Japan’s 1945 surrender ceremony was officially completed at 9:25 a.m. Japan Standard Time aboard USS Missouri.
The ceremony began shortly after 9:00 a.m. in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945. Mamoru Shigemitsu signed first at 9:04, Yoshijiro Umezu followed at 9:06, and Douglas MacArthur accepted the surrender at 9:08.
Representatives of the other Allied powers then signed one after another. The final formal signatures were completed before MacArthur closed the proceedings at 9:25 a.m. At that point, the surrender ceremony itself was over, although occupation and demobilization continued afterward.
This time is different from the public surrender announcement on 15 August. The August broadcast communicated Japan’s decision, while the September ceremony legally documented the capitulation.