In which bay did Japan sign its formal surrender instrument in 1945?

Japan signed its formal surrender instrument in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945.

The ceremony took place aboard the American battleship USS Missouri, which was anchored in the bay with Allied naval vessels nearby. Tokyo Bay was chosen because it provided a secure location close to Japan’s capital and allowed the Allied fleet to display its control of the waters surrounding the country.

General Douglas MacArthur presided over the ceremony, and Japanese representatives signed the Instrument of Surrender. Representatives of the United States, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, Australia, Canada, France, the Netherlands, and New Zealand also signed.

The location is sometimes confused with Pearl Harbor, the Hawaiian naval base attacked by Japan in 1941, or Manila Bay, where other important Pacific War operations occurred. Tokyo Bay was also symbolically significant because Commodore Matthew Perry’s ships had anchored nearby in 1853 during his expedition to open Japan to American trade and diplomacy.