Japanese Instrument of Surrender

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The Japanese Instrument of Surrender was the printed agreement that formalized the surrender of Japan, marking the end of hostilities in World War II. It was signed by representatives from Japan and from the Allied nations: the United States, China, the United Kingdom (UK), the Soviet Union, Australia, Canada, France, the Netherlands, and New Zealand. The signing took place on the deck of Template:USS in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945.

The date is sometimes known as Victory over Japan Day. However, 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 15 August.

Preparation

General Douglas MacArthur's staff, headed by Colonel LeGrande A. Diller, were tasked to prepare the draft of the Instrument of Surrender. This was a challenge given resources were limited in war-torn Manila. Nevertheless, an enterprising staff member found rare parchment in a basement of a monastery, and this was given to MacArthur's printer.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The UK invited governments of the British Dominions 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.<ref name="awmwood">Template:Cite web</ref>

It was difficult for Japan's Higashikuni Cabinet to find delegates for their unpleasant task.<ref name="Kase1950p5">Kase (1950) p. 5</ref> Prime minister Higashikuni, being of the Imperial family, could not go, and Prince Fumimaro Konoe refused to go; finally Mamoru Shigemitsu and Yoshijirō Umezu accepted the personal appeal of the Emperor to be the two signatories.<ref>Kase (1950) pp. 5–6</ref> There were nine other Japanese delegates, three each from the Army, Navy, and Foreign Ministry.<ref name="Kase1950p4">Kase (1950) p. 4</ref> All eleven names were submitted in advance to the Allies, but for security reasons, only the two signatories were revealed to the press, the morning of the signing.<ref name="Kase1950p6">Kase (1950) p. 6</ref> The eleven delegates left Tokyo by car early on 2 September, boarded the Template:USS at Yokohama, and sailed out to the Missouri, anchored in Tokyo Bay.<ref name="Kase1950p6"/>

Surrender ceremony

The ceremony aboard the deck of 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 in behalf of the Emperor of Japan and the Japanese Government" (9:04 a.m.).<ref name="broom1998">Template:Cite web</ref> General Yoshijirō Umezu, Chief of the Army General Staff, then signed the document "By Command and in behalf of the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters" (9:06 a.m.).<ref name="broom1998" /><ref>photo at AWM of Umezu signing. Template:Webarchive</ref> The Japanese representatives present for the signing were the following:

Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu<ref name="MaritimeQuest">Template:Cite web</ref>
General Yoshijirō Umezu, Chief of the Army General Staff<ref name="MaritimeQuest"/>
Major General Yatsuji Nagai<ref name="MaritimeQuest"/>
Katsuo Okazaki (Foreign Ministry)<ref name="MaritimeQuest"/>
Rear Admiral Sadatoshi Tomioka<ref name="MaritimeQuest"/>
Toshikazu Kase (Foreign Ministry)<ref name="MaritimeQuest"/>
Lieutenant General Suichi Miyakazi<ref name="MaritimeQuest"/>
Rear Admiral Ichiro Yokoyama<ref name="MaritimeQuest"/>
Saburo Ota (Foreign Ministry)<ref name="MaritimeQuest"/>
Captain Katsuo Shiba (Navy)<ref name="MaritimeQuest"/>
Colonel Kazushi Sugita<ref name="MaritimeQuest"/>

At 9:08 a.m., American 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

After MacArthur, the following representatives signed the instrument of surrender on behalf of each of the Allied Powers:

Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz for the United States (9:12 a.m.)<ref name="broom1998"/><ref>photo at AWM, Nimitz signing. Template:Webarchive</ref>
General Hsu Yung-chang for China (9:13 a.m.)<ref name="broom1998"/><ref>AWM photo, Hsu Yung-chang signing. Template:Webarchive</ref>
Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser for the United Kingdom (9:14 a.m.)<ref name="broom1998"/><ref>photo at AWM, Fisher signing. Template:Webarchive</ref>
Lieutenant General Kuzma Derevyanko for the Soviet Union (9:16 a.m.)<ref name="broom1998"/><ref>AWM photo 040968, Derevyanko signing. Template:Webarchive</ref><ref group=note>The Soviet Union had only declared war on Japan a month earlier, after the Hiroshima bombing.</ref>
General Sir Thomas Blamey for Australia (9:17 a.m.)<ref name="broom1998"/><ref>AWM photo, Blamey about to sign. Template:Webarchive</ref>
Colonel Lawrence Moore Cosgrave for Canada (9:18 a.m.)<ref name="broom1998"/><ref>AWM photo, Cosgrave signing. Template:Webarchive</ref>
Général de Corps d'Armée Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque for France (9:20 a.m.)<ref name="broom1998"/><ref>AWM photo, Leclerc signing. Template:Webarchive</ref>
Lieutenant Admiral Conrad Helfrich for the Netherlands (9:21 a.m.)<ref name="broom1998"/><ref>AWM photo, Helfrich signing. Template:Webarchive</ref>
Air Vice-Marshal Leonard M. Isitt for New Zealand (9:22 a.m.)<ref name="broom1998"/><ref>AWM photo, Isitt signing. Template:Webarchive</ref>

Flags at the ceremony

The deck of the Missouri was furnished with two U.S. 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:

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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.

Photographs of the signing ceremony show that this flag is displayed backward—reverse side showing (stars in the upper right corner). This was because U.S. 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 could make the flag look like it were 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.<ref name="tsusumi2007">Template:Cite news</ref>

A replica of this historic flag can be seen today on the Surrender Deck of the Battleship Missouri Memorial in Pearl Harbor.<ref name="tsusumi2007"/> The original flag is still on display at the Naval Academy Museum, as are 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

Template:Multiple image The Japanese copy of the treaty varied from the Allied in one way. 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 Cosgrave being blind in one eye from a World War I injury. When the discrepancy was pointed out to General Richard K. 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.<ref name="ellwand2006">Template:Cite news, Template:Cite news</ref>

Archiving and artifacts

On 6 September, Colonel Bernard Theilen arrived in Washington, D.C. with the Allied copy of the Instrument and other documents, including a copy of Hirohito's 15 August rescript and the full powers credentials for Shigemitsu and Umezu, all three of which were stamped with the State Seal of Japan.<ref name=surrenderdocuments/> He presented them to President Harry S. Truman in a formal White House ceremony the following day.<ref name=surrenderdocuments>Template:Multiref</ref> Following a ceremony led by General Jonathan Wainwright, the documents were then exhibited at the National Archives,<ref name=surrenderdocuments /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> along with regional instruments of surrender signed after the Missouri ceremony, in the Philippines (September 3), in Korea (September 9), and in South-east Asia (September 12).<ref>National Archives (1945) pp. 2, 17–24</ref> On October 1, 1945, the documents were formally received (accessioned) into the holdings of the National Archives.<ref name=surrenderdocuments /> They are now housed in the National Archives Building in Washington, D.C.<ref name="US National Archives">Template:Cite web</ref>

The Japanese copy of the Instrument is at the Diplomatic Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan in Tokyo, and was last publicly displayed in 2015, as part of an exhibition marking the 70th anniversary of the signing. A replica version of the Japanese copy can be viewed at the archive's gallery, and at the Edo-Tokyo Museum in Tokyo.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

MacArthur was instructed to make 11 full-sized watermarked facsimiles of the instrument for distribution among the Allied nations.<ref name="Phelps2015">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="auctions">Template:Multiref</ref> These were bound in blue leather.<ref name="Phelps2015"/> MacArthur later ordered more copies, some bound in red leather for presentation to his personal guests at the ceremony;<ref name="Phelps2015"/> authorities differ on the number of the later copies, some of which were in smaller sizes with different watermark.<ref name="auctions"/>

The Republic of China's facsimile is now in the National Museum of History in Taiwan, and (along with seven other historic documents) was designated as a Template:Ill by the Ministry of Culture in 2016.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Two of the personal facsimiles, given to Colonel LeGrande A. Diller and Filipino Major General Basilio Valdes, were bought in the late 20th century by Kenneth W. Rendell for The International Museum of World War II in Natick, Massachusetts,<ref name="Phelps2015"/> whose collection was subsequently bought by Ronald Lauder.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Signing pens

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 MacArthur to sign the instrument. Wainwright's pen was donated to the West Point Museum at the United States Military Academy. Percival's pen was donated to the Cheshire Military Museum. The pen of MacArthur's aide Courtney Whitney was used by MacArthur and returned to him afterwards. The Whitney family still owns this pen. All of the pens used by MacArthur were black, except the last, which was bright red and went to his wife. A replica of the red pen, along with copies of the instrument of surrender, is in a case on Missouri by the plaque marking the signing spot. MacArthur left two black pens that he signed with on the table for others to also sign with if they desired. The British signatory, Admiral Bruce Fraser, also signed the instrument with these two black MacArthur pens but tried to copy MacArthur's gesture of giving pens to Wainwright and Percival by giving these pens to his two witnesses. After the ceremony, MacArthur's aides immediately retrieved these two pens from Fraser's witnesses and returned them to MacArthur. American General Jimmy Doolittle reportedly whispered to everyone around him, “I see the British are still lend-leasing our equipment.” The MacArthur Memorial currently has these two black Waterman pens. The red Parker pen that was owned by MacArthur's wife was stolen from her later.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIv6Y2JQh7M . Retrieved 26 August 2025.</ref><ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sj8lVy3Y68 . Retrieved 26 August 2025.</ref><ref>"Surrender Seen Close Up". Japan Times. 28 August 2005. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2005/08/28/to-be-sorted/surrender-seen-close-up/ . Retrieved 26 August 2025.</ref>

Nimitz signed the instrument with two pens. One of these pens, which belonged to his Chinese neighbor and close friend, is now in the Nanjing Museum in Nanjing, China. The other one is now in the United States Naval Academy Museum.<ref>https://www.thegettysburgexperience.com/long-lost-victory-pen-located . Retrieved 26 August 2025.</ref>

Gallery

Ships of U.S. Third Fleet and British Pacific Fleet in Sagami Bay, 28 August 1945, preparing for the formal Japanese surrender. Nearest ship is Template:USS. Template:HMS is just beyond, with Template:HMS further in. Template:USS is in far center distance. Mount Fuji is in the background.
Lieutenant General Richard K. Sutherland, aboard USS Missouri, corrects a signatory error in the Japanese Instrument of Surrender. US Colonel Sidney Mashbir and Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuo Okazaki look on.
Plaque over the door to the Captain's Cabin on board the Missouri marking the signing.
Plaque in the deck of the Missouri marking the location of the signing.
A large formation of American planes over USS Missouri and Tokyo Bay celebrating the signing, 2 September 1945.
Photo taken from an airplane flying over USS Missouri. Template:USS is alongside.