VJ Day: The War's Final Sunset
Three months after Europe fell silent, the Pacific war ended and a sailor's kiss in Times Square became its enduring image.
WOW Score
After the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Soviet entry into the war against Japan, Emperor Hirohito announced Japan's surrender in mid-August 1945.
The formal signing took place on September 2 aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. Across the Allied world, VJ Day celebrations erupted alongside reflections on the war's staggering cost.
World War II, which had consumed tens of millions of lives, was over at last.
"When Japan surrendered, the Second World War the deadliest conflict in human history was finally over."
Victory over Japan ended World War II and ushered in the atomic age, the occupation and reconstruction of Japan, and the rise of the United States as a global superpower. It also began the difficult reckoning with the war's immense toll across Asia.
The Full Story
The Final Days
The atomic bombings and the Soviet invasion of Manchuria convinced Japan's leaders that continued resistance was futile. The emperor's intervention broke a deadlocked cabinet.
The Missouri Signature
The surrender ceremony on the battleship USS Missouri formalized the end, witnessed by representatives of the nations that had fought across the Pacific.
A New World Order
The war's end launched the nuclear era, the United Nations, and the bipolar Cold War world and began the long reconstruction of a shattered globe.