Over 800 Allied aircraft took part in the flypast over Japan’s 1945 surrender ceremony.
The formation passed over USS Missouri and Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945, as the Japanese Instrument of Surrender was signed. It included aircraft from U.S. carriers as well as land-based B-29 Superfortress bombers. The display demonstrated overwhelming Allied air power at the moment Japan formally capitulated.
Sources commonly describe the formation as more than 800 aircraft, including 462 land-based B-29s. The flypast was both ceremonial and symbolic: only weeks earlier, Japan’s cities had been under sustained air attack, while Allied forces had been preparing for a possible invasion of the Japanese home islands.
The figure should not be confused with the number of ships in Tokyo Bay or the number of signatories on the surrender document. The aircraft were not signing participants; they were part of the large military presence surrounding the ceremony.