1945
1945 E In January, the City and County of Honolulu refused to lease Ala Moana Park to the Army, citing a law that prohibited a transfer for such a purpose. In late February, U.S. forces completed the capture of Manila. In March, Iwo Jima was taken by U.S. Marines, and, in April, the island of Okinawa was invaded. On April 12, while vacationing at Warm Springs, Georgia, President Roosevelt died. Harry S Truman was sworn in as president. On May 7 the German army surrendered to the Allies at Rheims, France, and President Truman declared V-E Day. The news reached Hawai‘i at 3:30 in the morning. On June 16, the Punahou buildings and campus were returned to the school by the Army Corps of Engineers. A week later, civilians were told to turn in gas masks. On June 21, Japan surrendered Okinawa. On July 8, the Philippines were recaptured. Curfew and blackout was lifted in Hawai‘i in July. The following month, gas rationing and censorship ended. On August 6, the U.S. Air Force dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan.The destruction was massive and horrifying.Three days later a second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, with devastating results. On August 14, war ended in the Far East. The news reached Hawai‘i at 1:20 P.M. Two days later, all remaining orders administered by the office of internal security were terminated. Civil government finally had been restored. The Japanese formally surrendered aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on September 2. A three-day holiday was declared. 225 Weary of war, the people of Hawai‘i breathed a sigh of relief that the long conflict was over. But a return to the normal life of the old days was not to be. Hawai‘i had changed greatly, and there was no going back to a past that was fondly remembered by only some of the people. On the first of September about twenty-one thousand workers on thirty-three Hawai‘i plantations went on strike. Hawai‘i Chronicles 226 ...
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