2nd September 1945 VJ Day or Victory Day America
Japanese sign final surrender

Today is the anniversary of Imperial Japan’s formal surrender to the Allied Forces at the end of the Second World War. By mid-1945, the defeat of Japan looked inevitable with its navy and air force destroyed, devastating air raids on its cities and an Allied naval blockade had the Empire’s military and civilian populace seriously vulnerable. The Japanese held island of Okinawa had been captured and prepared to be used as a staging area for a proposed Allied invasion of the Japanese Home Islands called Operation Downfall.

The Empire initially rejected the call by the Allied Forces for its unconditional surrender in the Potsdam Declaration. What followed was the atomic bombing of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the 6th and 9th of August, as well the declaration of war on Japan by the Soviet Union on the 8th of August and its invasion of Manchuria the following day. American President Harry S. Truman called again for Japan’s surrender, warning the Japanese to ‘expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this earth.’ An imperial conference was held by the Japanese Emperor Hirohito and after a long, emotional debate it was decided Japan would accept the terms of the Potsdam Declaration. In the early hours of the 15th of August, a military coup was attempted by a radical militarist faction of the Japanese leadership but was swiftly crushed.

Japan announced its surrender at noon on the 15th of August, 1945 after the Japanese Emperor broadcasted the acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration to the Japanese people, but this was not formalised until the Japanese Instrument of Surrender was signed aboard the USS Missouri (a battleship that had seen considerable action in the Pacific Theatre) by Japan and the Allied Forces in Tokyo Bay on the 2nd of September, 1945 thus officially ending the Second World War. V-J Day is officially commemorated on the 15th of August in the UK, while the US commemoration is on the 2nd of September.

Following the official surrender ceremony, other ceremonies took place across the Empire of Japan’s remaining territories in South East Asia and the Pacific, more than 7 million Japanese soldiers and sailors had been captured by the Allied Forces. By 1947 all prisoners held by America and Britain were repatriated but China did not repatriate all its Japanese prisoners until the 1950s. In 1951 the majority of the Allies signed the Treaty of San Francisco, re-establishing relations within Japan, while the Soviet Union did not formally make peace with Japan until the Soviet–Japanese Joint Declaration of 1956.

Some Japanese soldiers refused to surrender at all, believing the declaration of surrender to be Allied propaganda or never actually heard it, and held out especially on small islands in the Pacific. The last known Japanese holdout, a Taiwanese soldier named Teruo Nakamura, held out in Indonesia until 1974, almost 30 years after the end of the war.

'When You Go Home,
Tell Them Of Us And Say,
For Your Tomorrow,
We Gave Our Today.'

We have many artefacts relating to this field of conflict and many more with unique stories relating to people who were actually there if you would like to learn more why not pay us a visit.