On August 14, 1945 it was announced that Imperial Japan had surrendered and brought an end to WW2. Faced with Russia declaring war on them and the fear that the Americans would continue to use nuclear weapons, they realized that the only way to save their nation was to stop hostilities. Although it would still be nearly a month before they signed the document of surrender, the main battles themselves were over.
This was not to say that things were completely peaceful once the Emperor announced that they had surrendered. Many Japanese soldiers committed suicide, POWs were murdered and a prison camp was found to have been preparing to kill over 2000 more prisoners.
And now we are at the 80th anniversary of this date. The peace between our nations has been maintained and although there are occasionally tense moments, we know how to solve them diplomatically. There are still people who question the wisdom of how we stopped the battle and there are those who feel that the Japanese should have kept fighting. I ignore both sides because things have been stable enough to permit these kinds of views.
Pictured below: General Macarthur at the surrender ceremony on board the USS Missouri. In the background, the flag that Admiral Perry flew when he forced Japan to open their ports to trade.
