The Japanese Instrument of Surrender was signed in Tokyo Bay in 1945.
The signing took place on the deck of USS Missouri on September 2, 1945. The battleship was anchored among a large Allied fleet near Tokyo, allowing the ceremony to occur close to Japan’s capital without placing the delegates inside the city.
Tokyo Bay had symbolic importance as well as strategic value. The surrender fleet occupied waters near the area where Commodore Matthew Perry had anchored during his 1853–54 expedition to open Japan’s ports to foreign trade. A flag associated with Perry’s flagship was displayed aboard Missouri.
Tokyo Bay should not be confused with the locations of the atomic bombings. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were cities targeted in August; the formal surrender ceremony occurred weeks later in Tokyo Bay.