Japanese Instrument of Surrender
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The Instrument of Surrender of Japan was the armistice ending 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, 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 on the deck of the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945, and which thereby ended the Pacific War and with it World War II. The date is sometimes known as Victory over Japan Day, although that designation is more frequently used to refer to the date of Emperor Hirohito's announcement of the acceptance of the terms of the Potsdam Declaration on August 15.
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The signing ceremony aboard the deck of the Missouri lasted 23 minutes and was broadcast throughout the world. Symbolically, the deck of the Missouri furnished just two American flags. One had flown over the White House on the day Pearl Harbor was attacked. The other had flown the mast of Commodore Perry's ship when he had sailed into that same harbor nearly a century before to urge the opening of Japan's ports to foreign trade. 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" and then Gen. Yoshijiro Umezu "By Command and on behalf of the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters" at 9:04 a.m. Afterwards, U.S. General Douglas MacArthur, Commander in the Southwest Pacific and Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, also signed. As witnesses, U.S. Lieutenant General Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright IV, who had surrendered the Philippines, and Britsh Lieutenant General Arthur Percival, who had surrendered Singapore, received two of the six pens he used to sign the instrument. Another pen went to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. MacArthur was followed by Admiral Chester Nimitz for the United States, Hsu Yung-Ch'ang for the Republic of China, Bruce Fraser for the United Kingdom, Kuzma Derevyanko for the Soviet Union, General Sir Thomas Blamey for Australia, Colonel Lawrence Moore Cosgrave for Canada, General Philippe Leclerc de Hautecloque for France, Admiral C.E.L. Helfrich for the Netherlands, and Leonard M. Isitt for New Zealand.
On September 6, Colonel Bernard Theilen brought the document and an imperial rescript to Washington, D.C. and, on the following day, presented them to President Harry Truman in a formal White House ceremony. The documents were then exhibited at the National Archives.
The document, prepared by the United States War Department, set out in eight short paragraphs the complete capitulation of Japan. The opening words "We, acting by command of and in behalf of the Emperor of Japan" signified the importance attached to the Emperor's role by the Americans who drafted the document. The short second paragraph went straight to the heart of the matter: "We hereby proclaim the unconditional surrender to the Allied Powers of the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters and of all Japanese armed forces and all armed forces under Japanese control wherever situated." The document demanded that Japan "carry out the provisions of the Potsdam Declaration", which refers to Cairo Declaration, and free all allied prisoners of war.