Seventy years ago today Americans across the country poured out of their homes and into the streets to celebrate the spontaneous release of three years and eight months of pent-up war worry and stress.

The war with Japan was over. Germany had surrendered three months earlier.

Milwaukee learned of Japan’s surrender at 6 p.m. Thousands thronged its streets. Chicago was the same. Honolulu was equally jubilant.

“Sounding of sirens throughout the city at 1:35 p.m. was the signal for arrival of the official announcement that the Japanese have accepted the Allies’ surrender terms and that the long Pacific war is over,” reported a Honolulu Star-Bulletin story under a front-page headline of “EXTRA! IT’S PEACE!”

Hawaii resident Richard Sullivan, whose Navy father was bombed out of his bunk at Kaneohe Bay on Dec. 7, 1941, captured the euphoria in his film, “The Bravest Generation,” taken from footage his father shot before, during and after the Aug. 14, 1945, surrender news.

Sailors and civilians piled on cars and trucks in the downtown area and in Waikiki, honking horns and whooping it up with broad smiles on their faces. Gov. Ingram Stainback proclaimed the day a holiday for the territory.

In many Honolulu homes “bottles of long-hoarded Champagne, scotch and bourbon, saved for just this occasion, were broken out and toasts drunk to the victorious American servicemen,” the Star-Bulletin story noted.

In Pearl Harbor, flares fired from Navy ships lit up the night sky in celebration.

Seventy years later fireworks are again heralding a milestone, but this time it is in commemoration of the seven decades of peace that have ensued with Japan as one of America’s staunchest allies.

Nagaoka, Japan, a sister city to Honolulu, is bringing a fireworks show to Pearl Harbor’s Ford Island on Saturday that’s open to the public. Festivities begin at 4 p.m. with food vendors, cultural and educational displays, and entertainment on stage, followed by a commemorative program at 7 p.m. and fireworks display at 8 p.m.

Nagaoka Mayor Tamio Mori, Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell and Adm. Scott Swift, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, will lead solemn remembrance events Friday, the Navy said.

Rear Adm. John Fuller, commander of Navy Region Hawaii, said the “70 Years of Peace” program has three goals: to honor the sacrifices of seven decades ago, celebrate the enduring peace between the United States and Japan since then, and keep the memories alive for generations to come.

Pearl Harbor suffered greatly at the hands of the Japanese, and so did Nagaoka — the home of Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto, who planned the attack on Pearl Harbor — when U.S. bombers destroyed 80 percent of the city at the end of the war, the Navy said.

With the Allies closing in on the Japanese home islands in 1945, an invasion was planned, but instead, on Aug. 6 the United States detonated an atom bomb over Hiroshima, killing as many as 140,000 people, according to the National World War II Museum.

Three days later another atom bomb drop over Nagasaki killed approximately 70,000 more Japanese. On Aug. 14, 1945, Japan unconditionally accepted Allied surrender terms. Victory over Japan Day (V-J Day) would be officially commemorated on the day formal surrender documents were signed aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on Sept. 2, 1945, according to the museum.

More than 400,000 Americans — and 60 million people worldwide — died in World War II, the museum said.

Daniel Martinez, chief historian for the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument, which includes the USS Arizona Memorial, said 1945 Oahu was very different from 1941 in population alone, which had quadrupled with the military buildup.

“When word came to the islands that the instruments of peace had been signed on the battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay, it was a realization that the war that had begun less than 8 miles away from downtown Honolulu in Pearl Harbor had come full circle,” Martinez said.

Reconciliation at the memorial came in 1983 with prayers by the Japan Religious Committee for World Federation, a practice that has continued each Dec. 7, Martinez said.

The main viewing location for the fireworks will be on Ford Island, with parking on a first-come, first-served basis, the Navy said. The National Park Service’s Pearl Harbor Visitor Center will open after hours at 5:30 p.m. as an alternate viewing site. The Pacific Aviation Museum Pearl Harbor said it also plans to stay open late, allowing guests to stay and watch the Nagaoka fireworks display.

For more information, go to www.cnic.navy.mil/70yearsofpeace.