World war II chronology - July 1945

2 July 1945	The Okinawa campaign is declared over. Total US casualties are 80,000 (dead, wounded, missing, non-combat sickness). Total Japanese military casualties are 120,000. An estimated 150,000 Okinawan residents were killed.
4 July 1945	An Anglo-American agreement is signed, to use an atomic bomb on Japan.
5 July 1945	American General MacArthur announces the liberation of the Philippines. Great Britain and the US recognize the Provisional Government of National Unity as the government of Poland.
11 July 1945	The United States issues a postage stamp depicting Marines raising the American flag on Iwo Jima.
12 July 1945	The Japanese government orders the Japanese ambassador in Moscow to approach the Russian government for mediation to end the war.
14 July 1945	Netherlands issues a postage stamp commemorating the liberation of the country.
16 July 1945	Royal Canadian Navy cruiser Uganda joins an attack on the main Japanese island of Honshu. The United States successfully tests the first plutonium atomic bomb, at the Alamo-gordo airbase in New Mexico. USS Indianapolis departs from San Francisco, headed for Tinian island in the Marianas, carrying components for the first atomic bomb to be detonated in combat.
17 July 1945	The British Pacific Fleet joins the US Third Fleet in attacks on Japan. American President Harry Truman, Soviet leader Josef Stalin, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill meet at Schloss Cecilienhof in Potsdam near Berlin, Germany, beginning a 17-day conference. Partway through the conference, Chruchill is replaced by the newly elected British Prime Minister Clement Attlee. Peace terms are drafted, and discussions are held on Germany, Poland, and Japan.
18 July 1945	Brazil issues five postage stamps honoring the Brazilian Expeditionary Force and US 5th Army fight against Axis forces in Italy.
21 July 1945	The Japanese ambassador in Moscow makes a formal request for Soviet mediation to end the war.
25 July 1945	US President Harry Truman gives final approval to use an atomic bomb against Japan. In the first ten days of August, a bomb is to target Hiroshima, Kokura, or Nigata, subject to weather
26 July 1945	USS Indianapolis arrives at Tinian island in the Marianas, and unloads atomic bomb components to be used against Japan. At the Potsdam conference, a final ultimatum is presented to Japan: unconditional surrender or "complete destruction of the Japanese armed forces and ... devastation of the Japanese homeland".
28 July 1945	Japanese Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki rejects the Potsdam ultimatum, saying Japan will fight for a successful conclusion to the war. Three US C-54 cargo planes arrive at Tinian island in the Marianas, with critical target insert components of the atomic bomb to be used against Japan.
31 July 1945	The complete Little Boy atomic bomb is fully assembled on Tinian island and declared ready for combat. Due to an approaching typhoon, the planned August 2 attack on Hiroshima is postponed.