Voices for Peace
中 日 EN
REMEMBER HISTORY · CHERISH PEACE

1945·8·15

The day the war finally stopped

At noon Japan time, Emperor Hirohito read the Imperial Rescript on the Termination of the War over the radio, announcing that Japan accepted the Potsdam Declaration and surrendered unconditionally. China's fourteen-year War of Resistance against Japan and the six-year Second World War came to an end — at the cost of tens of millions of lives.

—days have passed since that day.
Yet the wounds of war have never truly healed.

Back to that day See the cost of war

Background: Nanjing, September 9, 1945. Japanese representative Kobayashi Asasaburō hands the instrument of surrender to General He Yingqin, Commander-in-Chief of the Chinese Army.

SCROLL
01 / THE JEWEL VOICE BROADCAST

A broadcast at noon

At noon on August 15, 1945, the Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) aired the Imperial Rescript on the Termination of the War, pre-recorded by Emperor Hirohito. For most Japanese people it was the first time they had ever heard the Emperor's voice. It became known as the Gyokuon-hōsō, the "Jewel Voice Broadcast."

Written in archaic classical Japanese, the rescript never once used the word "surrender," and many listeners did not immediately understand it. But the message was unmistakable: Japan had accepted the Potsdam Declaration issued by the Allies on July 26. The war was over.

"…enduring the unendurable and suffering what is insufferable…"

— Imperial Rescript on the Termination of the War (signed August 14, broadcast August 15, 1945)
  • The recording was made late on the night of August 14 inside the Imperial Palace. That same night, a group of young officers staged the Kyūjō Incident, trying to seize the recording and stop the broadcast. They failed.
  • The rescript's reference to "a new and most cruel bomb" used by the enemy meant the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
  • In China, Korea and Southeast Asia, people who had long suffered invasion and colonial rule poured into the streets, many in tears, as the news spread.
The Imperial Rescript on the Termination of the War on display
The Imperial Rescript on display, ending with the Emperor's signature "Hirohito" and the Imperial Seal.
The recording disc of the Jewel Voice Broadcast
The "Gyokuon-ban," the disc on which the rescript was recorded.
Crowds in Shanghai celebrating Japan's surrender
Crowds fill the streets of Shanghai to celebrate victory.
02 / THE LAST MONTH

The road to the end of the war

From the Potsdam Declaration to the surrender ceremony in Nanjing — in just six weeks, the world passed through one of the darkest and most decisive moments in human history.

  1. 1945 · 07 · 26

    The Potsdam Declaration

    China, the United States and Britain jointly called on Japan to surrender unconditionally or face "prompt and utter destruction." The Japanese government answered with mokusatsu — silent contempt.

  2. 1945 · 08 · 06

    Hiroshima

    At 8:15 a.m., the atomic bomb "Little Boy" exploded over Hiroshima. The city was reduced to ashes in an instant; by the end of the year, about 140,000 people had died.

    Mushroom clouds over Hiroshima (left) and Nagasaki (right)
  3. 1945 · 08 · 08

    The Soviet Union declares war

    The USSR declared war on Japan. Early the next morning, more than 1.5 million Soviet troops crossed the border and launched a full-scale offensive against the Kwantung Army in Northeast China.

  4. 1945 · 08 · 09

    Nagasaki

    At 11:02 a.m., a second atomic bomb, "Fat Man," exploded over Nagasaki. About 74,000 people died by the end of the year, and many more survivors suffered from radiation for the rest of their lives.

  5. 1945 · 08 · 14

    The Emperor's "sacred decision"

    At an Imperial Conference, Japan's leaders made the final decision to accept the Potsdam Declaration and notified the Allies through neutral Switzerland and Sweden. That night, the Emperor recorded the rescript.

  6. 1945 · 08 · 15

    Japan announces its surrender

    At noon, the Jewel Voice Broadcast was heard across Japan and its occupied territories. The news reached Chongqing, Yan'an, Shanghai… and hundreds of millions of Chinese people spread the word: we have won.

  7. 1945 · 09 · 02

    Signing aboard the USS Missouri

    Aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, Japanese representatives Shigemitsu Mamoru and Umezu Yoshijirō signed the Instrument of Surrender. General Xu Yongchang signed for China. The Second World War was formally over.

    Shigemitsu Mamoru signing the Instrument of Surrender aboard the USS Missouri
  8. 1945 · 09 · 09

    The surrender in Nanjing

    The surrender ceremony for the China Theater was held in Nanjing. Okamura Yasuji, commander of the Japanese China Expeditionary Army, signed and sealed the surrender document, and his chief of staff Kobayashi Asasaburō handed it to General He Yingqin. On land invaded for fourteen years, the invaders bowed their heads.

    The Japanese delegation at the surrender ceremony in Nanjing
03 / THE PRICE OF VICTORY

Behind the cheering, lives beyond counting

Behind every number is someone who never came home, and a family that waited in vain.

0million+
Deaths in the Second World War
Estimates range from 70 to 85 million — about 3% of the world's population at the time
0million+
Chinese military and civilian casualties
From 1931 to 1945, China endured Japanese aggression longer, and lost more, than any other country
0million
Soviet deaths
The highest death toll of any country in the war
0million
Jews murdered in the Holocaust
About two-thirds of Europe's Jewish population
0
Victims of the atomic bombs
Combined deaths in Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the end of 1945
0+
Victims of the Nanjing Massacre
Six weeks of atrocities beginning in December 1937 (official Chinese estimate)

Note: casualty figures vary with sources and methods. This site uses commonly cited scholarly or official estimates — see Sources.

04 / SCARS OF WAR

From Shanghai to Stalingrad, from Warsaw to Hiroshima

War knows no borders. Cities were flattened, civilians driven from their homes, children left crying in the rubble. Click a photo to enlarge it.

A baby crying in the ruins of Shanghai South Station
SHANGHAI · 1937A baby crying in the ruins of Shanghai South Station
Refugee women in Nanjing
NANJING · 1937Refugee women sheltered by Minnie Vautrin
Tokyo after the firebombing
TOKYO · 1945Scorched earth after the air raids
Ruins of Stalingrad
STALINGRAD · 1942–43A city destroyed
Destroyed Warsaw
WARSAW · 1945Over 80% of buildings reduced to rubble
Ruins of Dresden
DRESDEN · 1945The view from the town hall tower
Learn more about the harm of war →
Signing the UN Charter in 1945
San Francisco, June 26, 1945: delegates sign the Charter of the United Nations — humanity's first attempt to build a global organization "to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war."
05 / WHY WE REMEMBER

We remember not to keep hatred alive

August 15, 1945 was a day of victory for nations that had been invaded, and the day militarism collapsed. We remember it to honor everyone who died in the war, whatever their country; to remember the crimes the aggressors committed; and to remember how ideas that excused war led the world, step by step, into the abyss.

Today, those who lived through that war are leaving us one by one. If we forget, history may repeat itself in another form. Facing history honestly, opposing war and protecting peace is work that every generation must take up anew.

Read the call for peace