Argentina Australia Brazil Canada Chile Paraguay Peru Venezuela United States
10,784 44,187 16,623 47,739 2,618 882 1,563 7,315 328,851
TOTAL
460,562
conclusion, UNRRA was the largest exporter globally, with most relief and rehabilitation cargoes moving in Americanflagged ships. Initially, UNRRA cargoes had trouble getting through. Harbor approaches were blocked by mines, channels were obstructed with sunken ships, and piers and port equipment lay in ruins from air raids. By the autumn of 1945, most European ports had reopened, and by the end of the year Chinese ports such as Hong Kong and Shanghai were receiving UNRRA cargoes. Other problems sprang up. A dock strike in the United States late in 1946 and the freezing over of the Baltic Sea in early 1947 interrupted shipments. As ships arrived in bombed-out ports, they found chaos in the process of clearing in and getting cargoes ashore. In some ports, pilferage was a significant problem. Gradually the situation got better as port facilities improved and more ships became available. Relocation At the end of World War II, millions of people worldwide found themselves uprooted and far from home. Not only did the starving populace have to be fed, but people had to return home as well. SEA HISTORY 177, WINTER 2021–22
courtesy of the author
DPs Moved by American Ships, 1948–1951 Europe to: # of DPs
In Europe, many were able to return overland, but the former Japanese Empire proved a far more complicated problem. More than six million Japanese on Pacific islands and the Asian mainland had to find a way home. Furthermore, some 1,170,000 aliens in Japan had to return to Korea or other countries, and 11,000 Chinese in Southeast Asia required repatriation. There was little available shipping; American naval forces had sunk roughly ninety percent of Japan’s merchant and naval fleets. Nearly all Chinese ships had been destroyed during the war, and any remaining tonnage in East Asia was generally small, old, and poorly maintained. Like in Europe, Asia’s port facilities were in poor shape. The American government acted with generosity to return Japanese repatriates as soon as possible. Leading this effort was General Douglas MacArthur, who commanded the Allied occupation forces and held the title Supreme Commander Allied Powers (SCAP). Using every available resource, he worked with the Japanese government to repair and convert any remaining Japanese naval vessels and commercial ships to bring troops and civilians back. US participation in this program peaked in summer 1946, with some 188 Japanese
ships and 191 United States-owned ships— mostly Liberty ships and LSTs—all manned by Japanese crews. Often American commercial or naval vessels augmented the evacuation of the repatriates. The Japanese packed many more passengers onto these ships than Americans did, raising the Libertys’ and LSTs’ carrying capacities to 3,500 and 1,200 passengers, respectively. This was an increase of 1,000 and 300 each over the American forces’ maximum occupancy for the same type of ships. These operations reached a peak in 1946, with the Chinese port of Huludao, Manchuria, evacuating 7,500 people a day until Communist forces overran it in 1948. Some of the last Japanese repatriated were those held prisoner by the Soviets. Several hundred thousand never returned and likely perished in prisoner camps doing hard labor. The last prisoners returned in 1949, after undergoing years of communist indoctrination by Soviet authorities in conjunction with the Japanese Communist Party. To the alarm of American and Japanese authorities, repatriated former prisoners could be heard singing Communist Party songs as they disembarked, causing concern that they would foster a communist revolution in Japan. 25