World War II officially ended at 9:25 a.m. during the Tokyo Bay surrender ceremony.
The time refers to Japan Standard Time on 2 September 1945, when the formal surrender proceedings aboard USS Missouri concluded. Japanese representatives and Allied representatives had signed the Instrument of Surrender, after which Douglas MacArthur closed the ceremony.
The signing itself began just after 9 a.m. The precise sequence included Mamoru Shigemitsu signing for the Japanese government, Yoshijiro Umezu signing for Imperial General Headquarters, and MacArthur accepting the surrender for the Allied powers. The ceremony lasted 23 minutes.
This time is separate from the earlier public announcement of Japan’s surrender. Emperor Hirohito’s radio broadcast was transmitted in Japan on 15 August, while the legal and ceremonial conclusion occurred in Tokyo Bay on 2 September. Time-zone differences also explain why some countries historically marked V-J Day on different calendar dates.