The moment US President Harry S. Truman announced that Japan had surrendered—the news the world had long been waiting for—was captured by an Associated Press photographer. Standing at his desk, Truman's words to a packed news conference in the White House at 7pm EST on 14 August 1945 triggered a stampede of reporters desperate to file the story. Soon hundreds of people gathered outside the White House to hear the president say that it was the day America and its allies had been looking forward to since Pearl Harbour was attacked. China had been fighting Japan since the 1930s. In 1945 a US Marine called Richard Diebenkorn was stationed in Hawaii, waiting to take part in the Allied invasion of Japan. Instead he went to art school thanks to the GI Bill, as did many others young artists who were also members of what is now known as the Greatest Generation.
