At what local time did the 1945 Japanese surrender ceremony officially end the war?

The 1945 Japanese surrender ceremony officially ended the war at 9:25 a.m. Japan Standard Time.

The ceremony began aboard USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay shortly after 9 a.m. on September 2, 1945. Mamoru Shigemitsu signed for the Japanese government at 9:04 a.m., General Yoshijirō Umezu signed for Imperial General Headquarters at 9:06, and Douglas MacArthur accepted the surrender at 9:08.

Representatives of the United States and eight other Allied nations then signed the instrument. Their signatures represented the coalition that had fought Japan across the Pacific and Asian theaters. MacArthur delivered brief concluding remarks after the final signatures, closing a ceremony that lasted approximately 23 minutes.

The 9:25 a.m. time marks the completion of the formal surrender process, not the earlier public announcement. Emperor Hirohito’s radio broadcast had announced Japan’s acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration on August 15. That distinction explains why August 15 and September 2 can both appear in accounts of V-J Day.