Victory Over Japan Day: End of WWII (2024)

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Victory Over Japan Day: End of WWII? ›

Victory over Japan Day (V-J Day) would officially be celebrated in the United States on the day formal surrender documents were signed aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay: September 2, 1945.

After VE Day thousands were still fighting in the Far East. Victory over Japan Day (VJ Day) marks the day Japan surrendered on the 15 August 1945, effectively ending the Second World War.

Harry Truman would go on to officially name September 2, 1945, V-J Day, the day the Japanese signed the official surrender aboard the USS Missouri.

VE Day is Victory in Europe Day. This is the day the German forces surrendered to the Allied powers. VJ Day is Victory in Japan Day. This marks the day August, 14, 1945, as the official surrender of Japanese forces in WWII.

On August 6 and 9, 1945, the Allies dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively. On August 9, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan. The Japanese government on August 10 communicated its intention to surrender under the terms of the Potsdam Declaration.

Eight days later, on August 6, the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima; the second was dropped on August 9 on Nagasaki; on the following day, August 10, Japan declared its intention to surrender, and on August 14 accepted the Potsdam terms.

This transcript was edited for length and clarity. Luis Hernandez: Monday is Victory Day in Rhode Island, commemorating the surrender of Japan in August of 1945 that led to the end of World War II. Rhode Island is the only state in the country to celebrate the holiday.

Douglas MacArthur, Commander in the Southwest Pacific and Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, also signed. He accepted the Japanese surrender "for the United States, Republic of China, United Kingdom, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and in the interests of the other United Nations at war with Japan."

Nuclear weapons shocked Japan into surrendering at the end of World War II—except they didn't. Japan surrendered because the Soviet Union entered the war. Japanese leaders said the bomb forced them to surrender because it was less embarrassing to say they had been defeated by a miracle weapon.

With defeat imminent, Japan's leaders feared that without the imperial house, the state and their own power would be devalued and diminished in the eyes of the people, and that the state would ultimately disintegrate.

What does the D-Day stand for in V-Day? ›

There was no 'V-Day'. There was a VE-Day (Victory in Europe) and a VJ-Day (Victory over Japan), but these were events labeled only after the fact. D-Day is a misinterpretation by the press of a common military planning title. “D” in that phrase simply means 'day'.

On Victory in Europe Day, or V-E Day, Germany unconditionally surrendered its military forces to the Allies, including the United States. On May 8, 1945 - known as Victory in Europe Day or V-E Day - celebrations erupted around the world to mark the end of World War II in Europe.

They crowded outside newspaper offices to hear the latest news, flocked to City Hall, and formed jubilant parades on Bay and Yonge streets. They all celebrated, in their own way, the end of the war. V-E (Victory in Europe) Day, the end of the conflict with Hitler's Germany, came first.

Leaflets dropped on cities in Japan warning civilians about the atomic bomb, dropped c. August 6, 1945. TO THE JAPANESE PEOPLE: America asks that you take immediate heed of what we say on this leaflet.

By 1944, the Allies had seized or bypassed and neutralized many of Japan's strategic bases through amphibious landings and bombardment. This, coupled with the losses inflicted by Allied submarines on Japanese shipping routes began to strangle Japan's economy and undermine its ability to supply its army.

The surrender of the Empire of Japan in World War II was announced by Emperor Hirohito on 15 August and formally signed on 2 September 1945, ending the war. By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) was incapable of conducting major operations and an Allied invasion of Japan was imminent.

The Treaty ultimately gave Japan control of Korea and much of South Manchuria, including Port Arthur and the railway that connected it with the rest of the region, along with the southern half of Sakhalin Island; Russian power was curtailed in the region, but it was not required to pay Japan's war costs.

The Japanese formally signed the surrender on September 2, 1945 and the United States occupied the country for seven years until 1952. To this day over one million Japanese war dead remain unaccounted for.

Aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, Japan formally surrenders to the Allies, bringing an end to World War II. By the summer of 1945, the defeat of Japan was a foregone conclusion. The Japanese navy and air force were destroyed.

The complete victory of the Japanese military surprised international observers and transformed the balance of power in both East Asia and Europe, resulting in Japan's emergence as a great power and a decline in the Russian Empire's prestige and influence in Europe.