Japan’s surrender made public on V-J Day

Japan’s unconditional surrender to the Allies is made public on V-J Day, or Victory over Japan Day, in an official announcement on August 14, 1945. (Because of time zone differences, it was August 15 in Japan.) Japan formally surrendered in writing two weeks later, on September 2.

Even though Japan’s War Council, urged by Emperor Hirohito, had already submitted a declaration of surrender to the Allies via ambassadors on August 10, fighting continued between the Japanese and the Soviets in Manchuria and between the Japanese and the United States in the South Pacific.

In fact, two days after the Council agreed to surrender, a Japanese submarine attacked the Oak Hill, an American landing ship, and the Thomas F. Nickel, an American destroyer, both east of Okinawa.

On the afternoon of August 14, Japanese radio announced that an Imperial Proclamation was soon to be made, accepting the terms of unconditional surrender drawn up at the Potsdam Conference. That proclamation had already been recorded by the emperor.

The news did not go over well in Japan, as more than 1,000 Japanese soldiers stormed the Imperial Palace in an attempt to find the proclamation and prevent its being transmitted to the Allies. Soldiers still loyal to Emperor Hirohito repulsed the attackers.

That evening, General Korechika Anami, the member of the War Council most adamantly against surrender, committed ritualistic suicide by seppuku. His reason: to atone for the Japanese army’s defeat, and to be spared having to hear his emperor speak the words of surrender.

At the White House, U.S. president Harry S. Truman relayed the news to the American people, and V-J Day celebrations broke out in Washington, D.C., New York City, San Francisco and in cities and towns across the country and around the world.