President Truman Announces Japan’s Surrender
After nearly six years of a world at war, the Japanese surrendered on August 14, 1945, effectively ending World War II.
By the summer of 1945, Germany had surrendered, ending the war in Europe. However, Japan refused to surrender and continued to fight. The Allies felt they had little choice but to launch a major attack. The US had been secretly working on an atomic bomb, dubbed the “Manhattan Project,” which was ready to be deployed that August.
The Allies gave Japan one last chance – surrender unconditionally, or be destroyed. When they refused, the US dropped its first atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6. Despite the loss of nearly 100,000 lives, Japan still wouldn’t surrender. Three days later, the US dropped a second bomb on Nagasaki, claiming another 40,000 lives.
The extreme losses, and fear of another bomb, led to Japan’s surrender on August 15, local time. In America (where it was still August 14), President Harry Truman delivered the announcement at 7:00 that evening, though the formal surrender ceremony wouldn’t be held until September 2.
The moment the news hit, Americans began celebrating. Huge crowds took to the streets across the country. New York’s Times Square had its largest gathering up to that time.
Click the stamp images to add this history to your collection.
I enjoy these glimpses of US and postal history
Hello Stampers. I also am a WW2 history buff. Still have a collection of WW2 German stamps. Interesting to look at now and then. Great thanks for those who served!
Started collecting stamps about 5 years ago at the age of 71 and it is great just to be able to see the stamps that were made during my years.. Its a great past time fro me in my years to come(God willing).
Good looking stamps! I was not even born yet, but I did my best to learn about our passed history. My friends grandfather saw hitler because he was there. I got the rare chance to get to know him and he could never talk about it. Evan when he was drunk! WoW!! I make sure I stop and smell the roses every now and then!
Stamps tell our history. I have been collecting First Day covers for over 40 years.
As with all wars, the cost in human lives is the most tragic of events. It seems we all would have learned our final lesson with the horrors of the Holocaust, Nazi Germany and the man made cataclysmic events in Japan that ushered in the atomic age and the cold war, but, unfortunately, that was not to be. The celebration was short lived.
STAMP COLLECTION IS MY GREATEST PAST TIME, I HAVE BEEN COLLECTING STAMPS FOR ABOUT THIRTY YEARS, I ENJOY THE NEW SERIES THAT YOU STARTED ( A DAY IN HISTORY) KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK
GRANT
Wonderful feature. The first thing I check every day. Collecting now for almost 60 years and enjoy the background stories.
I am a lady in my mid 70s and I am continuning my fathers collection. I love this series, and look forward to reading it. Thanks
My Grandmother said that everyone needs a collection . She took each Grandchild and help them to collection something. I liked stamps. So she help me to get started and that was seventy-five years ago. I like to look at them and see things and places of the past. I still do it day. I remember the day President Thurman announced the war was over with Japan on the radio. Fred
This is what ought to be commemorated on stamps. Not silly cartoon heroes, obscure poets and people issued just to be politically correct.
History enjoy more I read about each stamp
collection has been about 4 years now. It’s wonderful more I read
about a stamp the more I get to understand history that I never new about before all I
can say it’s Wonderful.
JACQUELYN
India, at this time, is very tight with Russia. A fellow from India, recently put down my country, USA, as being cruelly inhumane and warmongering for using the atomic bomb on
Japan. I was very upset by his words. I told him, “hey, Japan was the aggressor here” and it was a heartbreaking decision for President Truman; he weighed the American lives it would take to subdue Japan. He said it was double cruelty to drop the second bomb. The people of India need to know Japan was asked to surrender or else and they refused. So the first bomb was dropped. They were asked again to surrender, and they still refused. So, the second bomb was dropped, and then they surrendered .I use the word “they”, but of course it was their Emperor who refused to surrender with little regard for his people.
‘This Day in History” is wonderfully written. I hope that teachers throughout the country know about it.
Thank you for this remarkable series
Connecting “This Day in History” with US specific stamps is wonderful. I’ve collected stamps for nearly 60 years, receiving my first approvals from Mystic back in the fifth grade. Thanks for getting even better over all these years.
Tom
My wife began collecting in 1963 and continued till 2001 when she passed away and now I collect. It’s hard to see now but still have fun to reading your Stamp of the Day post. Keep it up!
I enjoy seeing and reading about events of the past on stamps. The new stamps are stretching it a little to far. Very few new stamps are as interesting as the past.