1. Surrender ceremony

2. Flags at the ceremony

3. Differences between versions

4. Current locations

5. Gallery

6. See also

7. Notes

8. References

9. External links

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,^[1] 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|BB-63|6}} 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 (Imperial Rescript of Surrender), 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 23 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" (9:04 am).^[2] General Yoshijirō Umezu, Chief of the Army General Staff, then signed the document "By Command and on behalf of the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters" (9:06 am).^[2][3]

The Japanese representatives present for the signing were the following:

• {{flagdeco|Empire of Japan}} Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu ^[4]
• {{flagdeco|Empire of Japan}} General Yoshijirō Umezu, Chief of the Army General Staff^[4]
• {{flagdeco|Empire of Japan}} Major General Yatsuji Nagai^[4]
• {{flagdeco|Empire of Japan}} Katsuo Okazaki (Foreign Ministry)^[4]
• {{flagdeco|Empire of Japan}} Rear Admiral Tadatoshi Tomioka^[4]
• {{flagdeco|Empire of Japan}} Toshikazu Kase (Foreign Ministry)^[4]
• {{flagdeco|Empire of Japan}} Lt. General Suichi Miyakazi^[4]
• {{flagdeco|Empire of Japan}} Rear Admiral Ichiro Yokoyama^[4]
• {{flagdeco|Empire of Japan}} Saburo Ota (Foreign Ministry)^[4]
• {{flagdeco|Empire of Japan}} Captain Katsuo Shiba (Navy)^[4]
• {{flagdeco|Empire of Japan}} Colonel Kaziyi Sugita^[4]

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.^[5]

After MacArthur's signature as Supreme Commander, the following representatives signed the instrument of surrender on behalf of each of the Allied Powers:

• {{flagdeco|United States|1912}} Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz for the United States (9:12 a.m.)^[2][6]
• {{flagdeco|Republic of China (1912-49)}} General Hsu Yung-chang for China (9:13 a.m.)^[2][7]
• {{flagdeco|British Empire}} Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser for the United Kingdom (9:14 a.m.)^[2][8]
• {{flagdeco|Soviet Union|1936}} Lieutenant General Kuzma Derevyanko for the Soviet Union (9:16 a.m.)^[2][9][10]
• {{flagdeco|Australia}} General Sir Thomas Blamey for Australia (9:17 a.m.)^[2][11]
• {{flagdeco|Canada|1921}} Colonel Lawrence Moore Cosgrave for Canada (9:18 a.m.)^[2][12]
• {{flagdeco|France}} Général de Corps d'Armée Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque for France (9:20 a.m.)^[2][13]
• {{flagdeco|Netherlands}} Lieutenant Admiral C. E. L. Helfrich for the Netherlands (9:21 a.m.)^[2][14]
• {{flagdeco|New Zealand}} Air Vice-Marshal Leonard M. Isitt for New Zealand (9:22 a.m.)^[2][15]

The UK invited Dominion governments to send representatives to the ceremony as subordinates to its own. MacArthur supported the government of Australia's demand to attend and sign separately from the UK, although Australia objected to his recommendation that Canada, the Netherlands, and France also sign the document.^[16]

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:

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.^[17]}}

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 (stars in the upper right corner). 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.^[18]

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,^[18] by Chief Carpenter Fred Miletich.^[2] 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 (which was replaced by two replicas in 1990).

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{{which|date=September 2015}} 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 (as an abbreviated signature) each alteration. The Japanese representatives did not complain further.^[19]

Current locations

The Allied copy of the Instrument is at the United States National Archives Building in Washington, D.C.. A replica of 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 (1943)
• General Order No. 1 (Aug. 1945)
• Retrocession Day (Oct. 1945)
• List of Allied ships at the Japanese surrender

• Occupation of Japan
• Japanese holdouts
• Treaty of San Francisco (1951)
• Treaty of Taipei (1952)
• Soviet–Japanese Joint Declaration of 1956

• German Instrument of Surrender (1945)
• Armistice of Cassibile
• Treaty of Peace with Italy, 1947

Notes

References

External links

• [https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured_documents/japanese_surrender_document/ National Archives & Records Administration Featured Document]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070821191456/http://www.ussmissouri.org/coll_MurryHistory.htm USS Missouri's Captain Stuart Murray interviewed about the surrender ceremony]
• Alsos Digital Library bibliography of references on Japan's surrender

• George Chamillard
• George Chandler
• George Chandler (disambiguation)
• George Chang
• George Chanos
• George Chapla
• George Chapline
• George Chapline Jr.
• George Charette
• George Charles
• George Charles Bingham, 5th Earl of Lucan
• George Charles Champion
• George Charles D'Aguilar
• George Charles Grey
• George Charles Hawker
• George Charles Hurdman
• George Charles Patrick Bingham, 6th Earl of Lucan
• George Charles Spencer-Churchill, 8th Duke of Marlborough
• George Charles Wallich
• George Charpy
• George Charrette
• George Chase
• George chase
• George Chatterton-Hill
• George Chaump