September 4th, 1945 (TUESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Minesweepers HMCS Minas and Kenora departed Devonport for return to Halifax.
NORWAY: SPITZBERGEN: The last German unit surrenders; the weather station 'Haudegen' on Spitzbergen, which was set out from U-307 on 28 September 1944.
MARIANA ISLANDS: The
U.S. Coast Guard Cutter USCG 83434 became the first and only USCG
cutter to host an official surrender ceremony when Imperial Japanese Army Second
Lieutenant YAMADA Kinichi surrendered the garrison of Aguijan Island on board.
Rear Admiral Marshall R. Greer, USN, accepted the surrender for the United
States.
WAKE ISLAND: The Wake Island Surrender Acceptance
Unit arrives aboard the USS Levy (DD-162) under Brigadier-General Lawson H. M.
Sanderson, Commanding General, 4th US Marine Aircraft Wing. The U.S. flag is raised over Wake
Island at 1330 hours local, as a USMC bugler plays "Colors." This was the first time
the Stars and Stripes had flown over Wake since its capture by the
Japanese on 23 December 1941. At this time their are 653 IJN and 609 IJA
personnel remaining on the island. Over 400 of these troops were wounded and
ill. Some 600 others had been killed by US attacks, 1,288 died of starvation and
illness, and 974 wounded and ill had been evacuated. The first man to step
ashore was Marine Colonel Walter L. J. Bayler, the last man to leave Wake (then
a major) on 21 December 1941 by flying boat. (Jack McKillop and Gordon Rottman)
U.S.A.:
Escort carrier USS Saidor commissioned.
Heavy cruiser USS Helena commissioned.