History Book: The end of World War II

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NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Monday, September 8th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Up next, the WORLD History Book. Last week marked the 80th anniversary of VJ Day. Victory Over Japan coming three months after Victory in Europe, VE Day.

VJ Day was the official end of World War II, and WORLD’s Paul Butler takes us back through the radio broadcasts that carried the news.

PAUL BUTLER: 80 years ago, Americans were glued to their wireless sets:

ROBERT TROUT/CBS: The Japanese have accepted our terms fully. That is the word we have just received from the White House in Washington. And I didn't expect to hear a celebration here in our newsroom in New York, but you can hear one going on behind me…

American broadcaster Robert Trout, as heard coast to coast on August 14th, 1945, along the Columbia Broadcasting System:

TROUT/CBS: This, ladies and gentlemen, is the end of the Second World War…the United Nations on land, on sea, on air, to the four corners of the earth and the seven seas are united and are victorious...

The United States had officially entered World War II when it declared war against Japan on December 8th, 1941 after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Over the next four years, the U.S. lost more than 100,000 men in the Pacific Theater. One in five of those fatalities occurred in just two battles, the fights for Iwo Jima and Okinawa, both in early 1945.

The Empire of Japan and its allies were formidable. But after the European theater ended, the noose around Japan began to tighten. Even so, fierce resistance continued.

Then on August 6th, the United States dropped the first atomic bomb over Hiroshima, killing more than 100,000 people. Two days later, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan. Then, on August 9th, the United States dropped its second atomic bomb, this time over Nagasaki, killing as many as 70,000. Japan knew victory was impossible. It accepted Allied surrender terms on August 14th, 1945.

U.S. President Harry S. Truman addressed the nation from the White House.

PRESIDENT HARRY S. TRUMAN: [I] received this afternoon, a message from the Japanese government in reply to the message forwarded to that government by the Secretary of State on August 11. I deem this reply a full acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration, which specifies the unconditional surrender of Japan. In the reply, there is no qualification.

In the words of newsman Robert Trout, victory was official but not formal. The Allies announced they would not declare Victory over Japan Day until the signing ceremony, still more than two weeks away.

The formality didn’t keep Americans from celebrating in the streets, CBS newsman Larry Lesueur reporting from New York City:

LAURENCE LESUEUR: New York has been liberated. They're going simply wild down here at 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue. The cars are speeding past and a mad dash. Just hear those horns? People are hanging onto them two deep, really, just clinging to the sides of the cars. There are trucks from all over New York loaded down with vans and youngsters just hear them blowing those horns. This is the greatest celebration I've ever seen, greater than the liberation of Paris, I think. The churches are filling up too. Sophisticated New York isn’t as blase as they say.

In Honolulu, marching bands and ticker tape filled the streets. Cities and small towns across the nation joined in with fireworks, confetti, and impromptu parades. Just a few minutes into its national broadcast, CBS waved the flag, and thousands of Americans turned up their radios as loud as they could go:

ROBERT TROUT/CBS: This is Columbia's news headquarters in New York. Our last great enemy is defeated. The Second World War is at an end. Ladies and gentlemen, our national anthem. [NATIONAL ANTHEM]

Americans weren’t the only ones celebrating. British Prime Minister Clement Attlee addressed the subjects of the United Kingdom, though in a more somber tone:

CLEMENT ATTLEE: Japan has today surrendered. The last of our enemies is laid low…At this time, we should pay a tribute to the men from this country, from the dominions, from India and the colonies, to our fleets, armies and air forces that have fought so well in the arduous campaign against Japan…Peace has once again come to the world. Let us thank God for this great deliverance and His mercies…long live the king!

King George VI took to the radio the next day:

KING GEORGE VI: Three months have passed since I asked you to join with me in an act of thanksgiving for the defeat of Germany…No one could then tell how long or how heavy would prove the struggle that still awaited us. Japan has surrendered. So let us join in thanking Almighty God that war has ended throughout the world.

Returning to August 14th back in the U.S., Robert Trout ended his broadcast in a similar way:

ROBERT TROUT/CBS: And so it's well, in all the celebration tonight, in all the gaiety which America has a right to, in all the heartfelt gratitude and thanks, which is pouring out of a very grateful 130 million people…as we go into our churches to give thanks to our God for what has happened on this night.

A little over two weeks later delegations of the Allied and Japanese armies met aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. Japanese representatives signed the official documents of surrender, followed by signers from the United States, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, Australia, Canada, France, the Netherlands and New Zealand. At the conclusion of the ceremony, President Truman declared September 2nd to be the official Victory over Japan—or VJ Day.

That’s this week’s WORLD History Book. I’m Paul Butler.

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