One hundred thirty two B-29s attached to the 315th Bomb Wing (very heavy), flew the last mission of WWII August 14/15—6 days after Nagasaki was struck by the second atomic bomb. This last raid took out 67% of Japan's remaining Inner Zone oil refining and by a bizarre twist of fate, foiled a military revolt whose intent was to kidnap the Emperor and keep the war going. The last mission placed the seal on the end of WW II. This story is an eyewitness account and features The Boomerang and crew

The Boomerang

The author, Jim B. Smith, was the radio operator on this 10-man crew attached to the 315th Bomb Wing. Smith had been a flying cadet and was caught up in the pilot surplus washout. He was reassigned as a B-29 radio operator. The crew represented 8 different States: Airplane Commander Carl Schahrer, Bakersfield, California, copilot John Waltershausen, Colorado, Bombardier Dick Marshall, Tustin, California, Engineer Hank Gorder, Grafton, North Dakota, Radio Operator, Jim B. Smith, Des Moines, Iowa, Navigator Tony Cosola, Fremont, California, Radar Operator, Dick Ginster, Georgia, Right Scanner, Henry Carlson, Verona, New Jersey, Left Scanner, Henry Leffler, Ohio, Sid Siegel, Lakeworth, Florida.

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President Truman's comment after the atomic bombs destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki and Japan agreed to surrender on August 15th, 1945. "There will be no more atomic weapons used on Japan unless there is a "hitch" in the peace process. If that should happen other atomic bombs would be dropped beginning on the first clear day after August 17." ^1,2

The hitch, which was only revealed to the U.S. after the peace was signed, occurred when War Minister Anami's Young Tiger military staff angrily rebelled after hearing that the War Cabinet had succumbed to the Emperor's plea for peace. The Tigers vowed to continue the war while the War Cabinet prepared to sign the peace treaty August 14 at 11:00 p.m. The Young Tiger conspiracy planned by Anami's brother-in- law, Lt. Colonel Masahiko Takeshita, plotted to take over the palace, kidnap the Emperor to protect him from his "traitorous advisors", confiscate his recordings of surrender, and issue false orders for the army to continue the war. ³ The 315th Bomb Wing triggered a Tokyo blackout in one precise moment of time that spared the Emperor and allowed his records of surrender to be safely hidden away. The great on-the-scene historian and professor at Harvard, Samuel Eliot Morison, in The Two Ocean War stated: "It was a very near thing."

If the revolt had succeeded, the war would have continued. Another atomic bomb was waiting in the wings while the US Third Fleet was gathering to invade Japan. Intelligence estimates that the invasion would have cost upwards of 500,000 Americans lives and ten times that number of Japanese.

Even after the Emperor had asked his War Cabinet for surrender, the No Surrender mentality of the Japanese placed peace squarely on the Razor's edge.

Military authorities say that any continuation of war would have meant a yard by yard, place by place fighting that would have incurred human losses never before seen. Moreover Russia, who entered the war after Nagasaki was bombed, would have been a full partner.

Experts believe that post-war Japan would have been divided up like Germany, and communism could have easily engulfed a defeated Japan.

It was The Last Mission flown 6 days after Nagasaki that rang down the final curtain on WWII!

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You can write to Jim at: jb29miss@ix.netcom.com

¹ Peter Wyden, Day One. Pp.294-95
² Rhodes, Richard. The Making of the Bomb. Pp. 743-47
³The Pacific War Research Society, Japan's Longest Day pp. 202, 226

Jim B. Smith Copyright 1995—TX 559-746 Library of Congress 1998-- WGA # 6928