Surrender of Japan

The surrender of Imperial Japan was announced by Japanese Emperor Hirohito on August 15 and formally signed on September 2, 1945. This ended World War II.

Japanese foreign affairs minister Mamoru Shigemitsu signs the Japanese Instrument of Surrender aboard the USS Missouri as General Richard K. Sutherland watches, September 2, 1945

By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) was not able to carry major operations and an Allied invasion of Japan was near.

Together with the United Kingdom and China, the United States called for the unconditional surrender of the Japanese armed forces in the Potsdam Declaration on July 26, 1945.

A key factor in Japan's surrender were the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.^[1]