Nine Allied powers signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender after Douglas MacArthur in 1945.
MacArthur signed first for the Allied powers in his role as Supreme Commander. Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz then signed for the United States, followed by representatives of China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, Australia, Canada, France, the Netherlands, and New Zealand.
The nine representatives signed in a prescribed sequence on September 2 aboard USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. Their signatures showed that Japan’s capitulation involved a broad coalition rather than only the United States and Japan. The delegation included military officers and commanders from the principal Allied countries in the Pacific War.
The number is sometimes confused with the total number of people present or with the number of Japanese delegates. Eleven Japanese representatives attended, but only Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu and General Yoshijirō Umezu signed for Japan. MacArthur’s signature is counted separately from the nine national representatives.