Surrender on the USS Missouri

The ceremony began just after nine o'clock on the morning of September 2, 1945, on the deck of the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, and it lasted twenty-three minutes. Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu signed first for the Japanese government, followed by General Yoshijirō Umezu for the Army General Staff. General Douglas MacArthur accepted the surrender for the Allied powers, Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz signed for the United States, and representatives of eight other nations signed after them.

The ship was chosen with care. Missouri was named for Harry Truman's home state and christened by his daughter Margaret at her launch in January 1944. On deck that morning was the flag Commodore Matthew Perry had flown when he first entered Tokyo Bay in 1853. When the signing ended, hundreds of aircraft passed over the fleet.

The scene looks across the deck toward the fleet. Two huge gun barrels angle up into a cloudy sky at upper left, an American flag hangs from the superstructure, and ranks of officers in khaki and sailors in white stand shoulder to shoulder. At the center a green-covered table holds the documents, one man bending to sign while others in dark formal dress stand beside him. Beyond the rail, warships fill the gray-blue water.