Harry S. Truman announced that Victory over Japan Day would follow Japan’s formal surrender.
Truman addressed the American public on August 14, 1945, after the Japanese government communicated its acceptance of the Allied surrender terms. He announced that the formal signing ceremony would occur on September 2 aboard an Allied warship in Tokyo Bay.
Truman carefully distinguished between Japan’s announcement and the official end of the war. He stated that the proclamation of V-J Day would wait until Japan signed the surrender terms, which it did on September 2.
The announcement came after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Soviet Union’s declaration of war against Japan, and intense debate within Japan’s leadership. Truman had become president after Franklin D. Roosevelt died in April 1945.