Continued: Installment Two:

The division's first mission in Tokyo was to assume control of the central portion of the city. Troops of the 7th Cavalry guarded the American Embassy where General MacArthur had taken up residence, and the Meiji Shrine, one of the most sacred geographical points in Japan, according to Japanese belief. Daily patrols began the long task of locating, investigating and reporting all Japanese installations which had contributed to the nation's war effort, and there were many. All arsenals, factories, barracks and storage grounds had to be examined and reports made of their contents. In addition, the division was concerned with the status of demobilization of the Japanese armed forces. Although the Imperial Army and Navy were being disbanded under supervision of Japanese officials, the First Cavalry Division maintained liaison with them and checked on the progress of their work.It is to the credit of the Japanese that they were generally cooperative in answering the questions of the reconnaissance patrols and giving, to the best of their ability, information concerning the installations in their charge. A few of the officials queried by the patrols appeared to be hostile in attitude, but when this condition was reported, the situation was rectified. In some instances, incomplete or apparently evasive information was given but this was attributable, to a large degree, to the fact that the persons with a more complete knowledge had departed before the patrols arrived.

On September 11, members of the First Cavalry Division assisted in frustrating the suicide attempt of Hideki Tojo, war-time premier of Japan, whose name had been placed at the head of the list of Japanese war criminals. Tojo shot himself with a small pistol but before he could die the death of a martyr, he was evacuated from his residence in a First Cavalry ambulance and given medical treatment. He survived to stand trial by the International Tribunal.

Now that the war had ended and it had become apparent that the occupation of Japan would not require any tremendous force of arms, redeployment of veterans with long service moved forward on a large scale. Some of the U.S. Army divisions who had come to Japan only a few days before commenced preparations for inactivation or movement home to the United States. This meant that the First Division, one of the units to remain overseas, would be charged with the responsibility for an increasingly larger zone of occupation. On September 16, the First Cavalry was given responsibility for occupying all of the city of Tokyo.in addition to adjacent parts of Tokyo and Saitama Prefecture.

An important project during the early days of the occupation was to find adequate housing facilities for the troops. Although September was not a particularly cold month in Japan, the tent camp at Yoyogi proved unsuitable as winter quarters for troopers who blood had been thinned by two years in the tropics. A typhoon, which damaged the camp on September 16, emphasized the need for more permanent billets. By September 25, all the elements of the division had moved into buildings of wood or masonry construction.. Much cleaning and some repair was required to put these billets into the condition demanded by the U.S. Army

As the occupation continued, the various units of the division were shifted from place to place so that they could accomplish their missions most effectively. At the end of the first 18 months of occupation, the command posts of the 1st Brigade, 5th Cavalry and 12th Cavalry were situated at Camp McGill at Otawa, about 20 miles south of Yokohama. The 2nd Cavalry Brigade had its command post at the Imperial Guard Headquarters Building in Tokyo while the 7th Cavalry was at the Merchant Marine School. The 8th Cavalry continued to occupy the 3rd Imperial Guard Regiment Barracks in Tokyo. The Division Artillery Headquarters at Ojima, in Gumma Prefecture, was so located that it could maintain control over the four artillery battalions which had the duty of occupying the mountainous prefectures. These comprised the northern portion of the division's zone of responsibility. Division Headquarters and other units of the division were stationed at Camp Drake near Tokyo..

To Be Continued...