The end of the war

On August 1945, the Japanese surrendered, ending World War II. By then, the Imperial Japanese Navy effectively ceased to exist, and an Allied invasion of Japan was imminent. The Soviets, meanwhile, were preparing to attack the Japanese, to fulfil their promise to the Americans and the British.
On August 6 and 9, the Americans dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Also, the Soviet Union launched a surprise invasion of the Japanese colony in Manchuria, in violation of the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact, on the 9th of August. These two attacks caused Emperor Hirohito to intervene and order the Supreme War Council (the Big Six) to accept the terms the Allies had set down for ending the war (in the Potsdam Declaration). After a few more days, Hirohito gave a recorded radio address to the nation on August 15. In the radio address he read the Imperial Rescript on surrender, announcing to the Japanese populace the surrender of Japan.
On August 28, the occupation of Japan by the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers began. The surrender ceremony was held on September 2 aboard the U.S. battleship Missouri, at which officials from the Japanese government signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender, officially ending World War II.