Island.
Off Japan, U.S. Third Fleet carrier planes fly in massed formation over the fleet's ships, as it awaits orders to move into Japanese ports. More than a 1,000 F4U Corsairs, F6F Hellcats, SB2C Helldivers and TBM Avengers participated in the flyover. The ships were operating within a few hours' steaming time of the Japanese coast.
PACIFIC OCEAN: Planes from the USN's Task Group 38.4 (TG
38.4) (Rear Admiral Arthur W. Radford) search for Japanese shipping between
Hachijo Jima, a group of islands south of Honshu, Japan, and the Bonin Inlands.
Such movement would have been contrary to surrender instructions, but the
searching aircraft report no violations.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Manila: MacArthur releases 5,000 Filipinos interned for security reasons.
CANADA: Submarine HMS United arrived Digby, Nova Scotia for ASW training.
U.S.A.: Aircraft carrier USS Leyte launched.