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V-J Day

History · Commemorative · September 2

V-J Day marks the end of World War II fighting with Japan and honors the Americans who served and sacrificed in the Pacific.

V-J Day falls on Thursday, September 2, 2027. That is 310 days away.

V-J Day, short for Victory over Japan Day, remembers the end of World War II. Japan's surrender brought the long war in the Pacific to a close, and with it the war as a whole.

The news set off celebrations in towns and cities across the United States. People poured into streets, rang bells and hugged strangers. For families who had waited years for word from sons, daughters, husbands and friends overseas, it meant the waiting might finally end.

The formal surrender was signed aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. The ship is now a museum in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, where visitors can stand on the deck where the documents were signed.

The day is remembered with pride and with gravity. The Pacific campaign stretched across islands, jungles and open ocean, and it cost a great many lives on every side. Many Americans mark V-J Day by thinking of the soldiers, sailors, Marines, airmen, nurses and factory workers whose efforts carried the country through.

Today few people who lived through the war are still with us. Their letters, photographs and recorded stories have become the main way later generations hear what that moment felt like. A faded snapshot in a family album, of a young person in uniform squinting at the camera, often says more than a textbook can.

Ways to celebrate

• Display an American flag at your home.
• Ask an older relative what family members did during the war.
• Listen to a recorded oral history from a World War II veteran.
• Visit a local war memorial and read the names listed there.
• Write a note of thanks to a veterans' home or organization.

Dates

All national days on September 2

Also on September 2

• National Blueberry Popsicle Day
• Calendar Adjustment Day

Categories: History daysCommemorative days