8-4-19
A busy month in 1945. While the task force moved up the coast of Honshu (8-4 through 8-9) so the heavy ships could bombard the industrial city of Kamaishi, a couple of bombs went off that changed the world. Little Boy (8-6) and Fat Man (8-9) were unleashed on two densely populated cities – the ultimate abandonment of U.S. policy at the beginning of the War banning attacks on civilian targets . . .
On 8-9, the Boston, along with cruisers Quincy, Chicago and St. Paul met up with battleships Massachusetts, South Dakota and Alabama for daylight bombardment of Kamaishi.
“When we bombarded Japan, we had the British battleship King George the Fifth. She was firing at targets and we had to fire on a bridge over a deep ravine. We knocked it out and went on to bombard where King George was bombarding with their 16″ guns. We fired our 8’s right over their heads. You should have seen that!” John Farkas
“As soon as we got back from San Pedro, we bombarded Japan twice. The ship actually bombarded three steel mills and the like. I never thought a thing about all that we were doing; being in the Navy – I just wanted to get out, get home, drop everything. That’s what you did. It wasn’t until I got home – and years later the light bulb went on and I realized I was making history out there.” George Pitts
August 15, 1945: This morning we returned to the Tokyo area and the carriers launched their planes for the first strike when we heard the final news of the Japanese surrender. So the war ended for the U.S.S. Boston, 21 months after we left home port. Frank Studenski