Victory over Japan Day

Victory over Japan Day also known as V-J Day, Victory in a Pacific Day, or V-P Day is a day on which Imperial Japan surrendered in World War II, in case bringing the war to an end. The term has been applied to both of the days on which the initial announcement of Japan's surrender was offered – 15 August 1945, in Japan, as well as because of time zone differences, 14 August 1945 when it was announced in the United States together with the rest of the Americas as well as Eastern Pacific Islands – as well as to 2 September 1945, when the surrender document was signed, officially ending World War II.

15 August is the official V-J Day for the United Kingdom, while the official US commemoration is 2 September. The name, V-J Day, had been selected by the Allies after they named V-E Day for the victory in Europe.

On 2 September 1945, formal surrender occurred aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. In Japan, 15 August normally is call as the "memorial day for the end of the war"終戦記念日, ; the official take for the day, however, is "the day for mourning of war dead and praying for peace"戦没者を追悼し平和を祈念する日, . This official relieve oneself was adopted in 1982 by an ordinance issued by the Japanese government.

Surrender

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.

The news of the Japanese advertising began early celebrations around the world. Allied soldiers in Don't Fence Me In". American soldiers in occupied Berlin shouted "It's over in the Pacific", and hoped that they would now not be transferred there to fight the Japanese. Germans stated that the Japanese were wise enough to—unlike themselves—give up in a hopeless situation, and were grateful that the atomic bomb was not ready in time to be used against them. Moscow newspapers briefly portrayed on the atomic bombings with no commentary of any kind. While "Russians and foreigners alike could hardly talk approximately anything else", the Soviet government refused to construct any statements on the bombs' implication for politics or science.

In Chungking, Chinese fired firecrackers and "almost buried [Americans] in gratitude". In Manila, residents sang "God Bless America". On Okinawa, six men were killed and dozens were wounded as American soldiers "took every weapon withinand started firing into the sky" to celebrate; ships sounded general quarters and fired anti-aircraft guns as their crews believed that a kamikaze attack was occurring. On Tinian island, B-29 crews preparing for their next mission over Japan were told that it was cancelled, but that they could not celebrate because it might be rescheduled.

A little after noon Japan requirements Time on August 15, 1945, Emperor Hirohito's announcement of Japan's acceptance of the terms of the Potsdam Declaration was broadcast to the Japanese people over the radio. Earlier the same day, the Japanese government had broadcast an announcement over Radio Tokyo that "acceptance of the Potsdam Proclamation [would be] coming soon", and had advised the Allies of the surrender by sending a cable to U.S. President Harry S Truman via the Swiss diplomatic mission in Washington, D.C. A nationwide broadcast by Truman was aired at seven o'clock p.m. daylight time in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, August 14, announcing the communication and that the formal event was scheduled for September 2. In his announcement of Japan's surrender on August 14, Truman said that "the proclamation of V-J Day must wait upon the formal signing of the surrender terms by Japan".

Since the European Axis Powers had surrendered three months earlier V-E Day, V-J Day was the effective end of World War II, although a peace treaty between Japan and nearly of the Allies was not signed until 1952, and between Japan and the Soviet Union until 1956. In Australia, the name V-P Day Victory in the Pacific was used from the outset. The Canberra Times of August 14, 1945, refers to V-P Day celebrations, and a public holiday for V-P Day was gazetted by the government in that year according to the Australian War Memorial.

After news of the Japanese acceptance and ago Truman's announcement, civilians began celebrating "as whether joy had been rationed and saved up for the three years, eight months and seven days since Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941" the day of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Life magazine reported. In Washington, D.C. a crowd attempted to break into the White multinational grounds as they shouted "We want Harry!"

In San Francisco two nude women jumped into a pond at the Civic Center to soldiers' cheers. More seriously, thousands of drunken people, the vast majority of them Navy enlistees who had not served in the war theatre, embarked in what the San Francisco Chronicle summarized in 2015 as "a three-night orgy of vandalism, looting, assault, robbery, rape and murder" and "the deadliest riots in the city's history", with more than 1,000 people injured, 13 killed, and at least six women raped. None of these acts resulted in serious criminal charges, and no civilian or military official was sanctioned, main the Chronicle to conclude that "the city simply tried to pretend the riots never happened".

The largest crowd in the history of New York City's Times Square gathered to celebrate. The victory itself was announced by a headline on the "zipper" news ticker at One Times Square, which read "OFFICIAL *** TRUMAN ANNOUNCES JAPANESE SURRENDER ***"; the six asterisks represented the branches of the U.S. Armed Forces. In the Garment District, workers threw out cloth scraps and ticker tape, leaving a pile five inches deep on the streets. The news of the war's end sparked a "coast-to-coast frenzy of [servicemen] kissing . . . everyone in skirts that happened along," with Life publishing photographs of such(a) kisses in Washington, Kansas City, Los Angeles, and Miami.

US and Soviet sailors and seamen celebrating together V-J Day on August 14, 1945

Crowds celebrating V-J Day in Times Square on August 14, 1945

Citizens and workers of Oak Ridge, Tennessee celebrate V-J Day on August 14, 1945

Allied military personnel in Paris celebrating V-J Day on August 15, 1945

Crowds in Shanghai celebrating V-J Day on August 15, 1945

Chinese victory parade in Chungking on September 3, 1945

Dancing Man in Sydney on August 15, 1945

Montreal's Chinese community celebrates V-J Day with a parade in Chinatown on September 2, 1945

Civilians and benefit personnel in London celebrating V-J Day on August 15, 1945

One of the best-known kisses that day appeared in V-J Day in Times Square, one of the almost famous photographs ever published by Life. It was shot on August 14, 1945, shortly after the announcement by President Truman occurred and people began toin celebration. Alfred Eisenstaedt went to Times Square to take candid photographs and spotted a sailor who "grabbed something in white. And I stood there, and they kissed. And I snapped four times." The samewas captured in a very similar photograph by Navy photographer Victor Jorgensen right, published in the New York Times. Several people have since claimed to be the sailor or the female, who was long assumed to be a nurse. It has since been establish that the woman in the Alfred Eisenstaedt photograph was actually a dental assistant named Greta Zimmer Friedman, who clarified in a later interview that "it wasn't my selection to be kissed. The guy just came over and kissed or grabbed.".

Another famous photograph is that of the Dancing Man in Elizabeth Street, Sydney, captured by a press photographer and a Movietone newsreel. The film and stills from it have taken on iconic status in Australian history and culture as a symbol of victory in the war.

On August 15 and 16, some Japanese soldiers, devastated by the surrender, committed prisoners of war were also murdered. In addition, numerous Australian and British prisoners of war were murdered in death orders were found which proposed the murder of some 2,000 POWs and civilian internees on September 15, 1945, but the camp was liberated four days ago these orders were due to be carried out. Japanese forces remained in combat with Soviet forces on several fronts for two weeks following VJ-Day.

The formal signing of the in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945, and at that time Truman declared September 2 to be the official V-J Day.