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A small memorial was installed at Northwest Field in Guam, commemorating the US Air Force 315TH Bomb Wing’s last mission, which marked the end of WWII. A memorial, however, can merely suggest the significance of this last mission. The back-story of the event is monumental—this last mission closed and padlocked the door on WWII. Pearl Harbor was the Alpha--the beginning-- Northwest Field was the Omega--The End.
THE BOTTOM LINE:
If the last mission had not been flown, by all reasonable estimates, a military revolt already begun against the Japanese Emperor’s Peace initiatives would have succeeded and the war would have continued. It would have been a yard-to-yard war—the human carnage would have been far worse than what occurred.
The 315th Bomb Wing bombed the Amagasaki Oil Facilities the night of August 9th, following the A-Bombing of Nagasaki. The crews returning to Northwest Field were told that Japan had sent peace feelers to the world stating that Japan was willing to surrender if the “Emperor’s House” was left intact. Celebrations exploded all over the world anticipating the end of the war. On August 13th, the 315th Wing was well into end-of-the war festivities when a shocking order came in for them to fly the longest mission ever attempted from the Marianas. Their target was the Nippon Oil Refineries at Akita—277 miles northwest of Tokyo. Japan was not surrendering.
The 315th Wing was stalled in standby mode on the Northwest Field runways for an hour. The mission was finally airborne at 4:42 p.m. The Tokyo over-flight by the 315th Wing caught the unsuspecting Japanese military rebels off guard and their operation turned into chaos. In the end it was the blackout caused by the bombing of the oil refineries that unraveled the coup.
The comings and goings of the 132 B-29s kept the blackout in place throughout the night. The 73rd, 313th, and 314th Wings aided and abetted the 315th by attacking the cities of Kumagaya and Isesaki just outside Tokyo
President Harry S Truman announced the official end of the war as the bombers safely returned to base. At debriefing, crewmembers of the 315th reflected on their grueling 17-hour mission and surmised that they had accomplished little to end this war.
BUT SUCH WAS NOT THE CASE: Hidden revelations of the mission’s accomplishments came to light years later when an eyewitness crew member of the 315th, Jim B. Smith, was researching the last mission for his book, The Last Mission.
It is now known that the unprecedented one-hour “hold” on the Northwest Field runway was ordered as the result of an incoming message from Japan’s Domei News Agency. The message stated: “Imperial Surrender Is Coming Soon.” This bulletin arrived at Northwest Field just as the 315th was turning engines in preparation for the trip to Akita. The standby lasted for almost an hour when the Wing was signaled to restart engines and fly the mission.
It turned out there were good reasons for the Akita mission to resume. By removing Akita, which represented 67% of Japan’s annual oil refining capability at the time of the last mission, the 315th Wing struck a serious blow to Japan’s ability to conduct further military operations.
This last mission was the final blow, the true end to WWII.
The events of this failed Japanese military rebellion are documented in Kazutoshi Hando’s book, The Longest Day (with the Pacific War Society), as well as Jim B. Smith’s book, The Last Mission (written with Malcolm McConnell), which was turned into a History Channel documentary and is now being made into a feature film.
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