Truman: Japan next
Victory only half won, President says – work, work, work, he urges
By Merriman Smith, United Press staff writer
WASHINGTON – President Truman today proclaimed victory in Europe but told the nation its fighting job would be finished only “when the last Japanese division has surrendered unconditionally.”
He said, “Our victory is only half-won.” He gave this counsel for the months to come: “Work, work, work.”
He gave this advice to the Japs: Surrender.
Surrounded by his government leaders, Mr. Truman issued his proclamation of victory and his statement of the work yet to do at a historic news conference in the White House. Then he broadcast them to the nation.
Outside, while the President spoke, a chill rain fell.
“This,” the President said, “is a solemn but glorious hour.”
He voiced the thought of millions by adding: “How I wish Franklin Roosevelt had lived to see this day.”
The President reminded the nation in its flush of victory that it had not been fighting alone. He proclaimed Sunday, May 13, a day of prayer.
**I call upon all the people of the United States, whatever their faith, to unite in offering joyful thanks to God for the victory we have won and to pray that He will support us to the end of our present struggle and guide us into the way of peace.
I also call upon my countrymen to dedicate this day of prayer to the memory of those who have given their lives to make possible our victory.
The President sent his congratulations and thanks to Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Premier Joseph Stalin, Gen. Charles de Gaulle.
To Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, he said:
All of us owe to you and to your men of many nations a debt beyond appraisal for their high contribution to the conquest of Nazism.
Mr. Truman counted the cost of victory. He did not forget “the terrible price we have paid to rid the world of Hitler and his evil band.”
But he also sounded a note of triumph and hope.
He said:
United, the peace-loving nations have demonstrated in the west that their arms are stronger by far than the might of dictators or the tyranny of military cliques that once called us soft and weak.
The power of our peoples to defend themselves against all enemies will be proved in the Pacific war as it has been proved in Europe.
And with victory, the President said, “we must work to bind up the wounds of a suffering world – to build an abiding peace, a peace rooted in justice and in law.”
For the Japs, he said, the choice is between unconditional surrender and “utter destruction to Japan’s industrial war production, to its shipping, and to everything that supports its military activity.”
He gave Japan this promise, this invitation to survival: “Unconditional surrender does not mean the extermination or enslavement of the Japanese people.”
He spelled out patiently the choice which is Japan’s.
He said:
The longer the war lasts, the greater will be the suffering and hardships which the people of Japan will undergo – all in vain.
Our blows will not cease until the Japanese military and naval forces lay down their arms in unconditional surrender.
Just what does unconditional surrender of the armed forces mean for the Japanese people?
It means the end of the war.
It means the termination of the influence of the military leaders who have brought Japan to the present brink of disaster.
It means provision for the return of soldiers and sailors to their families, their farms, their jobs.
It means not prolonging the present agony and suffering of the Japanese in the vain hope of victory.
Marshall praises Yanks
Army Chief of Staff Gen. George C. Marshall and Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson and many others added their voices to observance of V-E Day.
Gen. Marshall told the men in Europe that they had composed, with their Allies, the greatest military team in history. But he did not forget the men who have been fighting so long in the Pacific. They will be getting help soon, he said, and rest.
To veterans throughout the world, Gen. Marshall said:
Those veterans, who have been long overseas and suffered hazards and hardships of many battles should be spared further sacrifices, but others must move in an overwhelming flood to the Pacific to bring that war to the earliest possible conclusion as well as to relieve the war-weary veterans in that theater.
Warns of future
Mr. Stimson said the German leaders had been shattered but added, “They must be watched lest they again poison civilization.”
Japan, Mr. Stimson said, will get what Germany got.
He said:
We are fighting one vast war for a decent world. We shall continue that war wherever it has to be fought with all our righteous might until the last sign of power in our enemies has disappeared from sight.
Before going on the air, Mr. Truman, surrounded by the leaders of his government, told a crowded news conference that the watchword of the nation now should be “work, work and more work.”
He said:
I call upon every American to stick to his post until the last battle is won. Until that day, let no man abandon his post or slacken his efforts.
Only half-won
Declaring that he wanted it emphasized repeatedly that much work remained before final victory, he said:
Our victory is but half-won. The West is free, but the East is still in bondage to the treacherous tyranny of the Japanese. When the last Japanese division has surrendered unconditionally, then only will our fighting job be done.
He also pointed to the need for hard, toilsome painstaking work to achieve “an abiding peace, a peace rooted in justice and in law."
He gave no details of the surrender except to say in his proclamation that “the Allied armies, through sacrifice and devotion and with God’s help, have wrung from Germany a final and unconditional surrender.”
Family present
He said:
The victory won in the West must now be won in the East. The whole world must be cleansed of the evil from which half the world has been freed.
His proclamation continued:
United, the peace-loving nations have demonstrated in the West that their arms are stronger by far than the might of dictators or the tyranny of military cliques that once called us soft and weak. The power of our people to defend themselves against all enemies will be proved in the Pacific war as it has been proved in Europe.
It was one of the most colorful, dramatic news conferences in the history of the White House. The President was surrounded by his family – Mrs. Truman in a dark blue suit and light blue blouse and their daughter, Mary Margaret, in a blue suit and white blouse.
Close friends and associates, the Cabinet, leaders of the armed forces and ranking members of Congress were also present.
Praises Allies
His congratulatory messages to the Allied heads of state were similar. Each message congratulated the Allied peoples and the Allied armies for their heroism and expressed appreciation of the American people and this government for their cooperation and “splendid contribution to the cause of civilization and liberty.”
Government workers and officials took V-E Day in stride. Where possible they listened to the President’s broadcast and then went back to their jobs, as he had previously asked them to do. The Capitol was virtually deserted at that early hour to the disappointment of three soldiers, bound for Germany to join occupational forces, who had hoped to see how the House and Senate reacted.
At the War and Navy Departments, it was a quiet day. The War Department had planned a little ceremony outdoors, but it was canceled. The official reason: “Rain and work.”
