July 26, 1945; JAPANESE PROUD NAVY OUT OF COMMISSION:

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, JULY 25, 1945:

HUTCHINSON, KANSAS, THURSDAY, JULY 26, 1945

Nimitz Lists

Damaging Of
20 Vessels

Guam (/P)—Twenty Japanese warships, including three battleships, six aircraft carriers and five cruisers, wert. damaged by American and British carrier pilots in Admiral Halsey's great 1,200 plane strike against Inland sea bases Tuesday.

 

Stalin Carried

Peace Offer?

New York (/P)—Newsweek Magazine say Generalissimo Stalin took the Big Three a Japanese peace offer with the proviso that the Japanese home islands remain free of American Invasion and occupation.

The magazine says also, without giving the source of the information, that Widar Bagge, retiring Swedish minister to Japan, transmitted to the United States early last May a "Japanese request for clarification of the American 'unconditional surrender' formula,"

The article says In part; "As a price of "Russian nonintervention, the Japanese offered to withdraw from Manchuria In favor of Moscow. Moreover, they offered to 'recognize the principle of independence" of Indo-China, Burma and the Philippines and to submit to American occupation of Korea and even Formosa on one condition—that, the Japanese home  land.s should remain. free of  American invasion and occupation.

 

RENO, NEVADA, THURSDAY MORNING, JULY 26, 1945

 3 Battleships, 5 Cruisers,

6 Carriers Badly Damaged

 

GUAM, Thursday, July 26. (UP)—U. S. and British carrier planes of the Third fleet damaged 20 Japanese warships, including three battleships, five cruisers and six aircraft carriers, in Tuesday's destructive attacks on the Inland Sea which virtually knocked out the last vestiges of Nippon's once-proud navy, it was announced today.

In addition, a total of 170 Japanese planes were destroyed or damaged and 84 merchant ships were sunk or damaged as more than 1,200 of Adm. William F. Halsey's carrier planes hurled the most crushing carrier blow of the war at the shuddering Japanese homeland.

Another 39 Japanese planes were destroyed or damaged in yesterday's assaults on the Inland Sea, but only preliminary reports of that attack were available when Adm. Chester W. Nimitz announced what appeared to be the death blow to the Japanese fleet.

Among "the damaged warships was the elusive battleship Haruna, pounded by the late Capt. Colin Kelly off the Philippines in the opening days of the war, and the aircraft carrier Amagi, one of Japan's "super carriers."

The half battleships-half carriers Ise and Hyuga also were damaged, Nimitz announced.

That made a total of four battleships—all Japan was believed to have seaworthy—blasted in a week. The battleship Nagato was damaged heavily in last Wednesday's attack on the Yokosuka naval base.

 

 

 Japs Build

Huge Forts
Underground

By GEORGE WANG

United Press War Correspondent

CHUNGKING, July 25.( U. P.)

The Japanese army, preparing for suicidal stands in northeast China, has built a series of giant fortresses underneath Nanking,  Peiping and other large cities,  reliable sources said today.

Construction of underground railways, motor ways, formidable defense points and store rooms began after the U. S. invasion of Iwo Jima, it was reported. The program was stepped up when Okinawa was invaded.

The Japanese high command reportedly'-.anticipates an allied invasion in" the Nanking-Shanghai-Hangchow triangle. These underground forts are designed to make the assault as costly as possible.