And so it went for the next six months until the Japanese capitulation.  On August 15, 1945, the Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet ordered a cessation of all offensive operations and one episode in the life of a great fighting ship was brought to a close.  While almost all the other ships of the US Navy went into Tokyo bay as the Japanese surrender was signed, the USS Yorktown stayed out to sea.  Says  Robert A. McPherson, Rear Admiral (ret.) USS Yorktown "The possibility that some of the Japanese pilots would ignore the peace treaty and attack us, the second reason, furnishing supplies to our POW pilots (held in Japan prison camps).   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ensign Dave Loomis of New York was in the notororious Omori prison camp.  Says Ens. Loomis, "On August 25th the planes from the USS Yorktown buzzed over us and signaled that they were stripping the ship of everything they had for us.

They showered down cigarettes, food and everything they had in their pockets.  Later they came back with parachute supplies. We'll always regard the Yorktown as our mother." Ensign Loomis said.

Aviator "Pop" Condit who flew off the Yorktown and ended up in the Japanese prison camp remembers being forced to stand at attention for 72 hours, among other atrocities.

 "At a number of POW prisons, huge letters on the roofs were spelled out which told  which pilots/crewmen were there.  We spent every night making silk parachutes and the during the day dropped them chocolate bars, milk, cookies, ice cream, rations and everything possible to keep them happy until our Army rescued them a week later.  The Nip prison guards had just walked away!"  In this picture you can see the Japanese prison camp holding Yorktown aviators, the name of the pilot spelled out, and the word Yorktown, plus the word  
T H A N K S;
  because earlier supplies parachuted down were received.

For many of the prisoners of war, the Yorktown planes were the first contact with the outside since they had been captured.  As one POW stated, "When we looked up and seen the planes from the Yorktown, we knew that the war was over, and that we had won."

 

It is indicative of Yorktown's spirit that even during the rage of battle there had been comical moments.  One was the landing of Marine pilots.  Three Marines had become lost during a 30,000 feet air patrol over Okinawa and had wandered several hundred miles out to sea.  They were almost out of fuel when Yorktown picked up their distress calls.  Though none had ever made a carrier landing they were directed to a safe return aboard.  One Marine who made a perfect recovery asked afterwards, "what was that man doing waving those paddles back there?"  He was quickly answered by a sailor who said, "Brother, he's the Landing Signal Officer, and he was giving you a wave off.!"

The Yorktown stayed out of Tokyo harbor during the surrender ceremony but her planes were part of the 450 US Navy planes which led the flyover of the ceremony, showing the Japanese the overwhelming power that defeated it.  After the Navy roared over the ceremony, the  Army Air Force B 20 bombers flew over

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With the Victory over Japan, YORKTOWN spread her "Magic Carpet" returning more than 10,000 men to the United States.

  In January 1946, Yorktown was decommissioned and attached to the Pacific Fleet.  YORKTOWN rested in the reserve fleet from 1947 until the war trumpets sounded in Korea.  Five years later she was recommissioned as CVA-10 and pounded Communist supply lines until the end of the Korean War. 

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