So much was going on in the world as the calendar turned to August 1945. President Harry S. Truman authorized the atomic bomb drops on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and August 9. The Japanese government indicated that it was ready to surrender on August 10. This news was met with great joy and celebration around the world. War-weary residents seemed to hold their breath for days waiting for word of the Japanese surrender.
The Post-Journal headline for Monday, August 13, was “Allies Wait Impatiently As Tokyo Delays Answer.” On the local page, under the headline “City Tense As V-J Lags”, the story said “Jamestown was on tenterhooks today – awaiting final news from Japan …”. Washington insisted on “unconditional surrender,” and it took until August 14 for that to happen.
Everyone was ready and waiting: all the factory boilers in the City were maintaining a “steam pressure above normal,” for the official word of the surrender. Mayor Samuel Stroth said that when he receives that information, he will “set the sirens and factory whistles in action” and churches were to ring their bells.
A parade was set to begin within three hours of the first blast of sirens, starting at West Third and Jefferson streets. It was informally agreed that once the whistles and sirens were sounded, that workers would be released from their duties to celebrate. “I am willing that all should shout and sing and unloose their feelings,” Mayor Stroth said. Several churches had scheduled services of celebration and thanksgiving.
At The Post-Journal building on Washington Street, Editor John A. Hall ripped the news flash off the teletype machine at exactly 7 p.m., on Tuesday, August 14. He telephoned Mayor Stroth at his home. “This is what I have been waiting for,” the Mayor shouted into the telephone. “I’ll call the light plant right away,” he said. The Post-Journal story reported that the “almost deserted city streets seemed to fill as if by magic, as though thousands had dropped from the sky.”
The air was filled with church bells, factory whistles and car horns. The parade began at 9:30 p.m. and had to “shove its way through the milling crowds as it blared down Third Street.”
It was reported that thousands of people came downtown to celebrate through the night. The next day, however, was “business as usual” as Mayor Stroth announced that “all retail stores, offices, factories and business places will resume operations tomorrow morning.”
The long years of World War II were over.
