Emperor Hirohito announced Japan’s surrender on August 15, 1945, marking V-J Day in Japan.
The broadcast informed the Japanese public that the government had accepted the terms of the Potsdam Declaration. It followed the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Soviet Union’s entry into the war against Japan.
The announcement occurred at noon Japan Standard Time and was heard across the country on radio. Because of time-zone differences, many people in the United States heard news of the surrender on August 14, which explains why both dates appear in V-J Day histories.
August 15 marked the public announcement, not the formal signing of surrender documents. That ceremony took place on September 2, 1945, aboard USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.