Japan’s formal surrender ceremony began at approximately 9:00 a.m. Tokyo time on September 2, 1945.
The ceremony took place on the deck of USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. The Japanese delegation boarded the battleship and stood before a table covered in green felt as Allied officials took their assigned positions. The event was deliberately brief and highly structured.
Mamoru Shigemitsu signed first at about 9:04 a.m., followed by Yoshijiro Umezu at about 9:06. General Douglas MacArthur then signed for the Allied powers at approximately 9:08, with the national representatives signing afterward. The ceremony concluded at 9:25 a.m. Japan Standard Time.
The start time is sometimes reported simply as 9 a.m., while detailed accounts give times for individual signatures. These are not conflicting claims: the broader time describes the opening, and the minute-by-minute times describe the document’s signing sequence.