After the United States Army Air Force had dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima (6 August 1945) and Nagasaki (9 August 1945), the Japanese government realized that continuing the war was futile. On 10 August 1945, the Japanese government agreed to an unconditional surrender, and a ceasefire was declared throughout Asia and the Pacific effective on 15 August.
On 2 September, the Japanese foreign minister, Mamoru Shigemetsu, signed the official terms of surrender aboard the battleship USS Missouri. General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in the Pacific, formally accepted the surrender of Japan.
