August 23, 1945; WAR TO FORMALLY END AUGUST 31:

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, AUGUST 23, 1945:

Kingsport, Tenn., Thursday, August 23, 1945

Japan, Allies

To Sign Pact
At Tokyo Bay

By The Associated Press

Manila—Conquered Japan and the conquering Allies will formally end the war Aug. 31 by signing the surrender document on Tokyo Bay aboard the superbattleship Missouri, which only a month ago was hurling 16-inch shells into the Japanese homeland.

General MacArthur announced these final details today, while his headquarters disclosed actual capitulation in the field  proceeding in advance of the official ceremony.

Surrender of several thousand Japanese in northern Luzon was arranged yesterday despite "adamant" opposition of their commander, and similar negotiations weremoving ahead on Mindanao and Cebu.

To Visit Camps

Japan meanwhile appealed for permission to send ships to ill and starving garrisons on Marcus Island and "various isolated islands in the south," adding that food on Marcus, 1,200 miles southeast of Tokyo, would be exhausted in two more days.

Luzon Japs Quit

While Yanks Get
War Souvenirs

With 38th Division, Luzon, P. I.—AP—Surrender of Japanese mountain forces in Northern Luzon, several thousand strong, was arranged yesterday in one of the war's strangest peace parleys.

It-took-a worn copy of a G. I. newspaper, containing an Associated Press surrender story, to convince the Japanese the war was over.

A group of five 38th Division officers and 20 enlisted men hiked deep Into the Madre Mountains to confer with the enemy at a previously- designated spot. Under a Japanese battle flag on a hillside, officers sat around the edge of a specially dug pit, legs dangling, discussing the capitulation while American and Japanese enlisted men traded pistols, sabers, watches and personal items for souvenirs.

 

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