World War II Database

• Home
• » Events
• » WW2 Timeline
• » 16 Aug 1945

• Winston Churchill delivered an address warning of the communist "iron curtain" dividing Eastern and Western Europe. ww2dbase [Winston Churchill | CPC]
• British Admiral Bruce Fraser awarded William Halsey the Order of the Knight of the British Empire aboard USS Missouri. ww2dbase [William Halsey | CPC]
• British Admiral Bruce Fraser visited USS Missouri. ww2dbase [Missouri | CPC]
• HMS Cumberland on passage to Rangoon, Burma. ww2dbase [Cumberland | DS]

• Warrant Officer Torataro Matsumoto officially declared all Allied prisoners of war at Rabaul, New Britain free. ww2dbase [Rabaul, New Britain | CPC]

• A three-day conference of the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League began at the Naythuyain Theater on Kandawgyi Lake in Rangoon, Burma. This was the first public meeting of this coalition of several anti-colonial organizations. The absence of Thakin Soe in this conference (who had been accused of bigamy by his political opponents) would give Aung San an opportunity to rise as the foremost leader of Burmese nationalists. ww2dbase [Aung San | Rangoon | CPC]

• Soviets captured Emperor Kangde, puppet emperor of Manchukuo at Xinjing airport (later Changchun Dafangshen Airport) in Xinjing (Changchun), Jilin, China. ww2dbase [Puyi | Changchun, Jilin | CPC]
• Jonathan Wainwright was liberated from Japanese captivity in Liaoyuan, Liaobei Province, China. ww2dbase [Jonathan Wainwright | Liaoyuan, Liaobei | CPC]

• Pemuda, the youth wing of the Communist Party of Indonesia, kidnapped Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta and brought them to Rengasdengklok east of Batavia, Dutch East Indies. Japanese Admiral Tadashi Maeda intervened immediately, meeting both sides and successfully negotiating the release of Sukarno and Hatta. ww2dbase [Rengasdengklok, Java | CPC]

• Former Japanese officials in Saigon, Cochinchina, French Indochina began handing over their offices to leaders of the Vietnamese National United Front. ww2dbase [Saigon, Cochinchine | CPC]
• The Dai Viet (Nationalist Party of Greater Vietnam) leadership met, but again failed to come up with a concensus on how to stop the communist Viet Minh. Meanwhile, the National People's Congress also met in Tan Trao about 60 kilometers northwest of Hanoi, Tonkin, French Indochina; the delegates elected Ho Chi Minh the chairman of the Liberation Committee. ww2dbase [Tan Trao, Tonkin | CPC]

• The internees of Stanley Internment Camp in Hong Kong were freed. ww2dbase [Stanley Prison and St Stephen's College | CPC]

• Takijiro Onishi committed ritual suicide in his quarters. ww2dbase [Takijiro Onishi | CPC]
• USS New Mexico arrived at Nakagusuku Bay, Okinawa, Japan. ww2dbase [New Mexico | Nakagusuku Bay, Okinawa | CPC]

• The Committee for the Preparation of Korean Independence was formally established under the leadership of Yo Unhyong. ww2dbase [CPC]

• Malayan nationalist Ibrahim Yaacob convened an emergency meeting in Kuala Lumpur, British Malaya. ww2dbase [Kuala Lumpur | CPC]

• At 2100 hours, I-401 received specific orders to set sail for Kure, Japan; this order came through just as the submarine was preparing to launch Seiran attack aircraft against the US anchorage at Ulithi, Caroline Islands (Operation Arashi). Tatsunosuke Ariizumi, commanding officer of 6th Fleet who was aboard the submarine and who previously continued the operation despite the country's surrender, now chose to obey. Instead of Kure, however, he set sail for the Sanriku coast in northeastern Honshu island so that the officers and men could disappear into the population rather than having to surrender dishonorably. ww2dbase [I-401 | Tatsunosuke Ariizumi | CPC]

• Thai Regent Pridi Phanomyong issued a declaration for peace, in which he renounced the 1942 declaration of war against the Allies for being unconstitutional. ww2dbase [Bangkok | CPC]
• Chen Shou-ming, President of Chinese Chamber of Commerce of Bangkok, Thailand, who had collaborated with the Japanese during the war, was killed by machine gun by a unidentified assassin. ww2dbase [Bangkok | CPC]

• USS Hackleback set sail for Midway Atoll. ww2dbase [Hackleback | Midway Bases | Midway | CPC]

16 Aug 1945 Interactive Map