The End of World War II: The Japanese Surrender

Six years of bloodshed ended on September 2, 1945, when official Japanese representatives signed a capitulation document aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. By the summer of 1945, the defeat of Japan was a foregone conclusion. The Japanese navy and air force were destroyed. The Allied naval blockade of Japan and intensive bombing of Japanese cities had left the country and its economy devastated. In August 1945 the United States finally forced Japan to surrender by dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.