My dad, Elvis Waldron, was a coxswain and drove a landing craft  in WWII aboard the USS Lanier.  He was in at the end of Iwo Jima and the middle/end of Okinawa.  He didn't talk much about the war.  He always told me he was the second LVCP to hit in the Occupation landing of Japan.   

For years I thought how in the hell could you know you were #2 when it seemed like there were 100s of boats going in at the same time in these landings.  Evidently this day they went in 12 @ a time.  In 1998 he told me his LVCP boat number was PA 125-22.  He had always looked for it in old news reels.  Evidently they had put together their occupation forces as they went to Tokyo Bay (Tf -31) in 2 weeks.  

In the beginning they had 10,000 Marines and Bluejackets (from what I've read this was first time in WW2 Bluejackets were used as a landing force).  On Monday I found an old newsreel of the occupation (and made this still).  

This is my dad's LVCP on 8/30/1945 @ Yokosuka Naval Base in front of the seaplane hangar.  I had to tell somebody, I wish I could have shown it to Dad.   I am so proud of him, I had to show somebody, I hope you understand... 

Rusty Waldron

 A demolition team was the first 1st to accept a sword in surrender as far as I know. The Japanese had no minesweepers and we had to clear out the landing sites. They sent pilots and guides to get the convoy of transports and cruisers into Tokyo bay without hitting the mines. I don't know if I sent the 6th Marines HX -the occupation of Yokosuka with the Lanier's deck logs. It talks of how this landing was put together in route. That transferred marines from ship to ship all along the way. (Another book I've got is "Victory in the Pacific" by Samuel Eliot Morison, "The Reports of General MacArthur - MacArthur on Japan *The Occupation Military Phase)

Not all of the Japanese troops had received orders for a cease fire and at one point a torpedo wake was seen some distance in front of the Ozark. The fleet put off the occupation landing by 2 days due to bad weather. The 3rd fleet collected in Sagami Wan bay (except the carriers lay outside for air support. There were initial army air people that landed early and instructed remaining Japanese on the occupation instructions for them. one brash Yorktown pilot made a solo occupation the day before the army air people got there an had sign made "Welcome the U.S. Army from the Third Fleet". Another place I've read where the Navy demolition team left a sign on a beach  something like "Welcome Marines. "

The initial small landings were forts and Islands leading into Tokyo Bay. The other Thing that precedence over the Occupation landing of the 30th was retrieval of POWs. Then at 0930 in the am of August 30th, 1945. The 6th Division/ 4th Marines were the initial occupation force to land at Yokosuka naval base. At the same time the 11th air corps was landing at Atusiga airfield. 

The video of my dad's boat is on Combat Cameraman (2001). Another very good documentary on the Occupation is "Occupation Of Japan In World War II " from Military videos