Today in WW II History
World War II History for August 15
1940 - Air battles and daylight raids over Britain began.
1943 - Because of his special talent to use food scraps in both unusual and appetizing recipes, the U.S. War Department awarded Sgt. Edward Dzuba the Legion of Merit.
1944 - The Allied forces of World War II landed in southern France.
1945 - The Allies proclaimed V-J Day a day after Japan agreed to surrender unconditionally. Emperor Hirohito of Japan announces the news of his country’s unconditional surrender in World War II over a radio broadcast to the Japanese people.
Although Tokyo had already communicated to the Allies its acceptance of the surrender terms of the Potsdam Conference several days earlier, and a Japanese news service announcement had been made to that effect, the Japanese people were still waiting to hear an authoritative voice speak the unspeakable: that Japan had been defeated.
On the afternoon of August 14, a Japanese radio broadcaster told the public that Emperor Hirohito would soon make an Imperial Proclamation announcing the defeat. The following day at noon, Hirohito went on the radio himself, blaming Japan’s surrender on the enemies’ use of “a new and most cruel bomb, the power of which is incalculable, taking the toll of many innocent lives.” The emperor was not only a political leader in Japan; he was also revered as a near-god, and many Japanese did not fully accept the news of defeat until they heard him speak those unthinkable words.
That voice was the emperor’s. In Japan’s Shinto religious tradition, the emperor was also divine; his voice was the voice of a god. And on August 15, that voice-heard over the radio airwaves for the very first time–confessed that Japan’s enemy “has begun to employ a most cruel bomb, the power of which to do damage is indeed incalculable, taking the toll of many innocent lives.” This was the reason given for Japan’s surrender. Hirohito’s oral memoirs, published and translated after the war, evidence the emperor’s fear at the time that “the Japanese race will be destroyed if the war continues.”
As sadness and shame engulfed Japan, joy spread around the Western world. In the United States, news of Hirohito’s announcement reached airwaves on August 14 (due to the time difference), and that day was declared Victory in Japan–or V-J–Day. That afternoon, President Harry S. Truman addressed a crowd that had gathered outside the White House, saying “This is the day we have been waiting for since Pearl Harbor. This is the day when Fascism finally dies, as we always knew it would.” That day, photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt snapped one of the most famous photos ever published, a shot of a sailor in full uniform kissing a nurse in the middle of New York City’s Times Square. The photo, published by Life magazine, became a symbol of the general atmosphere of jubilation in the United States following the end of World War II.
A sticking point in the Japanese surrender terms had been Hirohito’s status as emperor. Tokyo wanted the emperor’s status protected; the Allies wanted no preconditions. There was a compromise. The emperor retained his title; Gen. Douglas MacArthur believed his at least ceremonial presence would be a stabilizing influence in postwar Japan. But Hirohito was forced to disclaim his divine status. Japan lost more than a war-it lost a god.
Victory over Japan Day (V-J Day) celebrates the surrender of Japan, the last Axis power to yield during WWII, and the subsequent end of the war. Though Japan’s surrender was announced on Aug 15, the terms were not signed until Sept 2. One of the most famous images depicting the joy of V-J Day was shot in Times Square, NY, when Alfred Eisenstaedt, photographing for Life magazine, captured the moment a sailor embraced a nurse and kissed her.
View the video history article at History.com Hirohito announces unconditional surrender
Author Bio: World War II researcher and historian working to preserve history and educate future generations. A student of Military History working to author and collect as much data as possible on the WWII time period. 
