On August 14th, 1945 after the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan accepted the United States' terms of surrender, officially ending World War II.

That evening, Norman Corwin produced a special broadcast commemorating this event. Because the staff at CBS was unsure if and when Japan would accept the US' surrender terms, Corwin had very little time to prepare this piece. What he did prepare was a self-aware, fitting epitaph for the people of an exhausted nation.

Orson Welles was the narrator. It was broadcast coast-to-coast on CBS.