President Harry Truman announced Japan’s surrender to the American public on August 14, 1945.
The announcement came after Japan accepted the Allied surrender terms and Emperor Hirohito recorded a broadcast declaring that Japan would accept the Potsdam Declaration. Because of time-zone differences, the news reached the United States on August 14, while it was already August 15 in Japan.
This date is commonly called V-J Day in the United States and much of the Americas. The date is sometimes confused with August 15, when the emperor’s announcement was broadcast in Japan, or September 2, when Japanese representatives signed the formal Instrument of Surrender aboard USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.
The announcement ended celebrations across the United States, although the legal signing of the surrender document came several weeks later. The surrender also ended the Pacific War and brought World War II to its final conclusion.