On July 30 effective attacks were made against planes concealed in the vicinity of the fields southeast of Nagoya which had been targets of Air Group 94 on three previous days. At dusk on this day the Task Force retired for another period of replenishment. A scheduled strike against Kyushu was called off and the Lexington was moving northward, some 300 miles off Honshu, as the world was rocked by news of the destruction of Hiroshima by the atomic bomb. The Task Force continued northward and on August 9 and 10, as Japan fumbled with the preliminaries of her surrender. Air Group 94 launched attacks against airfields and shipping in the northern neck of Honshu, finding many planes which burned easily at Jimmachi, west of Sendai, and at the nearby field of Yomagata, and destroying merchant and naval vessels on both the east and west coasts.

Following retirement on the evening of the 10th the next two days were occupied only with normal air patrols and fueling of destroyers. Returning to the attack on August 13, Air Group 94 was sent against an electric company at Kawasaki. Haze and low clouds in the Tokyo area prevented most of the planes from reaching the target, where results were unobserved. Alternatives industrial targets were hit and other strikes of the day made a good score in strafing and bombing planes dispersed around Nasuno and other fields in the valleys north of Tokyo. In the vicinity of the force the combat air patrol shot down an itinerant "Jill," first and only airborne victim of Air Group 94.

After refueling on the 14th the Task Group returned to hit the Tokyo area again on the 15th. The first strike bombed installations at Hyakurigahara, but before the succeeding strike could reach the assigned targets it was recalled, orders having been received to suspend all further air operations in view of the Japanese agreement to surrender. Although for the next day or two occasional Japanese planes were reported near the force, none approached this ship and none were seen by planes of Air Group 94.

Firefighters get the blaze under control...They smother the last flame...And the charred wreckage is towed up the flight deck. "Land planes!"

Lt. (jg) A. C. Pasterick, of Flighting 94, is congratulated by his squadron skipper on making the 20,000th landing aboard the Lexington, June 16, 1945.

A cruiser lies camouflaged at Kure, July, 1945. The rugged terrain gives an idea of the difficulties facing attackers.

The termination of hostilities naturally brought about a respite from the steady pounding of the preceding weeks. After fueling destroyers and engaging in gunnery exercises on the 16th and 17th the Task Force rendezvoused with the replenishment group at dawn on the 18th and for the following week, in an area 200 miles southeast of Honshu, contented itself with replenishment, routine patrols over the force, anit-aircraft gunnery training, and exercises in which the Task Groups drew together and the full strength of American and British ships were maneuvered as a unit.

The period of making time terminated on August 25 when the Lexington moved to within approximately 100 miles off coast of Honshu and began a series of patrol missions designed to precede and accompany the initial occupation landings to be made in the Tokyo area. Our planes were directed to patrol coastal waters and airfields, to fly over populated centers, to locate prisoner-of-war camps and to be constantly on the alert for any indication of treachery on the part of the Japanese.

Five prisoner-of-war camps were located, each marked with large letters "PW" and indentified by hundreds of hysterical white men. Within two hours after the camps had been sighted a Lexington flight was on it's way toward the camps loaded with 1300 pounds of supplies, toilet articles, food, clothing, magazines, comic strips and a specially printed edition of the Sunrise Press, the Lexington daily newspaper, were loaded into sea bags for the prisoners. All hands turned to on these "Mercy Flights," from the news editors and printers who ran off a special edition in two hours, the Chief Petty Officers who donated their shoes, sweaters and coats, and the numerous men of all departments, who contributed to the pilots who tirelessly flew flight after flight without complaint. Similar drops were made on the 27th, and for more than a week thereafter. Numerous letters have since been received from liberated P.O.W's expressing their thanks for the great volume of supplies delivered by Lexington planes.

For operations on the 29th and 30th of August, Task Group 38.1 relieved Task Group 38.4 in the Tokyo area. The Lexington was given responsibility for an area which included the city of Tokyo and the waters of Tokyo Bay. Lexington planes were flown overhead as General MacArthur landed on Atsugi airfield and as the first of our occupation forces made their way ashore in the vicinity of Yokosuka. On both days more supplies were dropped to prisoners.

Patrols and prisoners-of-war supply-dropping missions were flown on the first three days of September, the Lexington's area of responsibility now including the city of Nagoya and airfields to the southeast of that city. As had been the case in the other areas over which Air Group 94 planes had flown since the end of hostilities, Kapanese planes were exposed in orderly lines at all airfields, no enemy planes were in the air and no evidence was seen of any hostile action.

On the 4th of September the Lexington was detached, and on the afternoon of the 5th set a precedent for heavy carriers by entering Tokyo Bay. The crew was drawn upon her flight deck at quarters for muster as she left Sagami Wan, rounded Kannon Saki Light, passed to port the towering cranes of Yokosuka Naval Base and the clutter pagoda bridge of the still floating Nagato, and to starboard the more familiar battleships and cruisers of the Third Fleet, till, off the waterfront of Yokohama, she dropped anchor. This halted the restless movement which had never ceased since she quit Leyte Gulf 67 days eailier, and brought to a satisfying conclusion the fighting history begun off the beaches of Tarawa two years before.

Tokyo lies quite, September 5, 1945, as the Lexington enters Tokyo Bay, while her planes fly over the city.

Fujiyama, as seen from Buoy 15, Yokosuka Naval Base. The fire-scarred Nagato lies at anchor in the foreground. Fuji-san was not visible on September 5, but Lexington crew members had plenty of chances to study it's beauty in the months in which they lay moored off Yokosuka after the surrender, supporting the occupation of Japan. Not until December 3rd did Lexington, her homeward-bound pennnant flying, see the last of this familiar view.

From September 18, 1943, to December 17, 1943; from March 3, 1944 to March 17, 1945; and from June 13, 1945 to December 3, 1945, the Lexington operated in the forward areas of the Pacific west of Pearl Harbor. During that time she participated in 35 major actions; her planes shot down 387 planes in the air and destroyed 645 on the ground; they sunk or damaged 588,000 tons of naval vessels and 497,000 gross tons of merchant shipping; they dropped 2035 bombs on airfields and 700 on factories. Her own guns got 15 planes, with 5 "assists." She was damaged twice. This impressive record is now proudly displayed on her island. Above appears the records for each air group-Air Groups 16, 19, 20, 9 and 94 (since the war, Air Group 92 relieved 94). A flag represents a plane in the air; the "sitting duck" so many planes on the ground; the warship and cargo ship sinkings are obvious, as are the hangar and factory. Below is the list of actions and the grand total.