Thurman Pledger United States Navy World War 2 Pacific world war 2 navy enlistment records

In New York’s Times Square and other crowded cities, Sailors kissed strangers. Across the country in Seattle, mass hysteria erupted. Instead, car horns blared long into the night in the nation’s capital.

Leahy considered the moment appropriate for solemnly reflecting upon all that the country and world had just endured for so many years. Sitting just feet away as the president spoke, Fleet Admiral William D. Truman broadcast a formal announcement of the long-awaited event over the radio and declared 15 and 16 August to be days of celebration. Therefore, waves of relief and joy followed in the wake upon hearing on 14 August 1945 that the Japanese government finally had signed its acceptance of unconditional surrender.Īt 7 p.m. In combination, Operations Olympic and Coronet, the invasions scheduled respectively for Kyushu that fall and Honshu in early 1946, were projected to produce perhaps a quarter-million or more casualties and dwarf the numbers of men lost in early campaigns. American military planners in the summer of 1945 envisioned a truly formidable task as they prepared for the assault into the Japanese home islands that fall.

Thurman Pledger United States Navy World War 2 Pacific world war 2 navy enlistment records