WWII started on the 1 September 1939. The United States officially committed to a declaration of war in 1941 after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. With the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Soviet invasion of Manchuria, and an invasion of the home islands imminent, Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945 Ending WWII. The official surrender was signed aboard the USS Missouri on September 2, 1945. Douglas MacArthur, instructed to preside over the surrender, held off the ceremony until September 2 in order to allow time for representatives of all the major Allied powers to arrive. Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu signed on behalf of the Japanese government. General Yoshijiro Umezu then signed for the Japanese armed forces, and his aides wept as he made his signature.
Victorious in the war, some 16,112,566 Americans served in the United States Armed Forces, with 405,399 killed and 671,278 wounded. There were also 130,201 American prisoners of war, of whom 116,129 returned home after the war.
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WWII U.S. Special Services & Sports Gear
WWII U.S. Miscellaneous