In this Sept. 2, 1945 file photo, U.S. General Douglas MacArthur, left, watches as the foreign minister of Japan, Mamoru Shigemitsu,
signs the surrender document aboard the USS Missouri on Tokyo
Bay. Lt. General Richard K. Sutherland, center, witnesses the
ceremony marking the end of World War II, with other American
and British officers in the background. (Source: AP Photo)

Aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, Japan formally surrendered to the
Allies (above) bringing an end to World War II.

By the summer of 1945, the defeat of Japan was a foregone conclusion. The Japanese navy and air force were destroyed. The Allied naval blockade of
Japan and intensive bombing of Japanese cities had left the country and
its economy devastated. At the end of June, the Americans captured
Okinawa, a Japanese island from which the Allies could launch an invasion
of the main Japanese home islands. U.S. General Douglas MacArthur was
put in charge of the invasion, which was code-named “Operation Olympic”
and set for November 1945.