Which U.S. president publicly announced Japan’s surrender in August 1945?

Harry S. Truman publicly announced Japan’s surrender in August 1945.

Truman was president of the United States when Japan accepted the Allied terms. On August 14, 1945, he announced that Japan had accepted the terms of the Potsdam Declaration. The news was broadcast in the United States while Japan’s surrender message was scheduled for broadcast to the Japanese public on August 15 Japan Standard Time.

Truman’s announcement came after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Soviet declaration of war on Japan, and intense debate within Japan’s leadership. The formal surrender document was still signed later, on September 2, aboard USS Missouri.

Franklin D. Roosevelt is an especially plausible wrong answer because he led the United States through most of World War II, but he died in April 1945. Truman became president after Roosevelt’s death and made the surrender announcement. Winston Churchill was also a wartime leader, but he was not the U.S. president who announced the news.