VJ Day: 15 August 1945 Posted on: 14 August 2020
Surrender of Japan, Tokyo Bay, 2 September 1945. Representatives of the Empire of Japan on board USS Missouri during the surrender ceremonies (US National Archives)
We call upon the Government of Japan to proclaim now the unconditional surrender of all the Japanese armed forces, and to provide proper and adequate assurances of their good faith in such action. The alternative for Japan is prompt and utter destruction. Proclamation by the Heads of Government, United States, United Kingdom and China, 26 July 19451
On 15 August 1945, Emperor Hirohito announced the surrender of Imperial Japan to the Allies, making an unprecedented broadcast to his nation. This ended the Second World War. ‘VJ Day’, Victory over Japan Day, is marked by Japan and the UK on 15 August. The United States marks it on 2 September, the anniversary of the signature of the Instrument of Surrender on the USS Missouri in the presence of General Douglas Macarthur, Supreme Commander in the Southwest Pacific theatre. The end of the Second World War was a cause for celebration on the part of the victors, and relief to all those tired of fighting. Yet many conflicts remained to be resolved and problems tackled. For the defeated, relief was tinged with despair and disbelief, even guilt. But the wider context of VJ Day 75 years ago was complex, for all those involved. Japan 14 August, the day on which surrender was agreed at an Imperial Council, marked the end of two devastating weeks for Japan. On 6 and 9 August atomic bombs dropped by US planes had demolished Hiroshima and Nagasaki with massive loss of life. On 8 August the Soviet Union, which had signed a neutrality agreement with Japan in 1941, allied itself to the Tripartite Proclamation seeking unconditional surrender. The Japanese did not know of Stalin’s promise, at the Yalta Conference in February 1945, to enter the Pacific war on the Allied side within 3 months of the defeat of Germany. On 9 August, Soviet forces mounted a massive attack in Manchuria and Korea, overwhelming the Kwantung Army. Japanese defeat was inescapable. The idea of surrender, in Japanese military culture, was unacceptable. The idea that the Emperor might bear any guilt for the sufferings of his country or the crimes of which his
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