Harry S. Truman announced that Japan had accepted the surrender terms before the formal V-J Day signing.
Truman’s announcement was broadcast in the United States on August 14, 1945, Washington time. Because of the international date line and time-zone differences, it was August 15 in Japan, the date of Hirohito’s radio announcement to the Japanese people.
Truman explained that Japan had accepted the terms of the Potsdam Declaration. He also said that the formal proclamation of V-J Day would wait until Japan signed the surrender terms. That distinction separated the announcement of acceptance from the later legal ceremony.
The signing took place on September 2 aboard USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. Truman had become president after Franklin D. Roosevelt died in April 1945, so he was the U.S. president during the atomic bombings, Japan’s surrender announcement, and the formal end of the Pacific War.