The Japanese Instrument of Surrender was the written agreement that formalized
the surrender of the Empire of Japan, marking the end of World War II. It was
signed by representatives from the Empire of Japan, the United States of
America, the Republic of China, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Northern Ireland, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the Commonwealth of
Australia, the Dominion of Canada, the Provisional Government of the French
Republic, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and the Dominion of New
Zealand. The signing took place on the deck of USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on
September 2, 1945. The date is sometimes known as Victory
over Japan Day, although that designation more frequently refers to
the date of Emperor Hirohito's Gyokuon-hōsō, the radio broadcast
announcement of the acceptance of the terms of the Potsdam Declaration at noon
Japan Standard Time on August 15. Surrender ceremony
The ceremony aboard the deck of the Missouri lasted twenty three minutes and
was broadcast throughout the world. The instrument was first signed by the
Japanese foreign minister Mamoru Shigemitsu "By Command and on behalf of
the Emperor of Japan and the Japanese Government". General Yoshijirō Umezu,
Chief of the Army General Staff, then signed the document "By Command and on
behalf of the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters" signed.
At 9:08 a.m., U.S. General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, the Commander in the
Southwest Pacific and Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, accepted the
surrender on behalf of the Allied Powers and signed in his capacity as Supreme
Commander. After MacArthur's signature as Supreme
Commander, the following representatives signed the instrument of surrender on
behalf of each of the Allied Powers: Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz for the
United States General Hsu Yung-chang for China
Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser for the United Kingdom
Lieutenant General Kuzma Derevyanko for the Soviet Union
General Sir Thomas Blamey for Australia Colonel Lawrence Moore Cosgrave for
Canada Général de Corps d'Armée Philippe
Leclerc de Hauteclocque for France Lieutenant Admiral C. E. L. Helfrich for
the Netherlands Air Vice-Marshal Leonard M. Isitt for
New Zealand On September 6, Colonel Bernard Theilen
took the document and an imperial rescript to Washington, D.C., and
presented them to President Harry S. Truman in a formal White House ceremony
the following day. The documents were then exhibited at the National Archives.
Flags at the ceremony The deck of the Missouri was furnished
with two American flags. A commonly heard story is that one of the flags had
flown over the White House on the day Pearl Harbor was attacked. However,
Captain Stuart Murray of USS Missouri explained:
"At eight o’clock we had hoisted a clean set of colors at the mainmast and a
clean Union Jack [of the United States] at the bow as we were at anchor, and I
would like to add that these were just regular ship’s flags, GI issue, that
we’d pulled out of the spares, nothing special about them, and they had never
been used anywhere so far as we know, at least they were clean and we had
probably gotten them in Guam in May. So there was nothing special about them.
Some of the articles in the history say this was the same flag that was flown on
the White House or the National Capitol on 7 December 1941, the attack on Pearl
Harbor, and at Casablanca, and so forth, also MacArthur took it up to Tokyo and
flew it over his headquarters there. The only thing I can say is they were hard
up for baloney, because it was nothing like that. It was just a plain ordinary
GI-issue flag and a Union Jack. We turned them both into the Naval Academy
Museum when we got back to the East Coast in October. "The only special flag
that was there was a flag which Commodore Perry had flown on his ship
out in that same location 82 years before [sic: the actual number of years
was 92]. It was flown out in its glass case from the Naval Academy Museum. An
officer messenger brought it out. We put this hanging over the door of my cabin,
facing forward, on the surrender deck so that everyone on the surrender deck
could see it." That special flag on the veranda deck of
the Missouri had been flown from Commodore Matthew Perry's flagship in
1853–54 when he led the U.S. Navy's Far East Squadron into Tokyo Bay to force
the opening of Japan's ports to foreign trade. MacArthur was a direct descendant
of the New England Perry family and cousin of Commodore Matthew Perry.
Photographs of the signing ceremony show that this flag is displayed
backward—reverse side showing. This was because American flags on the right of
an object plane, ship, or person have the stars on the upper right corner, to
look like the flag is heading into battle—as if attached to a pole and
someone is carrying it. Stars in the upper left of a flag displayed on the
right side of the object would make the flag look like it was going away from
battle. The cloth of the historic flag was so fragile that the conservator at
the U.S. Naval Academy Museum directed that a protective backing be sewn on it,
leaving its "wrong side" visible; and this was how Perry's 31-star flag was
presented on this unique occasion. A replica of this historic flag can be
seen today on the Surrender Deck of the Battleship Missouri Memorial in Pearl
Harbor. This replica is also placed in the same location on the bulkhead of the
veranda deck where it had been initially mounted on the morning of September 2,
1945, by Chief Carpenter Fred Miletich. The original flag is still on display at
the Naval Academy Museum, as is the table and tablecloth upon which the
instrument of surrender was signed, and the original bronze plaque marking the
location of the signing. Text
Differences between versions The Japanese copy of the treaty varied
from the Allied in the following ways: The Allied copy was presented in leather
and gold lining with both countries' seals printed on the front, whereas the
Japanese copy was bound in rough canvas with no seals on the front.
The Canadian representative, Colonel Lawrence Moore Cosgrave, signed below
his line instead of above it on the Japanese copy, so everyone after him had
to sign one line below the intended one. This was attributed to Col. Cosgrave
being blind in one eye from a World War I injury. When the discrepancy was
pointed out to General Sutherland, he crossed-out the pre-printed name titles
of the Allied nations and rewrote by hand the titles in their correct
relative positions. The Japanese initially found this alteration
unacceptable—until Sutherland initialed each alteration. The Japanese
representatives did not complain further.
Current locations The Allied copy of the Instrument is at
the United States National Archives Building in Washington, D.C.. The
Japanese version can be viewed at the Edo-Tokyo Museum in Tokyo.
As witnesses, American general Jonathan Wainwright, who had surrendered the
Philippines, and British lieutenant-general Arthur Percival, who
had surrendered Singapore, received two of the six pens used by General
MacArthur to sign the instrument. Another pen went to the West Point
military academy, and one to MacArthur's aide. All of the pens used by MacArthur
were black, except the last, which was plum-colored and went to his wife. A
replica of it, along with copies of the instrument of surrender, is in a case on
Missouri by the plaque marking the signing spot. The model of the USS
Missouri in the National Museum of the United States Navy at the Washington
Navy Yard, has a scale replica of the signing table in the correct location.
Gallery See also
Cairo Declaration Potsdam Declaration
General Order No. 1 Surrender of Japan
Retrocession Day Victory over Japan Day
List of Allied ships at the Japanese surrender
Post-war: Occupied Japan
Japanese holdout Treaty of San Francisco
Treaty of Taipei Other Axis:
German Instrument of Surrender Treaty of Peace with Italy, 1947
Notes External links
National Archives & Records Administration Featured Document
USS Missouri's Captain Stuart Murray interviewed about the surrender ceremony
Alsos Digital Library bibliography of references on Japan's surrender
Instrument of Surrender MaritimeQuest Japanese Surrender Pages
Procedure for Assembling on Veranda Deck Admiral Halsey's Flag