V-J Day: 75th Anniversary
September 2 is celebrated in the United States and elsewhere as V-J Day. V-J stands for Victory in Japan. The day marks the surrender of Japanese armed forces in 1945 and the final end of fighting in World War II. (September 2 marks the day the surrender agreement was signed. Some nations celebrate V-J Day on August 14, when the surrender was first announced.) This year is the 75th anniversary of V-J Day.
Following the German surrender in May 1945, Japan stood alone among the Axis powers. Some members of Japan’s government favored surrender. Others insisted that Japan fight on. Japan’s bitter defense of the island of Okinawa earlier in the year had made a grim impression on Allied forces. They estimated an invasion of Japan might cost 1 million American lives.
Instead, the United States resolved to break the Japanese will by deploying a weapon of unprecedented destructive power—the atomic bomb. In 1939, the German-born scientist Albert Einstein had informed U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt about the possibility of creating a superbomb. It would produce a powerful explosion by splitting the atom. In 1942, the United States set up the Manhattan Project to build the bomb. The first test blast occurred in the New Mexico desert in July 1945.
Shortly after the German defeat, the United States, the United Kingdom, and China issued a statement threatening to destroy Japan unless it surrendered unconditionally. On Aug. 6, 1945, an American B-29 bomber called the Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The explosion killed from 70,000 to 140,000 people. It destroyed about 5 square miles (13 square kilometers) of the city. The United States dropped another bomb on Nagasaki on August 9. It killed about 40,000 people. Later, thousands more died of injuries and radiation from the two bombings.
Although Japan’s emperors had traditionally stayed out of politics, Emperor Hirohito urged the government to surrender. On August 14, Japan agreed to unconditional surrender. On September 2, representatives of Japan signed the official statement of surrender aboard the U.S. battleship Missouri, at anchor in Tokyo Bay. U.S. President Harry Truman declared victory. The terrible war was over.