The day is made famous by a photograph published in 'Life' magazine of a sailor kissing a woman in a white dress. When recounting the events that led up to the famous scene, photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt said the sailor had been running up to multiple strangers in the crowd and kissing them all, and confirmed that the photo was not a couple reuniting after the war, but rather a random street assault. In a later interview, Greta Zimmer Friedman was revealed as the woman in the photo, and said that she did not see the sailor approaching and that he just came over and grabbed her.

Japan's surrender came six days after the United States dropped two atomic weapons on the civilian cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing somewhere between 129,000 and 226,000 Japanese citizens, with an unknown number dying later from the effects of radiation sickness and injuries sustained in the explosions.

A document signing ceremony on September 2, 1945 would formally end World War II.