At which Nanjing venue did the Japanese surrender ceremony take place on September 9, 1945?

The Japanese surrender ceremony in Nanjing took place at the Central Army Military Academy on September 9, 1945.

The ceremony formally ended Japanese military operations in China after Japan’s broader surrender had been signed aboard USS Missouri one week earlier. It was held at 9 a.m. local time in the academy’s auditorium.

General Yasuji Okamura, commander of Japanese forces in China, surrendered to General He Yingqin, representing the Republic of China. The ceremony had originally been scheduled for September 5 but was delayed four days.

Nanjing had been the capital of the Republic of China during much of the Second Sino-Japanese War. The surrender ceremony therefore carried both military and political significance: it transferred authority over Japanese-occupied areas and marked the end of the major organized Japanese presence in China.