<Ul> <Li> August 3 , 1945 -- Soviet General Vasilevskii reported to Stalin that Soviet forces ready for invasion from August 7 . </Li> <Li> August 6 , 1945 -- An atomic bomb , Little Boy , dropped on Hiroshima from a special B - 29 Superfortress named Enola Gay , flown by Col. Paul Tibbets . It is the first use of atomic weapons in combat . ( Atomic bombing of Hiroshima ) </Li> <Li> August 8 , 1945 -- The Soviet Union declares war on Japan against the Soviet -- Japanese Neutrality Pact . </Li> <Li> August 9 , 1945 -- Second , and more powerful plutonium implosion atomic bomb , Fat Man , is dropped on Nagasaki from a different Silverplate B - 29 named Bockscar , flown by Maj . Charles Sweeney ( Atomic bombing of Nagasaki ) </Li> <Li> August 9 , 1945 -- Soviet Armies launch the Soviet invasion of Manchuria . </Li> <Li> August 10 , 1945 -- The 38th Parallel is set as the delineation between the Soviet and US occupation zones in Korea . </Li> <Li> August 14 , 1945 ( at noon JST on August 15 , 1945 ) -- Emperor Shōwa 's decree to accept the Potsdam Declaration announced over radio . </Li> <Li> August 14 , 1945 -- General Douglas MacArthur is appointed to head the occupation forces in Japan . </Li> <Li> August 16 , 1945 -- Gen. Jonathan Wainwright , a POW since May 6 , 1942 following the surrender of U.S. forces in the Philippines under his command , is released from a POW camp in Manchuria . </Li> <Li> August 17 , 1945 -- Japanese IGHQ issues formal cease - fire in Manchuria . </Li> <Li> August 17 , 1945 -- General MacArthur issues General Order No. 1 . </Li> <Li> August 18 , 1945 -- Soviet Army invades Karafuto on southern Sakhalin Island . </Li> <Li> August 18 , 1945 -- Soviet amphibious landings in northern Korea . </Li> <Li> August 18 , 1945 -- Japanese pilots attack two Consolidated B - 32 Dominators of the 386th Bomb Squadron , 312th Bomb Group , on a photo reconnaissance mission over Japan . Sgt . Anthony Marchione , 19 , a photographer 's assistant on the B - 32 Hobo Queen II , was fatally wounded in the attack . Marchione would be the last American killed in air combat in the Second World War . </Li> <Li> August 18 , 1945 -- Soviet invasion of the Kuril Islands begins with amphibious landings on Shumshu . </Li> <Li> August 19 , 1945 -- Kwantung Army HQ transmit capitulation order to Japanese troops in Manchuria . </Li> <Li> August 23 , 1945 -- Last Japanese troops on Shumshu surrender to Soviet forces . </Li> <Li> August 25 , 1945 -- Japanese surrender in Karafuto ( south Sakhalin Island ) . </Li> <Li> August 27 , 1945 -- B - 29s drop supplies to Allied POWs in China . </Li> <Li> August 29 , 1945 -- The Soviets shoot down a B - 29 Superfortress dropping supplies to POWs in Korea </Li> <Li> August 29 , 1945 -- U.S. troops land near Tokyo to begin the occupation of Japan by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers . </Li> <Li> August 30 , 1945 -- The United Kingdom reoccupies Hong Kong . </Li> <Li> September 2 , 1945 -- Formal Japanese surrender ceremony aboard USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay ; U.S. President Harry S. Truman declares VJ Day . </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul>
when did world war 2 end in the pacific
September 2 , 1945