A few years ago I was given access to the WW II photo scrapbook that was created by Detroiter Fred Oselett, who was a Yeoman Second Class aboard the USS LST-726 in the Western Pacific during 1944-1946. Using his photos and captions, I was able to research and write a story of his travels and experiences, which can be viewed here:
http://grobbel.org/lst726/
Here is an excerpt describing what Fred Oselett witnessed on Aug. 10, 1945:
The day after Hiroshima was bombed on August 6th, the LST-726 arrived in Okinawa, which was the staging ground for Operation Downfall - the invasion of Japan that was planned to begin on November 1st. The crew of the 726 had unloaded their passengers and cargo by Aug. 10th and were still on the beach when first word was received on Okinawa that the government of Japan had communicated its intention to accept the Potsdam Declaration's terms of surrender.
The many soldiers and sailors present on Okinawa could not wait to begin celebrating their apparent release from Operation Downfall. From the Aug. 20, 1945 edition of "Life Magazine":
Okinawa
The first news reaching Okinawa of a peace proposal was greeted by jubilant GIs who slapped each other's backs, danced, cheered and shouted, "To hell with 'Golden Gate by '48', we'll be home by September 8". Most GIs took every weapon within reach and started firing into the sky with rifles, 45s, ack-ack and machine guns and the sky was criss-crossed with literally millions of rounds of tracers. It looked like a 4th of July celebration, only noisier and more spectacular.
Trigger-happy kids fresh from home got their first opportunity to fire their guns but veteran, combat-wise correspondents and officers donned their helmets and ran for shelter. The sky was thick with shrapnel and flak. In the district where I was, 23 men were hurt and hospitalized as a result of the promiscuous shooting and the falling flak. Some ships in the harbor, not knowing of the peace proposal, thought it was a Kamakazi attack. A general quarters alarm was sounded, causing men to go to their stations clad in underwear, steel helmets and Mae Wests. Smokescreens were laid and most of the ships opened up with antiaircraft. This barrage by shore and water batteries was caused partly by the fact that news of the peace proposal almost coincided with with an air alert. When those who hadn't heard the news saw and heard the celebrant's barrage, they opened fire, too. Seasoned correspondents of many campaigns said this was the most spectacular show they had ever seen. Shrapnel and bullets pierced many tents. The pyrotechnics lasted only a few minutes as those who listened at radios got word from the High Command to cease firing. Some quick-thinking unit commanders ordered troops to fall in with their rifles, then told them, "The first man firing his weapon will be court-martialed." [[A saddening note: six men were killed during the excitement.) - George Lacks
The LST-726's August 1945 War Diary soberly noted the events of August 10, 1945 as follows:
The tremendous amount of anti-aircraft fire which arose is common knowledge. Even more dangerous was the small-arms fire on the beach. It was this command's desire to keep the crew and passengers below decks, when "Flash Red, Control Yellow, Make Smoke" came over the air. General Quarters was sounded. Two 20 mms. opened fire at nothing but were immediately silenced when they heard the cease firing horn. The gun crews upon being questioned at Mast admitted they had no orders or cause to fire, and were made fully aware of the danger of their actions..... Afterwards, upon securing from General Quarters prematurely to avoid falling shrapnel and any further display of enthusiasm by our gun crews, it was learned that a transport outside Naha Ko had received a torpedo during and in spite of all the a.a. fire. The incident impressed all present that in spite of peace talks, the enemy was still carrying on with the fight. Further enemy activity in the area on other nights confirmed this.
It wasn't until August 15th that Japan formally agreed to the unconditional surrender terms of the Potsdam Declaration and from that point on, the LST-726 was tasked with supporting the occupation of the Japanese home islands.