The 10th of August, Friday night, we were writing letters in the office. Miles decided to go to bed and left Diz and I alone, when about 10:00 he came running back yelling "The war is over!" Naturally it sounded like a lot of hooey. We found out later that the Japanese had offered the U.S., Britain, USSR and China a peace treaty providing they could keep their emperor. All day yesterday we heard rumors of what the answer was going to be. A lot of telegrams poured into Washington against accepting, probably from a lot of war workers or somebody, however out here every GI in the Pacific was happy beyond words. About one o'clock last night the word came through from the U.S. that the peace offer would be accepted providing the emperor takes his orders from the supreme allied commander. Right now we are waiting for the final acceptance and okeh of our terms, and the general opinion seems to be that it is all over but the shouting, and of course the diplomatic transactions which must necessarily take place. Then there will be a lot of waiting until deals are worked out for occupation and the recovery of war prisoners and a lot of other technicalities like that. It is hard to realize that the end may be so near, after seeming so far away. With so many men in the command having 37 months overseas time and no hope of getting home it began to look pretty hopeless if the war was going to drag on into 1946 and maybe beyond. But if it really comes to an end now it is going to be too wonderful to even imagine. The morning paper just came and I have just finished reading it. Even the papers now figure that it is just a mere formality that must be carried out and that peace is a reality. Already there are articles on how long the men will have to stay in the Pacific, how soon they will be discharged and the size of occupation forces and things like that. Of course everybody over here wants to get home so somebody has to stay. Also the time involved in making new plans and issuing new orders after policy of demobilization are drawn up must be considered. If this is over it should shorten my overseas time quite a bit, but I will still consider myself lucky to get home by Christmas.
Since the last writing the developments have been many. The war in Okinawa ended after a bloody battle. The B-29 raids have become bigger and bigger and even the Far East Air Forces have started to do some damage to the Jap home islands. The latest and most important development came the other day when the first "atomic bomb" was dropped on Hiroshima and practically obliterated the town. Then another was dropped on Nagasaki and obliterated more than two square miles of that place. The combined the next day with the Russian entry into the war brought the Japs out hollering for a peace. The Potsdam conference, just closed the week before the atomic bomb was dropped, laid down surrender terms in the form of an ultimatum for the Japanese, which they promptly ignored. But as I said, this atomic bomb brought them around right away. Well we are all too happy to believe it yet, but after it comes true for a couple of weeks maybe it will start to seem like something besides a dream. Funny thing, the regular army officers, and some of these uniformed civilians who are Lieutenant Colonels were really sad to hear about the war. Yesterday when the rumor came around that it had been rejected, we had some of our officers who were really happy, actually laughed and guffawed about it. That has been our latest gripe. This army has become so rotten that nothing short of cutting the expenditures of the army will put an end to it. They aren't interested in getting the war over, only living fat cat lives over here at the expense of the tax-payers. We have become so embittered toward the army that it is our only subject anymore.
It is Sunday morning and I have a dental appointment at 10 o'clock, the dentist is going to look over my cankers, which I have had a plague of lately. So I will sign off for now. We have a church conference this afternoon in Manila.
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