3rd April 1945
April 3, 1945
All the way from Miyanoshita to Tokyo was marked by send-off, parties for men called to the colors. The school-children in the village were lined
Leon Ma. Guerrero
(March 24, 1915 — June 24, 1982). Lawyer, journalist and diplomat. Served in USAFFE (later, USFIP) in the press relations staff, then assigned to Corregidor; upon surrender of USFIP and release from internment, served as a technical assistant to Jorge B. Vargas in the Philippine Executive Commission, then resumed broadcasting (station PIAM) under the same pseudonym he had used prior to the Japanese Occupation: Ignacio Javier. He then joined the diplomatic service of the Second Republic of the Philippines, assigned to the Philippine embassy in Tokyo under Jorge B. Vargas, ambassador.
4th April 1945
April 4, 1945
The English edition of the Mainichi today hits out with one of the strongest editorials of the war. “While we were talking about the war
5th April 1945
April 5, 1945
The ruins of the 10th March fire in Tokyo are haunted by a stench of leaking gas. Hundreds of twisted faucets are still dripping in
6th April 1945
April 6, 1945
Admiral Baron Kantaro Suzuki is the new premier. The Mainichi, in reporting how he “received the imperial command” to form a new cabinet, gave an
7th April 1945
April 7, 1945
With 120 bombers over Tokyo and 150 more over Nagoya, Suzuki requested “the visits of ministerial candidates to his cabinet-organizing headquarters” from 8 o’clock this
8th April 1945
April 8, 1945
After she first flurry over the cabinet change the press has had time to take up an even more significant development, the Soviet notice of
9th April 1945
April 9, 1945
With the cabinet almost complete and the ceremony of imperial investiture held Saturday night, Suzuki yesterday, Sunday, made his first radiocast as premier and gave
10th April 1945
April 10, 1945
Shigenori Togo was appointed minister for foreign and Greater East Asia affairs yesterday. Shigemitsu could not stay after the Soviet disaster. Togo, who has a
11th April 1945
April 11, 1945
The diplomatic gasoline ration has been cut 60 per cent. The stocks are getting low with communications to the southern regions practically severed. But the
12th April 1945
April 12, 1945
Our neighbor takes the Times although nobody in the house can read English because he wants the big four-page sheet of paper for wrapping or
13th April 1945
April 13, 1945
Friday the 13th: San Francisco radio flashed the news of President Roosevelt’s sudden death and for once Tokyo picked it up immediately: the bulletin was
14th April 1945
April 14, 1945
On my way back to Miyanoshita I walked past the now familiar landscape of ruin and chaos, all the way from the embassy on Kudan
15th April 1945
April 15, 1945
As was to be expected, a Japanese newspaper (in this case the Mainichi) has brought up the inevitable “Roosevelt has died. It was heaven’s punishment.
16th April 1945
April 16, 1945
Some of the people in the hotel who tried to go to Tokyo today had to turn back one station before Yokohama. Apparently rail communications
17th April 1945
April 17, 1945
Approximately 200 B-29’s carried out the last raid on Tokyo “causing fairly large fires in the urban areas”. The Japanese claimed the fantastic total of
18th April 1945
April 18, 1945
The Mainichi today carries more “last words” from suicide pilots: “Although the expression ‘shichisho hokoku’ (firm resolve to serve the nation by being born seven
19th April 1945
April 19, 1945
Back in Tokyo I was told by Vargas that an ambassadors’ conference will definitely be held on the 23rd. He was notified by Togo when
20th April 1945
April 20, 1945
Returning to Miyanoshita from Tokyo I had my first glimpse of the damage inflicted during the last big raids. From the river Tama to the
21st April 1945
April 21, 1945
As an historical document for future students of Japanese military psychology, the “five-point army precept” issued yesterday by general Korechika Anami, the war minister, is
22nd April 1945
April 22, 1945
Commenting on the “war precepts” issued to the imperial forces, the Times notes that the fifth calls on them to assume the leadership of the
23rd April 1945
April 23, 1945
After three days of the hasty and perfunctory preparation, the ambassadors’ conference of Greater East Asiatic nations was opened today, a pathetic little popgun aimed
24th April 1945
April 24, 1945
The ambassadors’ conference failed to divert the Japanese from the realities of the war. While looking forward “with the keenest concern and breathless interest” to
25th April 1945
April 25, 1945
The spirits of 41,318 army and navy dead, including the late Fleet Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, were solemnly enshrined in Yasakuni last night. Describing the “spirit
26th April 1945
April 26, 1945
Today is the 25th on the other side of the international date-line and the Japanese press is obsessed with the opening of the San Francisco
27th April 1945
April 27, 1945
“In view of the increasing skill of the enemy,” the siren signals will be shortened. The alert (one continuous blast) will be cut from three
28th April 1945
April 28, 1945
With a new American attack under way in Okinawa, the spotlight has been turned again on the tokotai. Both the English papers today carry their
29th April 1945
April 29, 1945
The emperor was 44 years old today. Apparently there will be no elaborate celebration; the state banquet has been cancelled, as it has been every
30th April 1945
April 30, 1945
Amid rumors of Germany’s unconditional surrender, the board of information yesterday announced that on the 27th April the prime minister and the highest army and
1st May 1945
May 1, 1945
Today the Mainichi brought the first reaction to the surrender of Germany. “In the supposition that this report is true,” the paper writes the following
2nd May 1945
May 2, 1945
There was more than the usual touch of unreality to the business at the chancery when a telegram was received conveying greetings on the occasion