I found an interview with a veteran who, at the end of the war in Europe, was sent home on leave and then had to board a troop ship in Tacoma,WA for the invasion of Japan. On the way, the Japanese surrenderd and they became Occupation Forces instead.Here is some of his interview...
(quote)We sailed on to Japan for a total voyage of 31 days from
Tacoma to Cebu Philippines to Japan, where we disembarked at Yokohama and I was
assigned as a military policeman, and our assignments were to search out anything
that could be used as a weapon against us. All the weapons must be turned in to the
Japanese police who, in turn, were under the control of General Douglas McArthur
and the United States Army and those of us who were military police. And I was
stationed in Yokohama and Sendai and Kofu, which is near Mt. Fujiyama, and in
Nigata which is a seaport on the West China Sea. While I was in Nigata, I had a very
interesting assignment. My job was to go to a warehouse where all of these arms
had been turned in by the Japanese to their police and they were stashed in this
warehouse. It was filled with hunting rifles and shotguns and samurai swords and
hari-kari (seppuku) Knives and daggers and ceremonial swords, and there were 5
Japanese civilians who were paid by the U.S. Army, and my job was to bring them to
the warehouse. I had a girl interpreter, lock them in, and they were to destroy these
weapons. And they would sit crouched down and take one samurai sword and cut
the trappings and the handle off of the other one and all the medals were placed in a
box to be melted down, and all the wood and cords and finish work that would burn
would be burned, and they sat their with tears running down their face, while we
destroyed what I now understand to be much of their heritage, their culture. We
were allowed to send home one box of souvenirs. It was one way the Army was able
to get rid of military weapons and weapons of war. That box could not exceed 48
inches. It was a wooden box. I was able to send 3 boxes, one each month home,
including kimonos in silk, which my wife later made her wedding dress from, and a
while horse hide, and a pistol, and some samurai swords, and some daggers and
souvenirs, and that’s how the Army disarmed Japan. (end of quote)
(quote)We sailed on to Japan for a total voyage of 31 days from
Tacoma to Cebu Philippines to Japan, where we disembarked at Yokohama and I was
assigned as a military policeman, and our assignments were to search out anything
that could be used as a weapon against us. All the weapons must be turned in to the
Japanese police who, in turn, were under the control of General Douglas McArthur
and the United States Army and those of us who were military police. And I was
stationed in Yokohama and Sendai and Kofu, which is near Mt. Fujiyama, and in
Nigata which is a seaport on the West China Sea. While I was in Nigata, I had a very
interesting assignment. My job was to go to a warehouse where all of these arms
had been turned in by the Japanese to their police and they were stashed in this
warehouse. It was filled with hunting rifles and shotguns and samurai swords and
hari-kari (seppuku) Knives and daggers and ceremonial swords, and there were 5
Japanese civilians who were paid by the U.S. Army, and my job was to bring them to
the warehouse. I had a girl interpreter, lock them in, and they were to destroy these
weapons. And they would sit crouched down and take one samurai sword and cut
the trappings and the handle off of the other one and all the medals were placed in a
box to be melted down, and all the wood and cords and finish work that would burn
would be burned, and they sat their with tears running down their face, while we
destroyed what I now understand to be much of their heritage, their culture. We
were allowed to send home one box of souvenirs. It was one way the Army was able
to get rid of military weapons and weapons of war. That box could not exceed 48
inches. It was a wooden box. I was able to send 3 boxes, one each month home,
including kimonos in silk, which my wife later made her wedding dress from, and a
while horse hide, and a pistol, and some samurai swords, and some daggers and
souvenirs, and that’s how the Army disarmed Japan. (end of quote)