Timeline

• March 18-June 23, 1945: Battle of Okinawa. 85,000+ US military casualties and losses, and 140,000+ to Japanese. Approximately one-fourth of the Okinawan civilian population died, often in mass suicides organized by the Imperial Japanese Army.

• July 26: Potsdam Declaration is issued. Truman tells Japan, "Surrender or suffer prompt and utter destruction."
• July 29: Japan rejects the Potsdam Declaration.
• August 2: Potsdam conference ends.
• August 6: An atomic bomb, "Little Boy" is dropped on Hiroshima.
• August 9: USSR declares war on Japan, operation of August Storm, Another atomic bomb, "Fat Man" is dropped on Nagasaki.
• August 15: Japan surrenders. Date is described as "V-J Day" or "V-P Day" and such in newspapers in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. That evening, General Frank Merrill announced, today is "B Day", ^[9] the day on which peace talks would begin and occupation operations would be initiated.^[10]
• September 2: Official surrender ceremony; President Truman declares September 2 as the official "V-J Day".
• November 1: Scheduled commencement of Operation Olympic, the allied invasion of Kyushu.
• March 1, 1946: Scheduled commencement of Operation Coronet, the allied invasion of Honshu.

Post war:

• Some Japanese soldiers continued to fight on isolated Pacific islands until at least the 1970s, with the last known Japanese soldier surrendering in 1974.^{[11][12][13][14]}