When did World War II end?
Answer
In 1945
Explanation
World War II ended in 1945, with Germany surrendering on May 8 and Japan formally surrendering on September 2. The defeat of Nazi Germany came first. By the spring of 1945, Soviet armies were advancing on Berlin from the east while American, British, and French forces pressed in from the west. American and Soviet troops met at the Elbe River near Torgau, Germany on April 25, 1945, splitting the German-held area in two.
Adolf Hitler killed himself in his Berlin bunker on April 30, 1945. Berlin fell to the Soviet Red Army on May 2. German Admiral Karl Donitz, named Hitler's successor, sent representatives to surrender. General Alfred Jodl signed an unconditional surrender at General Dwight D. Eisenhower's headquarters in Reims, France on May 7, 1945. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin insisted on a second signing in Berlin, which took place on May 8 and is celebrated as Victory in Europe Day, or V-E Day, in the United States and most of Europe. Russia commemorates the same event on May 9 because of the time difference.
The war in the Pacific lasted three more months. American forces under General Douglas MacArthur and Admiral Chester Nimitz had been advancing across the Pacific island by island, recapturing the Philippines, Iwo Jima in February and March 1945, and Okinawa from April to June 1945, where Japanese resistance and kamikaze attacks killed more than 12,000 Americans. President Harry Truman, who had taken office on April 12, 1945 after Franklin D. Roosevelt's death, faced the choice of invading the Japanese home islands or using the atomic bomb developed in the Manhattan Project.
The first bomb destroyed Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, killing about 80,000 instantly. The Soviet Union declared war on Japan on August 8 and invaded Manchuria. The second atomic bomb destroyed Nagasaki on August 9, killing about 40,000 instantly. Emperor Hirohito announced Japan's surrender by radio on August 15, 1945, a date Americans call V-J Day. Formal surrender documents were signed aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945, with Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu signing for Japan and General MacArthur for the Allies. The war was over.
Why this matters for your test
USCIS uses this question to confirm applicants know the year the largest war in history ended. Knowing 1945 anchors all the events that followed, including the founding of the United Nations, the start of the Cold War, and the rise of American global leadership.
Source: USCIS 128 Civics Questions (2025)
