Triumph

The dropping of the bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki forced Japan to unconditionally surrender, ending one of the bloodiest conflicts in history. On the 2nd of September, 1945, Japanese officials signed the official Instrument of Surrender aboard the U.S.S. Missouri. American soldiers and civilians celebrated the end of the war with parties and parades.

 

Japan’s surrender meant that the invasion plan conceived by the Allied forces to attack mainland Japan, called Operation Downfall, was not necessary. Millions of Americans might have died, as well as millions more of the Japanese, in this planned invasion. It was estimated by the War Department that the invasion would have resulted in 1.4 to 7 million American casualties and 5 to 10 million Japanese casualties. This would be far greater than the couple hundred thousands casualties that actually resulted from the atomic bombings of Japan.

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The surrender also meant that the U.S.S.R could not try to invade and occupy Japan under Communist rule, something which the United States had wanted to prevent at all costs.

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