Nine Allied governments signed Japan’s surrender instrument after General MacArthur signed it in 1945.
The representatives came from the United States, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, Australia, Canada, France, the Netherlands, and New Zealand. Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz signed for the United States after MacArthur, followed by the other Allied representatives.
The number nine refers to Allied governments represented as signatories, not to the total number of people present. Japan also sent eleven delegates, although only Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu and General Yoshijiro Umezu signed the document.
The ceremony reflected the coalition that had fought Japan across the Pacific and Asia. Several representatives had personal connections to earlier Japanese victories: General Jonathan Wainwright had surrendered in the Philippines, while Lieutenant General Arthur Percival had surrendered Singapore.