<P> Japan accepted the terms of the Potsdam Declaration and surrendered on August 15, 1945 . Over 5,000 Japanese Americans served in the occupation of Japan . Dozens of Japanese Americans served as translators, interpreters, and investigators in the International Military Tribunal for the Far East . Thomas Sakamoto served as press escort during the occupation of Japan . He escorted American correspondents to Hiroshima, and the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay . Sakamoto was one of three Japanese Americans to be on board the USS Missouri when the Japanese formally surrendered . Arthur S. Komori served as personal interpreter for Brig. Gen. Elliot R. Thorpe . Kay Kitagawa served as personal interpreter of Fleet Admiral William Halsey Jr...Kan Tagami served as personal interpreter - aide for General Douglas MacArthur . Journalist Don Caswell was accompanied by a Japanese American interpreter to Fuchū Prison, where the Japanese government imprisoned communists Tokuda Kyuichi, Yoshio Shiga, and Shiro Mitamura . </P> <P> Japanese Americans in the OSS parachuted down into Japanese POW prison camps at Hankow, Mukden, Peiping and Hainan as interpreters on mercy missions to liberate American and other Allied prisoners . Arthur T. Morimitsu was the only Military Intelligence Service member in the detachment commanded by Major Richard Irby and 1st Lt. Jeffrey Smith to observe the surrender ceremony of 60,000 Japanese troops under Gen. Shimada . Kan Tagami witnessed Japanese forces surrender to the British in Malaya . </P> <P> In 1949, MacArthur made a sweeping change in the SCAP power structure that greatly increased the power of Japan's native rulers, and the occupation began to draw to a close . The Treaty of San Francisco, which was to end the occupation, was signed on September 8, 1951 . It came into effect on April 28, 1952, formally ending all occupation powers of the Allied forces and restoring full sovereignty to Japan, except for the island chains of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, which the United States continued to hold . Iwo Jima was returned to Japan in 1968, and most of Okinawa was returned in 1972 . </P> <P> Following the American departure, Japan gained military protection from the United States . However, the United States was soon pressuring Japan to rebuild its military capabilities, and as a result, the Japan Self - Defense Forces were formed as a de facto military force with US assistance . However, following the Yoshida Doctrine, Japan continued to prioritize economic growth over defense spending, relying on American protection to ensure it could focus mainly on economic recovery . Through Guided Capitalism, Japan was able to optimally utilize its resources to economically recover from the war, and revive industry . Some 31,000 US military personnel remain in Japan today at the invitation of the Japanese government as the United States Forces Japan under the terms of the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan (1960) and not as an occupying force . US bases in and around Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Aomori, Sapporo, and Ishikari are currently active . </P>

When did the us occupation of japan end