Not surprisingly, the widely anticipated surrender of Japan 65 years ago was big news, bringing World War II to an end. What was then the Waco News-Tribune put out an extra as soon as the news came across. The terms of the Potsdam Declaration were outlined, military mop-up operations in the Pacific were chronicled and the Associated Press jumped on the issue of how Texas would be impacted as a dynamic war industry ground to a halt.

Under the headline “JAPS SURRENDER,” the main story reports President Harry S. Truman’s announcement of the Japanese surrender and the naming of U.S. Gen. Douglas MacArthur to formally accept the surrender on behalf of the United States, Great Britain, Russia and China.

The page also included a Page One editorial:

A long time ago — as time has been going since Dec. 1941 — the Texas defense guard was assembled in the old Cotton Palace coliseum, not yet torn down, to hear a speaker. He was from out of town. Just now his name or his connections are not recalled. But he painted to the assembled guardsmen a picture of the forthcoming new world so far as nations and their might were concerned.

He began by saying that the zenith of civilization with its glory and power from the time when China was the flower of the universe had always moved from west to east — never in the opposite direction. With the (fall) from this zenith by China, civilization transferred its affection to India and then to Egypt. When the pharaohs demoralized that land, she moved on to Greece, then on to Rome and in turn to Spain and France, and in our time to England.

Then he said civilization in this day was seeking a new place on this globe upon which to bestow its favors.

Thus, looking west from England, seat of the once-mighty British empire, we see the land where civilization has created the atomic bomb, has developed an airplane which will go 550 miles per hour. A civilization but for which the whole world would now be ruled by dictators. A civilization but for which the whole world would be enslaved.

WE GIVE YOU THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

Among other items on this well-stocked front page, a notice at the bottom of the page informed Wacoans that all stores, banks and the post office would be closed that day — it was Wednesday, Aug. 15, 1945 — and that local churches would have a combined thanksgiving service at the Austin Avenue Methodist Church at 8:15 p.m. to commemorate victory over the Japanese and an end to the war.

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