What is Surrender of Japan?
[[File:Mamoru Shigemitsu signs the Instrument of Surrender, officially ending the Second World War.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|Japanese [[Minister for Foreign Affairs (Japan)|foreign affairs minister]] [[Mamoru Shigemitsu]] signs the [[Japanese Instrument of Surrender]] aboard the {{USS|Missouri|BB-63|6}} as General [[Richard K. Sutherland]] watches, September 2, 1945]] The '''surrender of Imperial Japan''' was announced by Japanese Emperor [[Hirohito]] on August 15 and formally signed on September 2, 1945. This ended [[World War II]]. By the end of July 1945, the [[Imperial Japanese Navy]] (IJN) was not able to carry major operations and an [[Operation Downfall|Allied invasion]] of Japan was near. Together with the [[British Empire]] and [[China]], the [[United States]] called for the [[unconditional surrender]] of the Japanese armed forces in the [[Potsdam Declaration]] on July 26, 1945. A key factor in Japan's surrender were the [[atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki|atomic bombings]] of [[Hiroshima]] and [[Nagasaki]].<ref>{{cite journal|author=Hasegawa, Tsuyoshi|url=http://www.japanfocus.org/-Tsuyoshi-Hasegawa/2501/article.html|title=The Atomic Bombs and the Soviet Invasion: What Drove Japan's Decision to Surrender?|journal=[[The Asia-Pacific Journal]]|date=August 1, 2007|volume=5|issue=8}} – Article ID 2501 – [https://apjjf.org/-Tsuyoshi-Hasegawa/2501/article.pdf PDF]</ref> ==References== {{reflist}} [[Category:World War II]] [[Category:1945 in Japan]] {{Japan-stub}}