Nine Allied governments signed Japan’s surrender instrument at the Tokyo Bay ceremony in 1945.
The signatories represented the United States, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, Australia, Canada, France, the Netherlands, and New Zealand. General Douglas MacArthur signed first for the Allied powers, and representatives of those governments followed.
The document therefore included more than the major wartime leaders usually shown in photographs. Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz represented the United States, while General Hsu Yung-chang, Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser, Lieutenant General Kuzma Derevyanko, and others signed for their governments.
The number can be confused with the total number of people who signed because Japan also supplied two representatives and MacArthur signed in his command role. Nine is the count of Allied governments represented by signatures on the formal instrument, not the total number of signatories present.