The Surrender on the USS Missouri
On a wooden table on the deck of a battleship in Tokyo Bay, the most devastating war in history was formally ended with a pen.
WOW Score
On September 2, 1945, representatives of Japan and the Allied powers gathered on the deck of the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay to sign the instrument of surrender.
General Douglas MacArthur presided; Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu and General Yoshijiro Umezu signed for Japan. The ceremony was brief, deliberate, and historic.
With the signatures complete, World War II was officially over, six years and one day after it had begun in Europe.
"Foreign Minister Shigemitsu signed for Japan; MacArthur signed for the Allies. The table was set on the very deck where the war in the Pacific began."
The signing ended World War II, beginning the occupation and democratic transformation of Japan and the postwar order in Asia. The Missouri's deck became the stage on which the old empire yielded to a new international system.
The Full Story
A Stage Chosen with Care
The Missouri was named for President Truman's home state, and its deck bore the table on which the empire capitulated a carefully staged symbol of American ascendancy.
The Terms Accepted
The document bound Japan to unconditional surrender and set the terms for occupation, demilitarization, and the eventual reconstruction of the nation.
The Long Peace Begins
The signing opened a seven-year occupation that reshaped Japan into a democracy and ally, and closed the bloodiest chapter in human history.