On September 2, 1945, aboard the U.S.S. Missouri in Tokyo Bay, World War II officially ended as Mamoru Shigemitsu, the Japanese foreign minister, and General Yoshijiro Umeza, the chief of staff of the Japanese army, signed the unconditional surrender of Japan. A mass of news correspondents jammed the decks along with Allied officers from all of the participating countries. U.S. General Douglas MacArthur presided over the brief ceremony and signed the document on behalf of the combined Allied forces. Although the event officially ended the most costly and brutal war in human history, the Allied nations had already celebrated V-J Day, for ''Victory over Japan,'' on August 15. On that day, Japanese Emperor Hirohito spoke publicly for the first time in a radio broadcast, explaining to the Japanese people in his unfamiliar court language that the ''endurable must be endured.'' The surrender announcement came after a turbulent nine days that saw a declaration of war against Japan by...