August 15, 1945- With the receipt of Japan’s surrender declaration, America celebrates the end of World War II.  At a little past noon local time (Japan), Emperor Hirohito announced Japan’s acceptance of the terms of the Potsdam Declaration to the Japanese people.  The same message was conveyed to President Truman via the Swiss diplomatic mission in Washington DC.

Despondent over what was felt to be a humiliating defeat, many Japanese soldiers committed suicide, over 100 American prisoners of war held by the Japanese were executed and many British and Australian prisoners in Borneo were similarly illegally executed.

While the formal surrender would be signed on September 2, 1945 aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, and President Truman would declare that day as the official VJ Day,  August 15 marks the end of large scale hostilities between the last of the axis powers and the allied nations.

The war over, allied troops at home and abroad began to celebrate the end of a long and bloody war.  The war had been more costly in terms of material and human lives than any other conflict before or since.  While an exact number will never be known, estimates range between 39,963,700 - 72,771,500 dead on all sides, military and civilian.  A horribly high price to pay for a mad man’s hateful ambition, failures of diplomacy, economic greed, paranoia and racism.  Let us all pray it never happens again on such a horrific scale.