“I deem this reply a full acceptance of—the unconventional surrender of Japan--.” President Truman
Victory over Japan Day (also known as V-J Day) was announced by President Harry S. Truman in the following statement: “I have received this afternoon a message from the Japanese government in reply to the message forwarded to that government by the secretary of state on Aug. 11, 1945. I deem this reply a full acceptance of the Potsdam declaration which specifies the unconditional surrender of Japan—.” A little after noon Japan Standard Time on August 15, 1945, Emperor Hirohito’s announcement of Japan’s acceptance of the terms of Potsdam Declaration was broadcast to the Japanese people over the radio. Earlier the same day, the Japanese government had broadcast over Radio Tokyo that the “acceptance of the Potsdam Proclamation [would be] coming soon”, and had advised the Allies of the surrender by sending a cable to U.S. President Harry S. Truman via the Swiss diplomatic mission in Washington D.C. A nationwide broadcast by Truman was aired at seven o’clock p.m. (daylight savings time, Washington, D.C.) on Tuesday, August 14 announcing the communication and that a formal event was scheduled for September 2. In his announcement of Japan’s surrender on August 14 Truman said that “the proclamation of V-J Day must wait for the formal signing of surrender terms by Japan.” After news of the Japanese acceptance and before Truman’s announcement, Americans began celebrating “as if joy had been rationed and saved up for three years, eight months, and seven days since Sunday, December 7, 1941.”