Harry S. Truman announced Japan’s surrender in a White House broadcast on August 14, 1945.
Truman became president after Franklin D. Roosevelt died in April 1945. During his presidency, the United States fought the final months of World War II against Japan and approved the use of atomic bombs against Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
On August 14, Truman announced that Japan had accepted the terms of the Potsdam Declaration. Because of time-zone differences, the announcement was heard on August 15 in Japan, the date associated with Emperor Hirohito’s recorded address to the Japanese public.
The presidential announcement did not replace the formal surrender ceremony. Japan’s representatives signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender aboard USS Missouri on September 2, 1945. That distinction explains why August 14, August 15, and September 2 all appear in accounts of V-J Day and Japan’s surrender.