0904, 2 September 1945

Why a ship

The Second World War in the Pacific ended formally on a ship's deck in Tokyo Bay. President Harry S. Truman chose the battleship USS Missouri (BB-63) on the recommendation of Secretary of the Navy James V. Forrestal. Missouri was the President's home state, and the ship had been christened by his daughter, Margaret.

Forrestal also proposed a compromise between the services. General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, as Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, would sign for the Allies together. Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz would sign for the United States.

On 28 August, the first of 258 Allied ships steamed into Tokyo Bay.

The flag from 1853

Missouri anchored about four and a half nautical miles from the spot where Commodore Matthew C. Perry's squadron had anchored in July 1853. Admiral William F. Halsey asked for the flag that had flown on Perry's flagship, Susquehanna, during that expedition.

A Navy courier, Lieutenant John K. Bremyer, carried the 31-star flag some 9,000 miles from Washington. The flag was too fragile to fly, so it was framed and mounted above the entrance to the captain's cabin on the O-1 level. It can be seen in photographs of the ceremony, above the officers arrayed behind the table.

The morning

At morning colors at 0800 on Sunday, 2 September, Missouri hoisted her national ensign. The flags of the Allied signatory nations flew from her halyards.

The Allied representatives came aboard at 0803. Nimitz arrived shortly afterward and MacArthur just after him. Their two five-star flags were flown at exactly the same height. The officers wore open-necked khakis without ties.

The surrender table was set up on the O-1 level, on the starboard side, just aft of the No. 2 turret, with two copies of the document on it. Missouri's crew filled every space that had a view of it.

At 0856 the eleven-member Japanese delegation came aboard. Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu would sign for the government. General Yoshijiro Umezu, chief of the Army General Staff, would sign for the armed forces. Shigemitsu had lost a leg years before and climbed slowly to the O-1 deck. No salutes were rendered, and the ship was silent.

The signatures

MacArthur opened the ceremony with a short address. He expressed his hope "that from this solemn occasion a better world shall emerge."

The Japanese envoys signed first. The document records the time: signed at Tokyo Bay at 0904 on 2 September 1945. MacArthur then signed as Supreme Commander, accepting the surrender for the United States, China, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union, and in the interests of the other United Nations at war with Japan. Nimitz signed next as the United States Representative.

Eight more representatives followed, in order: General Hsu Yung-ch'ang for China, Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser for the United Kingdom, Lieutenant General Kuzma Derevyanko for the Soviet Union, General Sir Thomas Blamey for Australia, Colonel L. Moore Cosgrave for Canada, General Jacques Leclerc for France, Admiral C. E. L. Helfrich for the Netherlands, and Air Vice Marshal Leonard M. Isitt for New Zealand. One signature landed on the wrong line and was corrected at the table afterward.

Following a benediction, the ceremony ended at 0925. As the delegation left, hundreds of carrier aircraft and B-29 bombers flew over the bay.

Dignity at the end

Before the ceremony, Nimitz had issued a directive to his officers. "It is incumbent on all officers to conduct themselves with dignity and decorum in the treatment of the Japanese," it began. That tone held on the deck that morning.

The ceremony took a little over twenty minutes. It closed nearly four years of war across the Pacific. Ashore, Navy teams had already begun freeing Allied prisoners of war from camps around Tokyo, and for countless families the long wait was finally over.

Our Tokyo Bay 1945 collection is made in memory of that morning, and of everyone who served to reach it.

Harborborne is an independent brand and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the U.S. Navy or Department of Defense.