The Day World War II Ended

When I was a primary school student, I wanted to study English and see Japan’s history from different perspectives. It was my history teacher at a cramming school that told me there is more than one way to look at the world history. I told you about this story last week.

So, I went to Discovery Place last weekend and saw a 3D movie of “D-Day” at the IMAX theater. The movie ended with narration saying “the Empire of Japan surrendered on September 2, 1945 and the World War II came to an end”, and I thought “Oh”.

In Japan, we consider the World War II ended on August 15, 1945. Japanese government notified the Allies on August 14 that Japan had agreed to make an unconditional surrender and accept the Potsdam Declaration. Emperor Hirohito gave a recorded radio address across the Empire on August 15 and announced the surrender of Japan. Emperor had been treated as a living god, and it was a highly exceptional and extraordinary thing that, although the speech was recorded, Emperor addressed directly to the nation. Since the military regime had been controlled the media, ordinary Japanese people did not know the real war situation and were told to fight for the country to the last. As the government accepted to surrender, there was no way other than asking Emperor to speak to the nation to make the whole nation convinced of the defeat. At noon of a very hot sunny day, people sat square on the ground, bowed their heads and listened to the radio. The World War II ended in Japan on August 15. Japan chose the date to remember the end of the World War II and holds a national event each year to remember the war dead and wish for world peace. On September 2, 1945, Japanese foreign affairs minister, Mamoru Shigemitsu, signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender on the US Navy battleship USS Missouri. By the way, when Japanese people say “the recent war”, it generally refers to the World War II.

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