BALDWIN: Remembering World War II’s End, 80 Years Later

Sept. 2, 2025, marks 80 years since Imperial Japan’s formal surrender aboard US MISSOURI (BB 63), ending the Second World War. That ceremony in Tokyo Bay was the end of a global struggle that claimed more than 70 million lives and reshaped the modern world. It also saved many of the lives of those who otherwise would have invaded Japan, as well as those Japanese who would have died in Japan’s defense.

For most Americans, V-J Day is frozen in black-and-white images: a sailor kissing a nurse in Times Square, ticker tape fluttering from skyscrapers, and joyous gatherings on main streets and boulevards across America. But the official end came weeks later, on Sept. 2, 1945, when Allied and Japanese representatives signed the Instruments of Surrender during a solemn, rain-flecked ceremony o