Japan marks 70th anniversary of VJ Day Saturday Aug 15,2015

Victory over Japan Day, also known as VJ Day, is the day Japan surrendered in World War II

Allied Forces marked the announcement, which signalled the end of the war, with celebrations on the streets of their capital cities. Japanese soldiers subsequently surrendered their swords to British forces. The Japanese Instrument of Surrender was signed on the deck of the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on Sep 2,1945

Thousands of people thronged into Trafalgar Square, in London, on Aug. 15, 1945, celebrating V-J Day

 

Thousands jammed New York's Times Square after Pres. Harry Truman announced Japan's unconditional surrender, Aug. 14, 1945.

 

 U.S. President Harry S. Truman stands at his desk during a news conference in the White House in Washington announcing the Japanese surrender, officially signaling the war's end.

Mamoru Shigemitsu signs the unconditional surrender papers for Emperor Hirohito, thus committing Japan to accept the Potsdam Declaration, Aug. 14, 1945.

 

Saturday Aug 15,2015 marks 70 years since the Japanese surrendered on August 15, 1945, less than a week after the United States dropped atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki – bringing the war to an end.

The Prime Minister of Japan has admitted his nation caused 'immeasurable damage' during the Second World War but warned they should not have to keep apologising

The Japanese premier Shinzo Abe has expressed 'profound grief' for the suffering caused during the conflict but sparked fury when he claimed that future generations should not have to apologise

 

Bereaved relatives of the war dead offer flowers in front of a huge bank of chrysanthemums during the memorial service at Nippon Budokan martial arts hall in Tokyo

 

People observe a moment of silence for the war dead at Yasukuni. More than 2.5 million Japanese soldiers who died in the service are enshrined at the shrine including convicted WWII war criminals

 

 

 

People release doves during the ceremony at the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo 70 years after Japan's surrender between. The Yasukuni Shrine honors Japan's war dead during the period from 1867 to the end of the Second World War

 

 

Relatives of war victims receive flowers from attendants to lay at an altar during a memorial service at Nippon Budokan Hall in Tokyo, Japan at a ceremony to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of Second World War

 

 

 

The Emperor and Empress bow before at the service - which is being held 70 years after VJ day