The Japanese envoys signed the Instrument of Surrender on board the U.S.S. Missouri in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945. The document was prepared by the US War Department and approved by President Truman. It set out in eight short paragraphs the complete capitulation of Japan.
The second paragraph said: “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.”
Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Commander in the Southwest Pacific and Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers also signed the document. He accepted the Japanese surrender “for the United States, Republic of China, United Kingdom, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and in the interests of the other United Nations at war with Japan.”
Historical footnote: OPE, SORRY’ Colonel Lawrence Moore Cosgrave, the Canadian representative, when signing the Japanese copy, perhaps owing to blindness in one eye – placed his scrawl below the line reserved for the Canadian signature and instead signed on the line of the French representative.
The surrender documents were exhibited at the USA National Archives after a dignified ceremony led by General Wainwright, Allied Commander in the Philippines and a Japanese Prisoner of War. On October 1, 1945, the documents were formally received (accessioned) into the holdings of the National Archives.