Surrender in 1945 China -and a Birthday Samurai Sword

I recall that my thirteenth birthday was not typical for any American boy -or anyone else for that matter.

It was late March, a time each calendar year in which Connecticut's winter cold was slowly but surely yielding to the inevitable change towards Spring. I was in my room in our home in Round Hill Greenwich when my father, Herbert Bingham Mead, walked in. In his hand was his samurai sword. He passed it over to me, said that it was mine now and to remember its significance. 

Coming from a family as historical as mine, transfers of heirlooms from older generations to younger ones like mine was more or less routine.

But this was different. It was would be years later before I came to begin to understand how important this gift was -and why it resonates today as never before.

For countless generations in Japan, the Samurai sword in Japanese culture was synonymous with a noble, aristocratic warrior tradition enduring into World War II.

After my father survived the Battle of Okinawa under the command of the Fourth Marine Division, my father was transferred to the First Marine Division -and sent to Tianjin, China. In those days that city was known as Tientsin.

It was in Tianjin/Tientsin where Dad and tens of thousands of others would bear witness to history in early October, 1945.

They would eyewitness the first formal surrender of Imperial Japanese troops in China to an American Commander, Maj. General Keller E. Rockey, who was the commander of the United States Marines there.  He did so on behalf of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek of the Republic of China. 

At that time more than 50,000 Japanese nationals were in the Tianjin/Tientsin area. The defeated Japanese Imperial troops were represented by Lieut. Gen. Uchida, who signed the document of surrender.

"The ceremony was held on the street in front of the former French Concession municipal buildings," reported the New York Times, "which now serve as marine headquarters, and tens of thousands of Chinese crowded around the roped-off area and swarmed over nearby buildings to watch.

"The Chinese clapped as General Uchida and his staff of six walked past a marine Color Guard to the surrender table. After the signing, as the Japanese officers walked to their waiting automobiles the crowd broke into a roar of boos and hisses.

"Lieut. Gen. Liu Wen-chin, deputy commander of the Eleventh North China War Area, was ranking Chinese officer present. General Sung Lien-chung, area commander, will take the surrender of the remainder of Japanese forces in North China later at Peiping. The Japanese advised General Rockey that Captain Tajiri, ranking Japanese naval officer in the Tientsin area, had committed hara-kiri."

My father told me that Japanese troops stood on one end, and when signaled to do so disarmed themselves of their samurai swords. After that process was completed, the U.S. Marines, including my father, walked over and retrieved the swords. My father had a smaller sword that he gave to a personal friend some years before. I've included a clipping found among my Dad's albums of a scene that took place in Malaysia, November 1945. 

One of the other interesting things Dad told me was that Japanese troops had been conscripted to perform traffic directing duties. Many had not been completely disarmed. 

"The disarming of the Japanese forces in the Tientsin area by the marines" reported the New York Times, " will start now and the Japanese will progressively be relieved of guard and patrol duties they have been performing for the last six weeks."

At last! Peace had come to China and the world.

But as my historical journey into the post-World War II era progressed I would soon realize that new complications would arise.

I could imagine those back in Greenwich, especially my paternal grandparents, who must have been elated that the war was over. While my Dad fortunately survived many tests and trials, let us not forget that there were those among Greenwich's native sons who gave their lives in ultimate sacrifice who would not return home again.

Jeffrey Bingham Mead 
Memorial Day
May 26, 2014