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Home , Victory over Japan Day

A16 Saturday, 15, 2020 Herald-Banner

75th ANNIVERSARY OF thE END OF WORLD WAR II THE MARCH TOWARD ALLIED VICTORY The tide of turned in the Allies’ favor with the Normandy invasion in June 1944. But it was more than a year before hostilities ceased in the Pacific Theater and the world was forever changed by the deployment of America’s nuclear arsenal. GERMANY DIVIDED APRIL 1, 1945 Post-war Germany was Operation Iceberg begins with divided into four occupation the invasion of Okinawa, the zones, to be controlled by the largest amphibious assault in the SOVIET UNION, BRITAIN, the Pacific Theater of World War II. and FRANCE. APRIL 12, 1945 U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies; Harry A Marine of the 1st Division draws a bead on Truman becomes president. a Japanese sniper with his tommy-gun as his companion ducks for cover. BRITAIN APRIL 30, 1945 S.Sgt. Walter F. Kleine, Okinawa, 1945 SOVIET Führer Adolf Hitler commits Field Marshal “A jubilant American soldier UNION suicide in a bunker in Berlin. Wilhelm Keitel hugs a motherly English woman signs the ratified and victory smiles light the surrender terms faces of happy servicemen and MAY 7, 1945 for the German civilians at Piccadilly Circus in UNITED Army at Russian , England,” celebrating Germany surrenders to the STATES Allies in Reims, France. Headquarters in Germany’s unconditional FRANCE Berlin. surrender to the Allies as the Lt. Moore, war in Europe comes to an end. MAY 8, 1945 Germany, Pfc. Melvin Weiss, England, as the May 7, 1945 May 7, 1945 ceasefire takes effect. JUNE 22, 1945 Americans complete defeat of in Okinawa. JULY 16, 1945 United States conducts the Trinity test in New Mexico, the first test of a nuclear bomb. JULY 17, 1945 The begins under British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin and U.S. President Harry Truman, all calling for the . Carried by the Enola Gay and detonated A mushroom cloud billows after 1,890 feet over a nuclear bomb was detonated , Japan, above Hiroshima, Japan. at 8:15 a.m. U.S. Army, Aug. 6, 1945 Yield: 16 kilotons JULY 30, 1945 Core: Uranium 235 The USS Indianapolis is sunk Killed: 90,000 that shortly after midnight by a day; 140,000 within Japanese submarine after having months delivered atomic bomb material to , Mariana Islands. AUG. 2, 1945 Carried by the Bockscar Potsdam Conference ends with and detonated Potsdam Agreement. 1,800 feet over , Japan, AUG. 6, 1945 “The enemy has begun to employ a new and most at 11:02 a.m. The B-29 bomber Enola Gay cruel bomb, the power of which to do damage is, Yield: 21 kilotons drops the first atomic bomb, Core: Plutonium “Little Boy,” on Hiroshima, Japan. indeed, incalculable, taking the toll of many innocent lives.” 239 Killed: 40,000 that AUG. 9, 1945 of Japan day; 70,000 within months The B-29 bomber Bockscar drops the second atomic bomb, “Fat Man,” on Nagasaki, Japan. “ celebrating VICTORY OVER JAPAN DAY the surrender of Japan. AUG. 15, 1945 They threw anything and is the only state that kissed anybody in Times celebrates the end of World War II Emperor Hirohito issues Square.” Lt. Victor as a legal holiday. falls a radio broadcast announcing Jorgensen, Aug. 14, 1945 on the second Monday of August. the Surrender of Japan; Victory over Japan Day celebrations take place worldwide, falling on “This is the day we have been waiting for since Aug. 14 in the United States. Pearl Harbor. This is the day when fascism finally dies, as we always knew it would.” U.S. President Harry Truman on Aug. 14, 1945

SEPT. 2, 1945 The Japanese Instrument of Surrender is signed on the deck THE WAR WAS OVER ... BUT THE COST WAS GREAT. of the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. 11 MILLION 65 MILLION 405,000 NOV. 20, 1945 PERISHED IN PEOPLE DIED AMERICANS KILLED Nuremberg War Crimes tribunal for Nazis begins. THE HOLOCAUST ACROSS THE GLOBE IN THE CONFLICT

Photos: National Archives; U.S. Army | Source: National Archives; The National World War II Museum Graphic by Heather Bremer | CNHI News Indiana