Americans cut loose around the world as they learn of Japan’s surrender and start the countdown to a new life and a brighter future.

The atom bomb that destroyed Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, confirmed that the United States had a weapon that could raze an entire city in an instant. Also facing the Soviet invasion of Manchuria, the Japanese government reluctantly surrendered. The Allies’ day of victory was at hand. (National Archives)

 

Anticipation of victory built for days after Nagasaki. Here, a soldier and his wife read newspaper reports that a Japanese surrender is near, as they stroll the peaceful streets of Washington, DC, on August 14. (US Navy)

 

In the Oval Office of the White House, President Harry S. Truman reads the news of Japan’s surrender and proclaims the long-awaited day of victory—V-J Day, August 14, 1945 (the 15th in Japan)—to the eager press corps. Moments later the news is on its way, setting off celebrations across America and around the world. (National Archives)

 

Members of the US Navy Coast Watch Weather Unit, Area IV, at Changchow, China, celebrate with their overjoyed Chinese allies as word of the Japanese surrender reaches them on August 15. (US Navy)

 

In Leyte Gulf, where an enormous battle sealed the fate of the Japanese navy less than a year before, the only shots being fired on the night of August 15 are pyrotechnics as the fleet celebrates the end of the Pacific war. (US Navy)

 

Aboard USS Bougainville (CVE-100), an escort carrier transporting new planes to the big flattops in the forward areas, the victory announcement on August 15 has sailors dancing for joy. (US Navy)

 

Radio accounts of V-J Day bring smiles for the 22nd Special Construction Battalion Seabees stationed on Manus in the Admiralty Islands. For the most part, segregation of blacks and whites was the rule of the day throughout the war. (US Navy)

 

On August 15, Japanese prisoners held on Guam bow their heads as they hear the recorded announcement by Emperor Hirohito that the war is over. Compare these well-clothed and well-fed men to the starved Allied POWs held by the Japanese shown below in this gallery. (National Archives)

 

A solitary Japanese POW on Guam breaks down in tears after hearing the emperor’s announcement. (US Navy)

 

At Pearl Harbor, where America’s war began with a Japanese sneak attack, the skies are ablaze again. But these are fires of joy, star shells and flares celebrating the news of Japan’s surrender. (National Archives)

 

In frigid Alaska, spirits are warm as Russian and American sailors drink a V-J Day toast on August 15 to final victory over Japan. (US Navy)

 

On August 15, grinning pilots at the officer’s club at the Naval Air Station, Beaufort, South Carolina, lift their glasses in heartfelt toasts to victory. (US Navy)

 

As word of victory circles the world, gleeful Americans at the Rainbow Corner Red Cross Club in Paris show patriotic joy that the war in the Pacific is over—and that they won’t have to fight there! (National Archives)

 

Happy Washingtonians witness soldiers, sailors and civilians joining a Conga line in Lafayette Square Park as a celebration near the White House warms up. (Library of Congress)

 

August 14, V-J Day, in New York City, was the perfect opportunity to kiss a pretty girl. The sailor and the nurse in this immortal photograph never knew one another. This is US Navy photographer Lieutenant Victor Jorgensen’s photo; the Life magazine shot by Alfred Eisenstaedt became more famous. (National Archives)

 

An unprecedented crowd, more than a million happy people, jam the crossroads of the world, Times Square, to demonstrate joy and relief that the war was over at last. Radio networks are on hand to broadcast the sound of celebration across the country. (National Archives)

 

Former Allied POWs, starved by the Japanese, muster their energy to cheer and wave homemade flags of the Netherlands, the United States, and Great Britain as the US Navy lands at Yokohama, Japan, on August 29. (National Archives)

 

Gaunt but reinvigorated by their liberation, Allied prisoners of war cheer their liberation by the US Navy on August 29, 1945. These men were held at the Aomori POW camp near Yokohama. (National Archives)

 

General Douglas MacArthur lands at Atsugi air base near Yokohama on August 30 to take command of the Allied occupation forces—and holds an impromptu press conference for Allied and Japanese journalists. (US Navy)

 

Covered by the guns of the mighty USS Iowa (BB-61) and other fleet elements, the marines can, for once, land on the beach standing upright. They are coming ashore near the big Japanese navy base of Yokosuka on Tokyo Bay, on August 30. (US Navy)

 

Six years to the day after the invasion of Poland marked the beginning of World War II (September 1 in the United States, September 2 in Asia) the war ends. General Douglas MacArthur makes it official, signing the Allies’ acceptance of Japan’s capitulation aboard the USS Missouri (BB-63). Behind him is General Jonathan Wainwright. Obliged to surrender the Philippines to Japan in 1942, on this day Wainwright holds one of the pens MacArthur used to endorse the surrender instrument. (National Archives)

 

In a thunderous display of aerial might, hundreds of US Navy Corsairs and Hellcats fly over the Missouri immediately after the surrender ceremony, underscoring the power of the victors over the vanquished. (National Archives)