Between the Covers

Unbound. Shipboard printed news Extra. One 8" x 10½" sheet, mimeographed on both sides. Paper evenly tanned, old horizontal fold, and several short tears (a couple creased) almost completely confined to the margins. A remarkable shipboard-printed declaration of Hirohito's surrender, printed on the day he announced Japan's surrender (dated "at 2318 GMT 14 August '45 or 0818 LZT 15 August '45"). Prints various announcements and as much information as was available in such a short time, as well as the text of the Japanese government's message accepting the Allied terms of surrender "(as read by President Truman)."

The USS *Anzio* (known as the *Coral Sea* before September, 1944) saw action in the Gilbert and Marshall Islands, New Guinea, the Mariana Islands, Bonin Islands, and Okinawa. In a fitting coda, after Japan's surrender, the *Anzio* took part in Operation Magic Carpet, which helping return American soldiers home. An extraordinary, and surely joyously received document.

Item #615966