Īt the very bottom of the same page was this: Cruiser Sunk, 1196 Casualties Took Atom Bomb to Guam. The New York Times page one headline was, in all caps, JAPAN SURRENDERS, END OF WAR! EMPEROR ACCEPTS ALLIED RULE. With a new documentary and major motion picture bringing the tragic story back into the spotlight, these are the stories of four Connecticut men aboard the ill-fated ship.Ī nation exhausted by World War II first celebrated V-E Day (Victory in Europe) on May 8, 1945. When the heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis was sunk by a Japanese submarine days after delivering the atomic bomb at the end of World War II, it was the worst at-sea disaster in Navy history.