Japan’s Instrument of Surrender was signed in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945.
The ceremony took place aboard the battleship USS Missouri, which was anchored in the bay near the Japanese capital. The location placed the formal surrender close to the political and military center of Japan while keeping the ceremony aboard an Allied warship.
The bay also carried symbolic significance because Commodore Matthew Perry’s American expedition had entered it in the nineteenth century during the opening of Japan to expanded foreign trade. A flag associated with Perry’s expedition was displayed aboard Missouri during the surrender ceremony.
Tokyo Bay is sometimes confused with Pearl Harbor because Missouri is now preserved at Pearl Harbor as a museum ship. Pearl Harbor was the location of Japan’s 1941 attack on the United States, but it was not where Japan signed its surrender.