NOTE:Publication of the Occupation Diary, First Cavalry Division (1945-1950) will appear, as installments, on the Historian Corner on a continuing basis as time and space permits. Each installment will be subsequently moved to the History Annex Page when a new installment is published. Therefore, if an installment is missed during the period it was published, it may be viewed on the History Annex Page.

Continued: Installment 4:

In October 1945, the First Cavalry Division commenced the seizure of stocks, precious metals, jewelry, foreign currency, and narcotics, which were in the possession of Japanese business firms and industrial plants. By the end of January 1947, more than 76,000,000 grams of gold, a billion grams of silver, 7,000,000 grams of platinum, and a large quantity of diamonds had been confiscated by the division and impounded in the vaults of the Bank of Japan. About 60,000,000 grams of narcotics had been seized and either destroyed or turned over to the Japanese Home Ministry.

In addition to seizing and disposing of munitions and precious items, the First Cavalry Division conducted an inventory of all lumber mills in its zone of responsibility to determine production capacity and the stocks of lumber on hand. One hundred sixty-nine mills were canvassed during this survey.

On November 6, 1945, the division took over the operation of the repatriation center at the port of Uraga, south of Yokohama on Tokyo Bay. Japanese nationals, including army, navy, civil service, and diplomatic personnel, being returned from overseas were received, processed, and sent to their homes in Japan. Non-citizens of Japan passed through the port on their way back to their own countries. Among the problems that added to the difficulty of operating the port was prevalence of diseases such as cholera and typhus aboard the incoming ships. Quarantine measures were enforced and the danger of an epidemic in Japan was allayed. In all, more than 560,000 incoming Japanese, 61,000 cases of funeral ashes and more than 12,000 outgoing Formosans and Ryukyuans were processed through the port of Uraga under the supervision of the 1st Cavalry Brigade.

On October 11, 1945, patrols from the First Cavalry Division officiated at the release of 34 political prisoners who had been confined by the Japanese Government for periods ranging up to 18 years. Another duty which befell the First Cavalry Division was the seizure of the Tokyo embassies of the puppet Chinese and Manchurian Governments which had come into being during the development of the "Greater East Asia Co Prosperity Sphere." These buildings were placed under guard and their contents impounded.

In furtherance of the ideas of freedom of speech and assembly which the Allies brought to the people of Japan, numerous mass meetings and rallies were permitted and encouraged by the occupation authorities.

To insure that these meetings were not molested by the police or other unsympathetic elements, the First Cavalry Division provided observers who stood by unobtrusively and were equipped to summon help by radio if, for any reason, a peaceful assembly degenerated into a riotous mob.

In searching the countryside, the patrols occasionally came across the wreckage of crashed planes which were either casualties of the war or the result of accidents to operational flights during the occupation period. In all cases, the patrols took steps to identify the plane and any of its personnel who had been killed.

Most members of the First Cavalry Division welcomed the arrival of 1946. For them it was the dawning of a new era, a time of peace. The days of privation, hardship, suffering and death were over for the first time since December 7, 1941, and Pearl Harbor. It found the First Cavalry Division in secure control of Tokyo and vicinity, the capital of the former war-built Japanese Empire.

January of 1946 was spent pursuing the gigantic task of rendering Japan powerless to wage wars of aggression. Vast supplies of weapons, aircraft, ammunition and similar instruments of death and destruction were destroyed. During this month, 6,052 tons of ammunition was shipped to out loading docks within the division's sector of responsibility, although a severe shortage of personnel hindered the operation.

As quickly as all machines of war were reduced to scrap, the remains were turned over to the Japanese Home Ministry for use in the reconversion of all the industry of Japan to peace time pursuits. Large amounts of food, clothing and medical supplies, intended for use by the Japanese armed forces, were also delivered to the Japanese Home Ministry for civilian use. In this fashion the First Cavalry Division continued to destroy the potential war-making powers of the Imperial Japanese Government.

On December 15,1945,the First Cavalry Division extended its area of occupational responsibility to include Chiba Prefecture. On January 1, the relief of the 112th Cavalry Regimental Combat Team had been effected completely by the 1st Squadron, 8th Cavalry. The order, adding Chiba Prefecture to the First Cavalry sector of responsibility, necessitated spreading the troops of one squadron over an area twice as large as Tokyo Prefecture, and it further increased the heavy burden already placed upon the division's supply and communication networks. However, the end of January found the division executing the occupational duties in this area with the same superior standard of efficiency that it had performed more difficult tasks during the trying days of the war. The division knew that assuming responsibility for this prefecture was only the prelude to the huge task that would be confronted in the succeeding two months.

With the acceleration of the program to repatriate Koreans to their native land, additional repatriation duties were assumed by the First Cavalry Division. Upon order of IX Corps, the division assumed its share of guard responsibility for safely convoying trains carrying Korean passengers on their way to out loading ports. Various subordinate tactical units rotated the guards for these trains and effected relief of 11th Airborne Division guards at Tabata station, Tokyo. All the Airborne Division guards who were relieved at Tabata station were furnished food and quarters by the 7th Cavalry Regiment before returning to Sendai. During the month of January, 16 trains carrying Korean repatriates passed through the division sector of responsibility.

Early 1946 also saw the Military Police Platoon smash a large black market ring with the arrest of two large scale Japanese operators in Tokyo. It was made possible by an excellent display of courage and detective work on the part of Sergeant Donnel C. Hawks of the Military Police Platoon. Sergeant Hawks acted as a member of the black market ring in order to locate the leaders in conjunction with Sergeant Thomas N. Dyson of the 8th Engineer Squadron, who furnished the original information that led to the exposure and arrest of these criminals.

On January 8, 1946, the First Cavalry Division played host to Secretary of War, Robert P. Patterson who made a four hour visit to the division as part of his world wide inspection tour of occupied countries. Gun salutes and a formal review were rendered in his honor by the cavalrymen, and upon returning to Washington, the honorable Secretary of War wrote the Division Commander, Major General William C. Chase, the following letter of commendation, which read in part:"I want to tell you how much I enjoyed my short visit to your division. From what I saw I would say that you had a very fine organization and wish you would extend to all your personnel my commendation for the splendid way in which they are performing their occupational duties."

During February of 1946, the First Cavalry Division saw the abandonment of a cloistered life by Emperor Hirohito, the hanging of General Tomoyuki Yamashita and the sentencing of General Masaharu Homma to be shot. General Yamashita, one of Japan's foremost military leaders, had led the Japanese troops that opposed the First Cavalry Division in the Philippines. His execution as a war criminal, stripped of uniform, decorations and other appurtenances signifying membership in the military profession, took place near Los Banos, P.I. on February 23, 1946.

Operations during February were still being carried out in accordance with directives from higher headquarters. Some localities still required a thorough searching for war material that had been unreported either because it had been secreted or simply overlooked. As evidence or this fact, a 12th Cavalry patrol, accompanied by Japanese Police, discovered 20 boxes of dynamite and 2,600 meters of primer cord at the Kanawa Christian Church just four miles northwest of Hiratsuka. Further investigation revealed that information of this cache had been given to the Hiratsuka Police the previous October, but no one had transmitted it to the occupation authorities until February 8.

An even greater delinquency in failure to report war material was the discovery, by members of the 82nd Field Artillery Battalion, of 100 20 mm guns, without mounts, inside the dockyard workmen's entrance at the port of Uraga. These guns had never been reported by the Japanese Police.

With an accent on the acceleration of the destruction of Japanese ammunition, the First Cavalry Division far surpassed its previous tonnage shipments of ammunition for destruction at sea when it transported 10,545 tons during the month of February 1946.

On March 1, 1946, the First Cavalry Division assumed the occupational responsibility for seven prefectures of Japan in addition to the four prefectures occupied during previous months. The division now had coast-to-coast control of Central Honshu. This increased responsibility was necessitated by the inactivation of the XI Corps and the 97th Infantry Division. The First Cavalry Division went under the control of the IX Corps.

To Be Continued...