Japan announced its surrender in World War II on August 15, 1945, the date associated with V-J Day.
Emperor Hirohito’s recorded address was broadcast to the Japanese public at noon Japan Standard Time. It announced that Japan had accepted the terms of the Potsdam Declaration, although the formal surrender document had not yet been signed.
The announcement came after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Soviet declaration of war, and intense political debate inside Japan. Hirohito’s speech used formal classical Japanese and did not directly use the ordinary word “surrender,” so many listeners did not immediately understand its meaning.
The date can be confused with September 2, 1945, when Japan formally signed the Instrument of Surrender aboard USS Missouri. In the United States, some V-J Day observances began on August 14 because the news arrived there on August 14 local time.