WWII E165 - Demilitarizing a Defeated Empire

On 22 September 1945, the 5th Marine Division entered Sasebo Harbor under Japanese pilotage. Marines cleaned and stabilized a burned, silent city, secured depots and key sites, and watched a wary civilian population slowly reappear.

From Sasebo, the division spreads across northern Kyushu, locking down airfields, rail junctions, coastal guns, and ammunition dumps, while also helping run repatriation and displaced-person processing. This episode tracks the shift from assault warfare to tense, day-to-day control: demilitarization, sanitation and disease prevention, restrictions on liberty, black markets, and the pressure of demobilization.

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