Victory over Japan Day

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Comemorative paper issued in Bougainville by the RAAF.

Victory over Japan Day (V-J Day, also known as Victory in the Pacific Day, or V-P Day) is a name chosen for the day on which the Surrender of Japan occurred, and subsequent anniversaries of that event. The term has been applied to both the day on which the initial announcement of Japan's surrender was made on August 15, 1945 (August 14 North American date), as well as the date the formal surrender ceremony was performed in Tokyo on September 2, 1945.

1 Surrender
2 Timeline
3 Famous photograph
4 Commemoration
- 4.1 United States
- 4.2 Asia
5 See also
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Surrender

At noon Japan standard time on August 13, 1945, Emperor Hirohito's announcement of Japan's acceptance of the terms of the Potsdam Declaration was broadcast to the Japanese people over the radio. Earlier the same day, the Japanese government broadcast an announcement over Radio Tokyo that "acceptance of the Potsdam Proclamation [would be] coming soon," then advised the Allies of the surrender by sending a cable to U.S. President Harry S. Truman via the Swiss diplomatic mission in Washington, D.C.^[1]

Since Japan was the last Axis Power to surrender and V-J Day followed V-E Day by three months, V-J Day marked the official end of World War II.

The formal Japanese signing of the surrender terms took place on board the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945, and at that time Truman actually declared September 2 to be V-J Day.^[2]

Allied military personnel in Paris celebrating the Japanese surrender.

In Australia and most other allied nations, the name V-P Day was used from the outset. The Canberra Times of August 14, 1945 refers to VP Day celebrations, and a public holiday for VP Day was gazetted by the government in that year according to the Australian War Memorial. ^[3]

[edit] Timeline

Main article: Surrender of Japan

July 26, 1945: Potsdam Declaration is issued. Truman tells Japan, "Surrender or suffer prompt and utter destruction."
July 29: Japan rejects the Potsdam Declaration.
August 2: Potsdam conference ends.
August 6: An atomic bomb, "Little Boy" is dropped on Hiroshima.
August 8: USSR declares war on Japan.
August 9: Another atomic bomb, "Fat Man" is dropped on Nagasaki.
August 15: Japan surrenders. Date is remembered as "V-J Day" or "V-P Day" and described as such in newspapers in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
September 2: Official surrender ceremony; President Truman declares September 2nd officially "V-J Day".

[edit] Famous photograph

The famous Life magazine photograph taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt.

One of the most famous photographs ever published by Life, V–J day in Times Square was shot in Times Square on August 14th, 1945. Alfred Eisenstaedt was in the square taking candids when he spotted a sailor "running along the street grabbing any and every girl in sight," he later explained. "Whether she was a grandmother, stout, thin, old, didn't make any difference. I was running ahead of him with my Leica looking back over my shoulder... Then suddenly, in a flash, I saw something white being grabbed. I turned around and clicked the moment the sailor kissed the nurse." Eisenstadt was very gratified and pleased with this enduring image, saying: "People tell me that when I am in heaven they will remember this picture."

The participants in the kiss were never confirmed by Eisenstaedt, whose notes on the photo were not found after his death in 1995. Life, however, accepted nurse Edith Cullen Shain's claim to this honor in a handwritten letter to Eisenstaedt 35 years later. Shain was 27 on V-J Day. Over 20 men have claimed to be the sailor, but none has been positively identified. The sailor was identified by a team of volunteers at the Naval War College in August 2005 as George Mendonça, of Newport, Rhode Island, although many other men have claimed the honor.[2] Shain once said she believed the man to be former New York City police detective Carl Muscarello, but recanted that statement in 2005. Houston Police biometrics expert Lois Gibson identified the sailor in the picture as Glenn McDuffie after conducting a thorough forensic analysis in which she conclusively identified McDuffie, while also conclusively excluding Mendonça and Muscarello.[3]

[edit] Commemoration

[edit] United States

V-J Day is recognized as an official holiday in the U.S. state of Rhode Island. The holiday's official name is "Victory Day",^[4] and it is observed on the second Monday of August.

[edit] Asia

In Japan, the day is usually known as Shuusen-kinenbi^[5], which literally means the "memorial day for the end of the war"; the official name for the day is however "the day for mourning of war dead and praying for peace".^[6] In 1982 the Japanese government issued an ordinance that designated August 15 to be "the day for mourning of war dead and praying for peace."^[7]

The day is commemorated as Liberation Day in Korea and some other nations.