Democracy Dies in Darkness

Eighty years after WWII’s end, the consensus it forged is crumbling

On Sept. 2, 1945, Japanese envoys surrendered aboard the USS Missouri, launching an era of alliances and free trade. Now memories of the war are fading — and so is the consensus on how to avoid a repeat.

10 min
Gen. Douglas MacArthur, supreme Allied commander, and Gen. Jonathan M. Wainwright witness the formal Japanese surrender signatures aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on Sept. 2, 1945. Other Allied officials and military personnel stand behind the generals. (AP)

When a U.S.-led armada sailed into Tokyo Bay 80 years ago to accept the Japanese surrender in World War II, it was just 27 days after an atomic bomb killed some 70,000 people in a single blow at Hiroshima.

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