FAMILY & FRIEND VETERANS OF FOREIGN WARS
Seaman Second Class Howard Donald Edger, Jr. - continued
At the time, the development of the atomic bomb was a very closely guarded secret (not even then Vice President Harry Truman knew of its existence until he later became President), known only to a few top officials outside the Manhattan Project and the initial planning for the invasion of Japan did not take its existence into consideration. Once the atomic bomb became available, General Marshall envisioned using it to support the invasion, if sufficient numbers could be produced in time.
On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Late in the evening of August 8, 1945, in accordance with the Yalta agreements, but in violation of the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, and soon after midnight on August 9, 1945, the Soviet Union invaded the Imperial Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo. Later that same day, the United States dropped a second atomic bomb, this time on the Japanese city of Nagasaki.
The combined shock of these events caused Emperor Hirohito to intervene and order the Supreme Council for the Direction of the War to accept the terms the Allies had set down in the Potsdam Declaration for ending the war. After several more days of behind-the-scenes negotiations and a failed coup d'état, Emperor Hirohito gave a recorded radio address across the Empire on August 15. In the radio address he announced the surrender of Japan to the Allies.
Operation "Downfall" would never occur. Nonetheless, there was still much to do.
PGM-28 remained at its Subic Bay base following the capitulation of the Japanese Imperial Forces as an integral part of cleanup operations. As part of those efforts PGM-28 received one battle star for minesweeping operations in the Honshu [Japan] area between 11 - 27 September 1945. Historically, during World War II and the Korean War, commendations called "battle stars" were issued to United States Navy warships for meritorious participation in battle, for having suffered damage during battle conditions or other extraordinary contributions. Now Seaman Second Class, Howard Donald Edgar was an integral part of those accomplishments.
