PRINTER'S NO. 2121
No. 176 Session of 1995
INTRODUCED BY B. SMITH, COLAIZZO, MILLER, GEORGE, BROWN, LYNCH,
NYCE, FLEAGLE, FEESE, ARGALL, BAKER, WALKO, WAUGH, DENT,
CURRY, NAILOR, CHADWICK, BEBKO-JONES, FICHTER, YEWCIC,
MARKOSEK, FAIRCHILD, MAITLAND, MASLAND, BUNT, TRUE, HERMAN,
GRUPPO, HERSHEY, DEMPSEY, ZUG, HASAY, SATHER, SANTONI,
ARMSTRONG, FARMER, STURLA, HARHART, PETTIT, FLICK, OLASZ,
GIGLIOTTI, PESCI, E. Z. TAYLOR, TRAVAGLIO, STISH, RUBLEY,
HESS, SEMMEL, READSHAW, PLATTS, BELARDI, STABACK, TRELLO,
COY, MANDERINO, GODSHALL, HUTCHINSON, MELIO, MERRY, HALUSKA,
TIGUE, FAJT, SCHRODER, L. I. COHEN, CORRIGAN, FARGO, ROHRER,
DeLUCA, SURRA, SAYLOR, LEH, BELFANTI, CLARK, LESCOVITZ,
DiGIROLAMO, RUDY, MARSICO, O'BRIEN, GEIST, DRUCE, SHANER,
CLYMER, BATTISTO, BARD, ROONEY AND LUCYK, JUNE 15, 1995
INTRODUCED AS NONCONTROVERSIAL RESOLUTION UNDER RULE 35,
JUNE 15, 1995
A RESOLUTION
1 Commemorating August 14, 1995, as the 50th anniversary of
2 "Victory over Japan Day" and observing September 1 through 3,
3 1995, as the official commemoration of the 50th anniversary
4 of the end of World War II.
5 WHEREAS, On December 7, 1941, the United States was drawn
6 into World War II by the early morning attack on Pearl Harbor by
7 the Japanese, who sank four United States battleships, destroyed
8 140 aircraft, killed 2,330 service personnel and wounded another
9 1,145 and who, on the same day, attacked Clark and Iba airfields
10 in the Philippines; and at the time of the attack on Pearl
11 Harbor, it was the base of 70 United States Navy ships, 24
12 auxiliary vessels, and about 300 aircraft; and
13 WHEREAS, In the ensuing five months, Japanese forces
1 continued to pound the Allied Forces in the Pacific, capturing
2 the Philippine capital of Manila on January 2; the 90,000 strong
3 garrison of British, Australian and Indian troops in Singapore
4 on February 15; Java and the 20,000 Allied troops defending it
5 on February 27 after the seven-hour Battle of the Java Sea; and
6 all of the Philippine Islands on April 9, following a three-
7 month campaign ending with the Battle for the Bataan Peninsula;
8 and
9 WHEREAS, Despite these horrific defeats and the concomitant
10 loss of American personnel, ships and planes, the United States
11 Armed Forces mobilized to a heroic level and inflicted its first
12 major defeat of the Japanese at the Battle of the Coral Sea, May
13 5 through 8, 1942; and
14 WHEREAS, This victory was followed by the Battle of Midway,
15 the turning point of the Pacific War, June 3 through 6, 1942,
16 where four Japanese heavy carriers were sunk; by the first major
17 Allied offensive in the Pacific, August 7, 1942, to February 7,
18 1943, at Guadalcanal; and by the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, May
19 2 through 4, 1943, where Japanese losses included four
20 destroyers, eight transports and 6,000 troops; and
21 WHEREAS, American forces invaded Attu in the Aleutian Islands
22 on May 11, 1943, inflicting heavy casualties in three weeks of
23 fighting; Tarawa and Makin Islands in the Gilberts, November 20
24 through 23, 1943; and Saipan, in the Marianas, June 15 through
25 July 7, 1944, where they overcame heavy resistance after bitter
26 fighting to secure this strategic outpost; and
27 WHEREAS, About 350 Japanese planes were shot down in the June
28 19, 1944, Battle of the Philippine Sea, a famous air-ship battle
29 which was followed by the Battle of Leyte Gulf, October 23
30 through 25, where the Japanese employed suicidal kamikaze
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1 tactics crashing their planes loaded with explosives into Allied
2 ships, but nevertheless lost this, the greatest naval
3 confrontation of the war; and
4 WHEREAS, General Douglas MacArthur, as promised, returned to
5 the Philippines when the 6th Army landed on Leyte on October 20,
6 1944, and the islands were finally secured when Manila was
7 recaptured on March 3, 1945; United States Marines landed on the
8 heavily defended island of Iwo Jima on February 19, 1945,
9 finally securing it on March 16, 1945, when the United States
10 flag was raised atop Mount Suribachi; and United States troops
11 invaded Okinawa on April 1, 1945, from which many air raids of
12 the Japanese mainland were launched; and
13 WHEREAS, Allied plans for Japan's eventual unconditional
14 surrender began diplomatically at the conference in Casablanca
15 in 1943 and continued throughout the war, culminating at the
16 Potsdam Conference, held July 17 to August 2, 1945, and code-
17 named "Terminal"; and
18 WHEREAS, An assessment was made at Potsdam whether an
19 invasion of Japan was necessary in light of remaining Japanese
20 assets and the conclusion was reached that, while Japan's air
21 force was destroyed and its naval fleet was annihilated, Japan
22 still had millions of troops in the field and possessed a
23 considerable empire and that there clearly was a grim
24 determination on the part of the Japanese people, in keeping
25 with their cultural traditions, to defend their homeland and
26 preserve the status of Emperor Hirohito; and
27 WHEREAS, The United States, a party at the Potsdam
28 Conference, had detonated an atomic bomb at a test site in New
29 Mexico on July 16, 1945, leading the Potsdam Conference to
30 conclude its official proclamation with the following
19950H0176R2121 - 3 -
1 declaration:
2 We call upon the Government of Japan to proclaim now the
3 unconditional surrender of all the Japanese armed forces,
4 and to provide proper and adequate assurances of their
5 good faith in such action. The alternative for Japan is
6 complete and utter destruction.
7 This declaration was issued on July 26, 1945; and
8 WHEREAS, Having no response from the Japanese government to
9 this proclamation, President Harry S. Truman gave the order to
10 make a bombing mission on the first clear day of August, which
11 order was carried out at 8:15 a.m. on August 6, 1945, when the
12 "Enola Gay" dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, base of Japan's
13 2nd Army, killing 70,000 people and maiming thousands more; and
14 WHEREAS, President Truman issued a statement that day which
15 concluded:
16 It was to spare the Japanese people from utter
17 destruction that the ultimatum of July 26 was
18 issued at Potsdam. Their leaders promptly rejected that
19 ultimatum. If they do not now accept our terms, they may
20 expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has
21 never been seen on this earth. Behind this air attack
22 will follow sea and land forces in such numbers and power
23 as they have not yet seen, and with the fighting skill of
24 which they are already aware.
25 Nonetheless, the Japanese leaders again ignored the ultimatum,
26 and Nagasaki was bombed at 11 a.m. August 9, 1945, with another
27 35,000 people perishing; and
28 WHEREAS, Incessant resistance by the Japanese Supreme War
29 Direction Council to meet the terms of unconditional surrender
30 looked even more foolhardy when, at 5 p.m. on August 8, 1945,
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1 Russia declared war on Japan; and
2 WHEREAS, Finally, at 2 a.m. on August 10, 1945, the Japanese
3 Prime Minister called upon the Emperor to decide Japan's course
4 of action, and Emperor Hirohito recommended acceptance of the
5 terms, which the Supreme Council did at 4 a.m.; and
6 WHEREAS, Further negotiations reached accord on August 14,
7 1945, and the unconditional surrender was signed aboard the
8 U.S.S. Missouri in Tokyo Bay on the morning of September 2,
9 1945, with collateral documents signed in the Philippines on
10 September 3, 1945; in Seoul, Korea, on September 9, 1945; and in
11 Singapore on September 12, 1945, thus ending World War II; and
12 WHEREAS, The 50th anniversary of the Victory over Japan will
13 be officially commemorated in Honolulu September 1 through 3,
14 1995; therefore be it
15 RESOLVED, In light of this chronicle of events of the war in
16 the Pacific in World War II, that the House of Representatives
17 join in the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of "Victory
18 over Japan Day" and urge the citizens of this Commonwealth to do
19 likewise by commemorating August 14, 1995, as the 50th
20 anniversary of "Victory over Japan Day" and observing September
21 1 through 3, 1995, as the official commemoration of the 50th
22 anniversary of the end of World War II.
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