V-J Day is the common United States name for the 1945 victory over Japan celebration.
The abbreviation means “Victory over Japan Day.” In the United States, the term often refers to August 14, 1945, when President Harry S. Truman announced that Japan had accepted the Allied surrender terms. Because of time-zone differences, Japan’s public announcement occurred on August 15.
The term can also refer to September 2, the date Japan formally signed the surrender instrument aboard USS Missouri. This difference explains why sources may give two V-J Day dates without contradicting one another.
V-J Day parallels V-E Day, or Victory in Europe Day, which marked Nazi Germany’s surrender in May 1945. The two labels identify the end of the European and Pacific theaters separately, although World War II formally concluded only after Japan’s surrender.